A Pentecostal Looks at Anti-Intellectualism

This is a refreshing interview with a Pentecostal pastor who acknowledges the problem of anti-intellectualism in much of the Pentecostal movement. His insights can also be applied to the evangelical church as a whole as well.

Favourite Hymn #16

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross


When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Da Vinci Inquest

I haven’t read the Da Vince Code but I have seen the commercial for the upcoming film. I do have Holy Blood, Holy Grail on my bookshelf, though I don’t know when I’ll get around to reading it. For those who want a good debunking, Tekton has an article by J.P. Holding, Not InDaVincible which finds the flaws in Brown’s research and claims.

Favourite Hymn #17

Alas and Did My Savior Bleed

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

To LIve Happily Ever After

After reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles a while back, I thought, “Now that’s a bit of a downer”. Others seem to agree. Should great (or for that matter good or even half-decent) literature have happy endings?

Shiny Happy Evangelicals?

This CT article reports on a Pew Research survey.

Favourite Hymn #18

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, Who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, Who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, Who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Thought for Thinkers

An intriguing article on making choices

Favourite Hymn #19

Thine is the Glory

Thine is the glory, Risen, conquering Son;
Endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment Rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded graveclothes Where Thy body lay.

Refrain
Thine is the glory, Risen, conquering Son;
Endless is the victory Thou o’er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, Risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, Scatters fear and gloom.
Let His church with gladness Hymns of triumph sing,
For her Lord now liveth: Death hast lost its sting.

Refrain

No more we doubt Thee, Glorious Prince of life!
Life is naught without Thee: Aid us in our strife.
Make us more than conquerors, Through Thy deathless love:
Bring us safe through Jordan To Thy home above.

Refrain

Unreality TV

How real is “reality TV”?

“A novel three years in the making, a painting slowly achieved after years of study, even a long-running television series—these may possibly possess the power to take us more deeply into the mysteries of the condition in which we find ourselves, and may, most crucially, cast a vision of what we might yet become. But "reality TV"? Its tacky melodrama, deus ex machina plots, unending musical manipulations, and pseudo-heroic corporate saviors only undercut what it pretends to be about. Instead of showing us our truest selves, it plays to our worst impulses and misperceptions, making, in the end, a spectacle of our inner lives. Like other forms of voyeurism, it actually diminishes our taste for reality.” (read entire article)

Favourite Hymn #20

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

One irritating thing regarding this hymn is that lately I see that the second stanza is often left out of some hymnals and overhead projections (where hymnals are not used). Ebenezer is the name of the stone that Samuel raised after the Israelites’ (actually God’s) victory over the Philistines (1 Sam. 7:12). To my mind that line is the centerpiece of the hymn. Go figure.

On Hymns

A quote in my hymnal, attributed to Martin Luther goes:

“I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God. I would not for the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art than can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology, music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart…the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.”

C.S. Lewis notes that “for many people…music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity.”

As I write this I’m listening to a composition by Bach set to Psalm 51. Known as “the fifth Evangelist”, J.S. Bach evokes, through his music, heaven like none other I know. That his theology permeates everything he wrote can be seen (or heard) in the fact that his “secular” works sound just as “sacred” as his explicitly religious works (I recommend reading Bach Among the Theologians by Jaroslav Pelikan).

The main musical selections we get in church today are hymns and contemporary worship songs/choruses. For my money, contemporary songs don’t come close to hymns in conveying the depth of emotion, theological conviction, and intellectual formation of the Christian faith. Modern choruses give us, unfortunately (in my view) simply a baptized version of the ubiquitous romantic ballad. Just replace “boy” or “girl” or “him” or “her” with God or “Him”. There are a few contemporary songs I do like though. The next few posts will include my 20 favourite hymns. I might give a few of my favourite contemporary songs as well (at least the ones we sing in my church. If not for those I probably would have little or no exposure to them).

A prayer

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men most richly blessed.

-Unknown

Mozart's Primitivism

What does Wolfgang A. Mozart have in common with Sid Vicious?

"It is true that one doesn’t normally speakof Mozart and Sid Vicious in the same breath, but they do have this in common: primitivism. Rock’n’roll began as a primitivist movement, and it renews itself with mini-primitivisms, of which punk is just one example. To see Mozart as a primitivist is a little harder, since his style is so identified with the civilized and the rational, things we think of as anti-primitive, and yet the Classical movement in music, like its companion neoclassicism in art, owed everything to the primitivist desire to begin anew by stripping away the false and inessential. Écrasez l’infâme. To the Baroque’s heavy sauces, multiple courses, and thickly layered combinations of tastes and textures, the Classical would propose a nouvelle cuisine." (read whole article)

Why Cultural Elites Attack Religion

This Spiked-online article examines the vitriolic attacks often directed at religion.

The Father of Ireland

This article from the Independent has an interesting story about the use of Y-chromosome research to identify a famous common Irish ancestor.

We are...amused

Is heart health a laughing matter? Apparently so.

Critiquing Richard Dawkins

This article from the Guardian calls “Richard Dawkins’ latest attack on religion” an “intellectually lazy polemic not worthy of a great scientist.”

(via DangerousIdea)

Brits Give

This TimesOnline story tells how British evangelicals outgive practically everyone else.

(via CTMag Weblog)

Book a film

Is the book always better than the movie as many seem to assert? That all depends.

(via Arts and Letters Daily)