Does the Devil Wear Prada?

Go here to read a very interesting article from a man who translated Dante's major poetic trilogy.
If anything, at least read up until you see how Dante depicts the devil. Fascinating.
Also, the way that freedom is talked about is quite refreshing:
"It is hard to recall the medieval definition of freedom, which was not the political license to follow our bellies or the philosophical encouragement to send our elders packing. Freedom was understood, rather, as a growing into the habits, the virtues, that allow us to fulfill our end as human beings without the impediments of vice."

We All Need Cosmic Logotherapy

It is amazing how important the future is to us. If we see no good future for ourselves, we either become depressed, nihilistic, or try to carve out a new future.
What vision of the cosmos do we buy in to?
Viktor Frankl based a whole psychology on the idea that we need our stories, or lives to have a point. Logotherapy was created by Frankl while he was in a Nazi concentration camp. He noticed that prisoners who had nothing to look forward to died, whereas those who persevered had something to look forward to.
Now, it would be wrong for us to have some vision for our future that does not fit into the bigger picture of the entire cosmos and all of history (taking for granted that it can really be seen as a fairly coherent whole).
Dostoyevsky was getting at the same thing when he wrote nihilists who committed murder, because they had no reason not to, and some reasons that they thought were good. If there is nothing to live for, why care about life?
Aristotle made an entire ethic focussed around this idea.

Perhaps our society is losing or has lost a good vision for the future...perhaps we will see more and more nihilist literature.

"You cannot have hopeful and responsible action without some vision of a possible future. To put it in another way, if there is no point in the story as a whole, there is no point in my own action. If the story is meaningless, any action of mine is meaningless. The loss of a vision for the future necessarily produces that typical phenomenon of our society which the sociologists call anomie, a state in which publicly accepted norms and values have disappeared."
-Lesslie Newbigin in The Gospel In A Pluralist Society.

Looking into the future, the Apostle John wrote (Revelation 21.1-4):
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed awa, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I hear a loud voice from the throne saying, 'See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

Now that is a vision of the future that moves to action and to life.

On Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Though I would not call my reading experience thorough, I have read a fair share of books. Through all my reading I have not encountered an author so stimulating as Dostoyevsky (please note that his name can be transliterated in a number of ways). Fyodor Dostoevsky is one of my all-time favorite novelists.

Though Dostoyevsky's books are sometimes too imaginative for my imagination, and though his cast of characters is often too large for me to keep track of (in a single novel), and though he wrote his books many years ago, in a different culture, country, and language, I still hold Dostoyevsky as one of the greats of the literary world, for the following reasons:

I love the way that Dostoyevsky writes his characters. They are both believable, yet over-the-top; both real, yet caricatures. It is poetic how the virtues, vices, and ideas of each of the characters either catch up with them or vindicate them. Perhaps it is this very quality of his writing that caused seven prominent dissidents of the former USSR to rave of Dostoyevsky's prophetic story-telling in their book From Under the Rubble (1974).

Prominent North American pastor Eugene Peterson even found a "mentor" in Dostoyevsky, as he wrote in his book Under the Unpredictable Plant (1992). I too have found a sort of mentor in Dostoyevsky and in several of his characters, especially Alyosha Karamazov.

Plato himself would find an intelligent and insightful dialogue partner in Dostoyevsky, as both thinkers have brought attention to the three types of people: The gain-lover, the victory-lover, and the wisdom-lover. At least, that is how they are referred to in Plato's Republic. Dostoyevsky would later give these types flesh, bones, and names in The brothers Karamazov: Dmitry Karamazov (the sensualist), Ivan Karamazov (the intellectual), and Alyosha Karamazov (the mystic).

Few have argued more brilliantly for belief in God and the rejection of nihilistic, death-seeking ideologies than Dostoyevsky (in fact, nihilist pamphlets in the USSR would later take some of Dostoyevsky's quotes as their own, as shown in Under the Rubble). Like Friedrich Nietzsche, he shows the logical conclusions to beliefs that people are rarely willing to live out in real life. Nietzsche said of Dostoyevsky, "[he is] the only psychologist from whom I have something to learn."(Wikipedia see section on Dostoyevsky and Existentialism). Dostyevsky doesn't buy nihilism, but dispels it as an ideology of death. In contrast, he views Christianity as a life-giving belief system. This is interesting, and should cause us to ask, "If nihilists were borrowing from Dostoyevsky, that probably means that he understood their position at least as well, if not better than they did, so why didn't they read his novels more thoroughly, and end up with Life?"

