Vote for the best caption

Thanks for all the entertaining captions. I've chosen my six favourites, and you can vote for the winner in the poll.

Caption contest: the Archbishop's tea party

Okay, when Maggi linked to this, I just knew it had to be our next caption contest. The winner will receive a nice new book.


Note: See also Bruce's disturbing Jesus caption contest: it'll scare the bejesus out of you.

Patrick Donnelly: two poems on prayer

Inspired by Brad's weekly Sabbath poetry segment, I thought I might occasionally post a poem here on Sunday.

This week I've been reading Patrick Donnelly's collection, The Charge (Ausable Press 2003). Many of Donnelly's poems take the form of psalms and prayers: prayers about friendship, beauty, same-sex desire, sickness, death; prayers of sorrow and gratitude; prayers about dying friends and living with HIV. (Donnelly is himself a gay man living with HIV.) But his writing is not angst-ridden or introspective; it is tender, fragile, questioning, charged with joy and belief. And his reflections on prayer are often deeply moving. Here are two poems from the book:


PRAYER AFTER REFUSING TO PRAY

Why, when the ferocious beauty that steers this world
has never braked for any cry of mine,

do I find myself making again, toward You
who will always do just as You please,

these motions with my lips and hands and knees,
trying to gentle Your vast wheel off the rails?

My friend is sick in the lymph behind his heart,
a monk, a teacher, Your servant, who loved You so.


ON BEING CALLED TO PRAYER WHILE COOKING DINNER FOR FORTY

When the heavens and the earth
are snapped away like a painted shade,
and every creature called to account,
please forgive me my head
full of chickpeas, garlic and parsley.
I am in love with the lemon
on the counter, and the warmth
of my brother’s shoulder distracted me
when we stood to pray.
The imam takes us over
for the first prostration,
but I keep one ear cocked
for the cry of the kitchen timer,
thrilled to realize today’s cornbread
might become tomorrow’s stuffing.
This thrift may buy me ten warm minutes
in bed tomorrow, before the singer
climbs the minaret in the dark
to wake me again to the work
of thought, word, deed.
I have so little time to finish;
only I know how to turn the dish, so the first taste
makes my brother’s eyes open wide—
forgive me, this pleasure
seems more urgent than the prayer—
too late to take refuge in You
from the inextricable mischief
of every thing You made,
eggs, milk, cinnamon, kisses, sleep.

A book dedication

Mike Bird has written a new commentary on Colossians and Philemon. I was delighted to receive a copy in the post today – the preface closes with the following dedication:

I would like to dedicate this book to my good friend Ben Myers, who is making theology in the antipodes fashionable again and is my syndoulos in the kingdom of Christ. His dedication to the theological craft is inspiring. May his tribe increase!

I expected to live my whole life without ever receiving such a warm and generous dedication (or any dedication at all); so I feel humbled and very grateful!

Mike's other latest books include Are You the One Who Is to Come? The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question (Baker 2009), Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message (IVP 2009), and How Did Christianity Begin? A Believer and Non-Believer Examine the Evidence (Hendrickson 2009).

On theology as research

Ross has posted these comments by Geoff Thompson on theology as academic research:

Theologians engaging in research commit themselves to certain protocols of argument which are often absent from the populist theological debates which occur in the church. Involvement in research is, at the very least, a commitment to the academy’s culture of debate where protocols such as the following would (hopefully) apply: the sifting and weighing up of evidence, a humility to see the weaknesses in one's own position and to be corrected by one's critics, care in the construction of arguments, a willingness to employ persuasion rather than dogmatism, and (therefore) a refusal to be dominated by the immediate....

Sometimes theological discussion in the churches is illuminating and inspiring. Generally, however, the culture of theological discussion in the churches has little patience with the kinds of protocols noted above. It is frequently reactive, often trapped in denominational and geographical parochialism, and seldom well-informed. It is often driven by the pragmatic and the contingent, and is thereby distanced from any patient quest for the truth which intentionally draws on a larger horizon of theological wisdom. All of this is intensified by the underlying theological and biblical illiteracy which characterises so much contemporary Christianity.

Of course, for an alternative model to be recognised and appreciated, it would be necessary to break through the prevailing culture. The work and witness of the research-oriented theologian might not of itself be sufficient to effect that break through. Nevertheless, a research-strong faculty might become something of a benchmark within the life of the church for more patient and theologically-richer discussions within the church at large.

I think these questions deserve much more attention than they usually receive. What does it mean to say that theology can be practised as university research? One of the most interesting things I've read on this is an article by Hans Ulrich, which I summarised in an earlier post. And I also really appreciated Bruce McCormack's brief article on the justification of a theology faculty.

Spot the odd one out

One of the perks of blogging is that I get a commission when people buy anything from Amazon after following a link from F&T. (All proceeds go towards – you guessed it – theology books.) Yesterday I glanced at my Amazon report to see what people had purchased over the past 24 hours. It's often fascinating to see the kinds of things theologians are into:

• Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies $18.48
• The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul $43.20
• The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ $4.97
• Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) $6.59
  
• THC Marijuana Dip Test (25 Tests) $19.49

I know, I had exactly the same reaction: Wtf? Twilight?!