Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Work Design: Enspiral: Much spin spiralling out of self-control, but some very good points worthy of being reworked
This Vimeo video shoud be appreciated, analyzed and taken with more than one grain of salt. It doesn't address the needs of, nor the Christian address to, the 99% of the world's poor — who want jobs, are willing to labour, and require organization by companies with capital to hire them and engage them in production of goods and services.
Rather, it's addressed to 1% of the middle-class, to children of that middle-class, who are attracted to work of particular kinds — especially computing and designing (print and digital, especially digital IT programming) who come to the need to earn a living with the baggage of horizons formed by privilege — certainly in the expectation that (some) people will want to work two days a week, "people who want to work for change"
"Democracy, networks, and collaboration" — the soft even tone of voice, borrowed from invidious gurus -- the surest sign of a master manipulator — "autonomy" — "self-control" — "optimizing happiness" -- "we just try to take away the pain of running your own business" Time (cleaving the week into 3 segments): 2 days of "client work," three of "change work," and 2 days of "Reading and Research." What I like least about the presentation, other than the phoney guru tone of voice, is the lack of giving credit where credit is due, as few if any of the ideas bundled and packaged here have no history. The impression is that everything suggested here is brand-new, but even the three segments offered mere distribute Karl Marx's utopian scenario of how "after the Revolution" we will be able to function, not by the segmented week, but by the segmented day. Of course, what Communism produced in the way of work conditions never attained the lustre of the Marxian pipe-dream. But, more largely, I want to emphasize that other people came up with the bookshelf of ideas on display, and in this case a little name dropping of these ideational forebears woud be appreciated. I don't begruge this idealized version of what it coud be like for some people in their multi-dimensionally active lives and income earning. But, neither do I begrudge the Mercedes (or was it Ferraris) to those who have set that kind of ownership as a life-goal or symbollically valuable (for them) of "the good life." I don't evny the rich, but as the Enspiral video suggests there are other ways of disposing of one's time and labours — the Enspiral model is one among many, and it doesn't require the guru vocal piety for its own validation.
—————————————————
Vimeo (January27,2k11)
Thanks and Hat Tip to Steve Bishop The Daily Reformational
— video reposted here by OwlbFollow @Owlb
general editor, refWrite page 3 (Special Features)
------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps a key point I am trying to make here is simply that some other people, lots of them, find the "traditional" type of work under a boss, often with professional managers and often with owners and investors, okay. Many industrial workers in the Western economies actually enjoy their job, and some really appreciate being represented by a labour union that situates union stewards on the shop floor.
The scholarly work I woud juxtapose to the Enspiral guru's voice is a traditional book by Maarten J. Verkerk, Trust and Power on the Shop Floor: An ethnographical, ethical, and philosophical study on responsible behaviour in industrial organizations (2004). It doesn't even concern itself with the issue of labour representation and a plurality of unions chosen by different workers on the same shop floor — which has become a long term philosophical and practical concern of my own. What Verkerk dwells on is the formation of work-community becawz people, even in these workaday milieux, want to do a good job and obtain satisfaction from it. Large industrial organizations (businesses, corporations, both privately owned and stock-sharing with investors ... yes, for a profit) can be operated with wisdom and the benefits of science of groups and organizations that take up a good measure of a labouring person's time, time out of one's life if it is experienced negatively, time for one's life also at work if one experience's one work positively. It's not all as obvious as Enspiral soaps out — with its own business ideology, borrowed but unacknowledged ideas, and lack of industrial experience.
Verkerk traces thru the history of Western business in the industrial mode, picking out the key moments of truth in the ideas of theorists and practitioners actual engaged in or close to the actual work process. He goes as thoroly into the contributions of Big Business practioners who wrote books in the West and Japan, helping managers who want to change the world and their own work close to the shop floor. It's a much better problem than those posed by Enspiral, which too has its moment of truth. The difficulty is to isolate them conceptually, appreciate them for those valuable moments, and critique them as another self-contained ideology that lacks universality, which indeed is a truth to which the envideod Enspiral spokesman seems to turn only his blind eye. We all have blindspots, and some of us actually put on blinders with glee.
— Owlb
Introduction to Enspiral from Enspiral on Vimeo.
A photo from Chile, one of those entombed in a mine not so long ago, one who re-emerged, praising God ....
CLA-USA CLAC CNV
A photo by a Brazilian photo-artisit (sorry, I lost track of his name) featuring a worker with either a packcheque or a lottery-win cheque.
Found it on a site recommended by a digi-friend there (sorry again, I lost track of the documentation).
Thanks! and Hat Tip!