If there is one novelist I would like to emulate in insight and writing ability, it is Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky.

Overwhelmed

http://chadblock.ca/

Book Review: Finding An Unseen God

3 out of 4 stars.

As an Ooze Viral Blogger (http://viralbloggers.com/), it is my duty and privilege to review books, available to me through The Ooze, of my choosing. The first book I reviewed (go here for the review and here for a sort of follow-up) was called Jesus Interrupted by Bart Ehrman. In his work, Ehrman’s personal experiences with faith and Christianity are clearly a major motivation for his denial of the importance of the Bible and a God that is good.
This interweaving of personal experiences with a historical faith is even more evident in Alicia Britt Chole’s new book, Finding An Unseen God, subtitled “Reflections Of A Former Atheist”. Throughout the book, Chole weaves chapters recalling her atheistic years with chapters stating her current thoughts and beliefs.
At first, this weaving together of different times in her life might be difficult for the reader to sort out. An explanation might prove to be helpful. Chapters alternate between exploring her atheistic past (which is indicated on the contents page with a chapter title on the left, ascending from 1 to 26) chapters that explain her current faith and how that came about (indicated by chapter titles being on the right side of the contents page, descending from 52 to 26).
The greatest collision of Chole’s two belief-sets (Atheism and Christianity) in the final chapter of the book (26) prove to be both the climax and denouement of Finding An Unseen God. In the final chapter, Chole tells of her surrender to Jesus, after years of bitterness towards Him. As a climax, the chapter serves to highlight the point of decision. As denouement, the chapter shows the resolution of the tensions in the book. Though Chole says that becoming a Christian never simply solved her questions, they gave her a better place to see truth from.
As somewhat of a biography – spanning a life’s worth of adventure and pondering – many topics are addressed in this book. The many topics include: Atheism, how Christians should act towards Atheists, pluralism, respect for other belief systems,, the historicity of the Bible, simple-minded Christianity, objective truths, theodicy (the problem of evil and suffering in the world), the importance of friends and family in one’s life, and presence of God in Christian worship.
Two of these topics will be considered. First, in ways reminiscent of Polkinghorne and Newbigin, Chole devotes a large portion of her book to dealing with religious pluralism and Christianity’s claim to be both different and truer than other religions (see especially p. 79-105). Chole admits that there are many religious options out there to chose from, and that can be difficult to decide which is the right one; that, in fact, all paths lead to the top of the same mountain. Though it can be difficult to sort through all the different believe-systems, “difficult to find is a different matter than impossible to find” (p.81).
Chole then goes on to deliver a kindly, yet lucid critique of religious pluralism. Her three main arguments against religious pluralism are summed up in her first point, which is contra the believe that “world religions really ARE saying the same thing, or at least have compatible core beliefs” (p. 104):
Ask them, Ask the committed Muslim, the devout Jew, the practicing Hindu, the devoted Christian, and the sincere Buddhist if they are all saying the same thing or if, at the very least, their core beliefs are compatible. With the possible exception of the Hindu, my guess is that you will hear great unity in their response of “no!” (p. 104)
Here, of course, Chole is implying that if devout followers of different religions see that each religion is unique, then how can someone who is outside of the traditions altogether understand them as “communicating complementary messages”? (p. 104) She is also pointing out the arrogance of such assertions.
If religions make distinct and competing claims, how can we learn which one is the best? To solve this problem, Chole provides four questions that serve as “filters” (p. 88):
1) Is my belief system…consistent (at its core)?
2) Is my belief system…livable (and not just quotable)?
3) Is my belief system…sustainable (through life-size pain)?
4) Is my belief system…transferable (to others)?
Perhaps Chole’s four filters (and their subsequent proving of the truthfulness of Christianity) are too simplistic for some, but I find that they provide a helpful screen in discerning the varying levels of truth and goodness in various religious claims. In truth, much of Chole’s book reads this way: simple, yet profound and powerful.
The second topic found in Chole’s book that I will consider is that of theodicy, which is the problem of evil and suffering in the world, in lue of an all-good and all-powerful God. It turns out that this issue is, for people such as Bart Ehrman, is a deal-breaker when it comes to believing in Jesus. For Chole, the problem of injustice in the world provided her atheism with both peace of mind and potency. “If there is no God, then we do not have to question him, her, or them about why the innocent are condemned and the guilty freed-it is simply human error” (p.63).
However, that peace of mind, the fact that we should not expect otherwise soon began to haunt her, turning peace of mind into a darker approach to life:
As an Atheist, the road to suicide was less fraught with moral or philosophical obstacles than perhaps it would be for a Theist of whatever persuasion. There was no god, There was no afterlife, death ended all pain. Why wait for the release when I could initiate it? (p.78); Underneath, something significant had shifted within me, My atheism had experienced a mutation: It was no longer benign… Life is painful…Through a more personal acquaintance with relational and emotional pain, my Atheism morphed into “anti-theism”…How could anyone have the audacity to suggest the existence of a god or gods that “hold all the power”? How could such beings exist and not use their power to prevent pain? Obviously there is no god. (p. 133-144)
Unfortunately, the problem of theodicy is not intellectually countered in Chole’s book. Instead, experiential answers are given:
In many ways it would be a relief to once again chalk these atrocities up to the human condition alone; to return to a worldview that would deliver me from wondering where God as and what prayer does. But for me, and other sincere people of faith, the tension remains…Over the years, though, I have experienced a glorious discovery: There is treasure in the tension. The struggle is a doorway. Sincerity in the quest ushers us mysteriously across the threshold, and on the other side is – not answers – but knowing. On the other side is intimacy. (p.64); Beliefs are celebrated in the light. They are tested in the dark. (p. 116); Life is not tidy. Pain coexists with joy… God does not conveniently edit out the uncomfortable…Spiritually seeing God’s wholeness did not blind me to the world’s woundedness. Over the years, my sensitivity to injustice and pain has only heightened. Walking with God, I still see life’s complexities – but now that sight is attended by hope and complimented by a renewable strength to fight. Relationship with this realistic god has made me, both in thought and action, more (not less) in touch with the true aches of humanity.
It is helpful to notice here, what Chole calls the “fruit” (p.75) of a belief system. The fruit is the result of the belief system, it is the quality of fullness in life, the “honey” of the “fruit and honey” in life. Belief in Jesus has given Chole the ability to see hope, and therefore, to be more merciful to others and to bring more goodness and justice to the world. Instead of her thoughts of suicide, and negativity towards others, she learned that with Jesus she could participate more in life. As He once said, he has come to bring not just life, not just breathing and eating, but fullness of life: joy, peace, hope, and love (John 10:10, my translation). Other fruit that Chole has experienced since being a Christian has been, contra the writing of the New Atheists, an increase in mental vitality: “What I did not anticipate [as a result of her conversion], though, was an increase in my ability to learn, When God awakened me to his existence, my critical-thinking skills expanded and my creativity exploded” (p. 147).
Another section of Finding an Unseen God must be discussed. Chole’s retelling of her moment of realizing that God is real (ch.25) was the highlight of the book for me. I will not spoil the book for those who wish to read it, but I should point out that it struck me as such a moment of beauty, serenity, power, and worship. It made so much sense where and when her conversion happened, and yet none at all.
I appreciated Finding An Unseen God for its simplicity, its truth, and its respect for other belief systems. It should be noted that Finding An Unseen God is no textbook, filled with arguments and counter-arguments. It is a journal of a life-journey. The book will leave readers encouraged 1) in their faith and 2) in learning more about their faith and the faiths of others. Finding An Unseen God’s 173 pages will leave its readers both satisfied with their faith and thirsting for more truth.

See the (very interesting) Trailer.
Go to Alicia Britt Chole's website.
Read a review and excerpts from the book.
Read more reviews.

God is Good

Over the last few weeks I have been refreshed with the truths that God is 1) Good, 2) Wise, 3) Just, and 4) Powerful. I’m not sure why this struck me so much. I suppose that it was the Spirit weaving different thoughts and truths in my mind.
At the time I was thinking of the need to love people more concretely…to actually do something about what I learn and hear about the world, and to take care of my own life and family too. I was also read Ecclesiastes, thinking about how wrong that author had it, how he must be wrong about God’s goodness, and how he was not open to the idea of the resurrection. Around that same time I read a passage in the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, talking about the Incarnation.
All these thoughts converged on me at the same time, that God is essentially good, that even when he knows that things are bad, he has plans to make all things new, and even when all deserve punishment for messing up God’s creation, God desires to be merciful rather than to condemn us. It struck me: God is good. This is our best, most joyous thought: God is good.
And our worst thought is this: God is not good. For if this is true, there is no reason for hope of a joyous afterlife, or of mercy, or any good thing. If God is essentially evil, or a mixture of good and evil, then we have few reasons to really be happy, and to look forward to the future.
There was a stirring of great joy in me, so much that my heart began to ache. I believe that this thought was at least a part of the inspiration for Paul’s words:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4.4-7).
If God is not good, what sureness is there in prayer? Little to none. But for Christians, who know God as good, there is assurance of answered prayer. So then, let us pray that God would give us good gifts; let us pray for wisdom and understanding; let us pray thankfully and consistently; let us pray that the Holy Spirit would move us to greater and greater joys.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, You instructed the hearts of those who believed in You by the light of the Holy Spirit. Grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation: through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(From Prayers and Devotions of the Catholic Faith)

Letter to Peter Kent, Regarding Honduras

About the Honduras Situation

Dear Mr. Kent,

Recently. I have been learning about the situation in Honduras. It is not clear to me if President Zalaya was trying to extend his presidency or not. I suspect that people in power often want to extend their reign.
It is also unclear to me whether Mr. Micheletti has a good goal, though is pursuing it through evil means. I suspect that Micheletti should not be supported as no leader should call another names such as Mr. Micheletti called President Obama. Also, I see that Dr. Juan Almendares, who appears to be an upstanding person, and also ran against Pr. Zalaya in the last presidential elections supports Zalaya being accepted back into the country.

I also know that there are some Canadian companies in Honduras (mining and textiles) that might profit if Pr. Zalaya is kept out of the government. I urge to to put pressure on these companies not to support the coup and to stay out of political affairs for the time being. What is profit compared to living quality?

In light of all of this, I am unsure how to advise you. I do request that you research more into the situation, not trusting the words of Pr. Zalaya or Mr. Micheletti completely. It is my guess that it is within your power to find out where Canadian aid is going (to whom and for what) and I ask you to do this. If you are refused, then you must cease aid, understanding that the usage of the aid is being hidden for most likely evil means. I suggest this as your first step, as it will reveal the intentions of Micheletti and his care for the Honduran people.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I will be posting this on my blog (http://important-topics-ahub.blogspot.com/) for my readers to see. Please respond to this email. Please reply with your wisdom on this issue and your intended action in regards to Honduras.

Respectfully,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(End of letter)

Peter Kent is Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas) in the Canadian Cabinet.

If you would like to research some of what is happening, visit the sites below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124744094880829815.html
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/15/honduras
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/02/honduras-decree-suspends-basic-rights
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-estrada10-2009jul10,0,1570598.story
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14369
http://www.straight.com/article-238367/harsha-walia-dissecting-coup-honduras
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1747599
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Canada+condemns+Honduran+coup/1743900/story.html
http://www.peterkent.ca/

After informing yourself, and if you can make an informed and prudent judgment, or have any good suggestions on this issue, contact Peter Kent.

Contact Peter

7600 Yonge Street
Thornhill, Ontario
L4J 1V9
Phone: 905-886-9911
Fax: 905-886-5267
Email: kentp@parl.gc.ca

Community Office
7600 Yonge Street
Thornhill, Ontario
L4J 1V9
Phone: (905) 886-1426
Fax: (905) 886-5267

Ottawa Office
Peter Kent
110 Justice Building
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-0253
Fax: (613) 992-0887

2001 Massacre of Suspected Taliban POWs

Obama Calls for Probe into 2001 Massacre of at Least 2,000 Suspected Taliban POWs by US-Backed Afghan Warlord

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/13/obama_calls_for_probe_into_2001

It was incredible to hear how these suspected Taliban POWs were treated. The evidence of the massacre is clear. What is not clear is how much the U.S. military/government was involved. It is wrong for people to be treated in that manner; worse than animals should be treated. Inhuman. I am glad that Obama is open to inquiry about this.

Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin

Recently I received an email that concluded with this: Love the sinner, hate the sin.

It is easy to understand this in the wrong way, from both directions. I mean, (1) if you are the speaker of the sentence it is easy to forget that you are a sinner and that the other person, who is in fact a sinner, is essentially good, else God would not love him. And (2) if you are the receiver of such a sentiment it can easily offend us to think of ourselves as sinners, and we wonder if that other person knows at all how to differentiate between what I do and who I am.

I would like to show two quotes that help us understand this phrase. The first quote comes from C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity, the chapter entitled Forgiveness), and the other comes from St. Thomas Aquinas (Commentary on the Ten Commandments, in the preamble explaining how love for God and neighbour fulfills all the commandments). It is important to note that these authors make none of the aforementioned mistakes. The authors (1) explicitly or implicitely admit their own sinfulness. (2)They wish that others would lead the happiest of lives, not wishing them condemnation or hell, realizing that God is good in every way. (3) The authors show that this phrase must lead us to be merciful, compassionate and forgiving. (4) Lastly, there is justice going on, in that the evil is rightly hated while those whom God has created and loved are being loved.

The most important notice I can give is this: those people who use this phrase wrongly, to condemn people, to judge those they should not judge, to feel justified in feeling high and "righteous", to be unmerciful or unforgiving...those people don't understand God correctly, as these authors do. C.S. Lewis and St. Thomas Aquinas understand God to be the epitome of Goodness, Justice, Wisdom, and Power. Christians believe that God is so good and merciful and life-affirming that he paid a great - the greatest - price to help us. He is Just in that all of sin has been punished, through Christ, and that he has done it through a human to free humans and that he has not removed our free will to reject his goodness. He is wise because he devised a way to do all this. And all of this would be meaningless if God could not actually do this, but God is in fact all-powerful. Anyways, enough with my introduction.

(1)
For a long time I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life - namely myself. However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit of greed, I went on loving myself. There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery. We ought to hate them. Not one word of what we have said about them needs to be unsaid. But it does want us to hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if it is anyway possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere he can be cured and made [more] human again. - C. S. Lewis

(2)
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” This precept the Jews and Pharisees badly understood, believing that God commanded them to love their friends and hate their enemies. Therefore, by “neighbors” they understood only friends. Christ meant to repudiate this understanding when he said (Mt 5:44): “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.” Note that whoever hates his brother is not in the state of salvation (1 Jn 2:9): “He who hates his brother is in the darkness.”
We must be aware, however, of texts to the contrary. For the saints hated some people (Ps 138:22): “I hated them with perfect hatred.” And in the Gospel (Lk 14:26): “If anyone does not hate his father and mother and wife and sons and brothers and sisters, even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple.” We should realize that in all that we do, what Christ did should be our example. For God loves and hates. In any man two things should be considered: his nature and the wrong. What is of nature in man should be loved, what is wrong should be hated. So if anyone wished a person to be in hell, he would be hating his nature, but if he wished him to be good, he would be hating the sin, which should always be hated (Ps 5:7): “You hate all who do evil.” And (Wis 11:25), “Lord, you love all that exists, and hate nothing which you have made.” See, then, what God loves and hates: He loves what is of nature and hates what is wrong.
We should realize, however, that sometimes a person can do evil without sinning, that is, when he does evil so that he may desire good, because God also does this. For instance, when a man is sick and is converted to good, whereas while he was well he was evil. In the same way someone can be converted to good when he meets adversity, after being evil while living in prosperity, according to the text (Is 28:19): “Terror alone shall convey the message.” Another case is to desire the evil of a tyrant destroying the Church, in as much as you desire the good of the Church through the destruction of the tyrant; thus (2 Mac 1:17): “Blessed in every way be God who has punished the wicked.” And all must want this not just by willing it, but also by doing it. For it is not a sin justly to hang the evil; for they are ministers of God who do this, according the Apostle (Rm 13), and these people are acting in love, because punishment is given at times to castigate evil, and at times for the sake of a greater and divine good. For the good of a city is a greater good than the life of one man. But note that it is not enough not to wish evil, but one must also wish good, that is the correction of the sinner and eternal life.
For someone can wish the good of another in two ways. One way is general, in so far as the person is a creature of God and is capable of partaking in eternal life. The other way is special, in so far as the person is a friend or companion. No one is excluded from a general love, for everyone should pray for everyone, and help anyone in extreme need. But you are not held to be familiar with everyone, unless he asks pardon, because then he would be your friend; and if you refused him you would be hating a friend. Thus it is said (Mt 6:14-15): “If you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive them, neither will your Father forgive you your sins.” And in the Lord’s Prayer it is said (Mt 6:9): “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”