Rather, it's addressed to 1% of the middle-class, to children of that middle-class, who are attracted to work of particular kinds — especially computing and designing (print and digital, especially digital IT programming) who come to the need to earn a living with the baggage of horizons formed by privilege — certainly in the expectation that (some) people will want to work two days a week, "people who want to work for change"
"Democracy, networks, and collaboration" — the soft even tone of voice, borrowed from invidious gurus -- the surest sign of a master manipulator — "autonomy" — "self-control" — "optimizing happiness" -- "we just try to take away the pain of running your own business" Time (cleaving the week into 3 segments): 2 days of "client work," three of "change work," and 2 days of "Reading and Research." What I like least about the presentation, other than the phoney guru tone of voice, is the lack of giving credit where credit is due, as few if any of the ideas bundled and packaged here have no history. The impression is that everything suggested here is brand-new, but even the three segments offered mere distribute Karl Marx's utopian scenario of how "after the Revolution" we will be able to function, not by the segmented week, but by the segmented day. Of course, what Communism produced in the way of work conditions never attained the lustre of the Marxian pipe-dream. But, more largely, I want to emphasize that other people came up with the bookshelf of ideas on display, and in this case a little name dropping of these ideational forebears woud be appreciated. I don't begruge this idealized version of what it coud be like for some people in their multi-dimensionally active lives and income earning. But, neither do I begrudge the Mercedes (or was it Ferraris) to those who have set that kind of ownership as a life-goal or symbollically valuable (for them) of "the good life." I don't evny the rich, but as the Enspiral video suggests there are other ways of disposing of one's time and labours — the Enspiral model is one among many, and it doesn't require the guru vocal piety for its own validation.
—————————————————
Vimeo (January27,2k11)
Thanks and Hat Tip to Steve Bishop The Daily Reformational
— video reposted here by OwlbFollow @Owlb
general editor, refWrite page 3 (Special Features)
------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps a key point I am trying to make here is simply that some other people, lots of them, find the "traditional" type of work under a boss, often with professional managers and often with owners and investors, okay. Many industrial workers in the Western economies actually enjoy their job, and some really appreciate being represented by a labour union that situates union stewards on the shop floor.
The scholarly work I woud juxtapose to the Enspiral guru's voice is a traditional book by Maarten J. Verkerk, Trust and Power on the Shop Floor: An ethnographical, ethical, and philosophical study on responsible behaviour in industrial organizations (2004). It doesn't even concern itself with the issue of labour representation and a plurality of unions chosen by different workers on the same shop floor — which has become a long term philosophical and practical concern of my own. What Verkerk dwells on is the formation of work-community becawz people, even in these workaday milieux, want to do a good job and obtain satisfaction from it. Large industrial organizations (businesses, corporations, both privately owned and stock-sharing with investors ... yes, for a profit) can be operated with wisdom and the benefits of science of groups and organizations that take up a good measure of a labouring person's time, time out of one's life if it is experienced negatively, time for one's life also at work if one experience's one work positively. It's not all as obvious as Enspiral soaps out — with its own business ideology, borrowed but unacknowledged ideas, and lack of industrial experience.
Verkerk traces thru the history of Western business in the industrial mode, picking out the key moments of truth in the ideas of theorists and practitioners actual engaged in or close to the actual work process. He goes as thoroly into the contributions of Big Business practioners who wrote books in the West and Japan, helping managers who want to change the world and their own work close to the shop floor. It's a much better problem than those posed by Enspiral, which too has its moment of truth. The difficulty is to isolate them conceptually, appreciate them for those valuable moments, and critique them as another self-contained ideology that lacks universality, which indeed is a truth to which the envideod Enspiral spokesman seems to turn only his blind eye. We all have blindspots, and some of us actually put on blinders with glee.
— Owlb
Introduction to Enspiral from Enspiral on Vimeo.
A photo from Chile, one of those entombed in a mine not so long ago, one who re-emerged, praising God ....
CLA-USA CLAC CNV
A photo by a Brazilian photo-artisit (sorry, I lost track of his name) featuring a worker with either a packcheque or a lottery-win cheque.
Found it on a site recommended by a digi-friend there (sorry again, I lost track of the documentation).
Thanks! and Hat Tip!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Academics: Philosophy, theology, comparative religions: The life-work of Hendrik Vroom, VU Amsterdam
-
Verbum et Ecclesia, Vol 32, No 1, 2011 (found January23,2k12)
Hendrik Vroom is a reformational philosopher and theologian, professor at the theological faculty of the Free University in Amsterdam (VU University). His monumental book, Religions and the Truth: Philosophical Reflections and Perspective is part of the "Currents of Encounter" series published jointly by Rodopi in Amsterdam and William B. Eerdman in Grand Rapids (1989). Vroom is a theologian who has considerable ins+t into the philosophical undergirding of every theology that rises above irrationalism, including our Christian Fundamentalism/s. He advocates intra-Christian dialogue, and inter-faith dialogue where the particularities of belief are not surrendered at the outset.
The article below is by Dirk van Keulen and Annewieke L. Vroom, authors of the title of a book also published by Rodopi, Amsterdam, some two decades after the appearance of his Religions and the Truth. The Van Keulen / Vroom book itself is in Dutch and has not yet been translated into English, I guess. Their title is Een waaier van gedachten over geloven: Hoofdlijnen in het theologisch werk van Hendrik M. Vroom. (2010) [A dispersion of thoughts on religion: Main themes in the theological works of Hendrik M. Vroom] Bibliography of Published Works by Hendrik M Vroom compiled by Annewieke L. Vroom.
The reviewer in V& E is Johann-Albrecht Meylahn, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
A rounded guide to the work of
Hendrik M. Vroom
This concise book written by Dirk van Keulen of the Protestantse Theologische Universiteit [a multi-campus institution of the newly-reunited Protestant Church in the Netherlands] gives a good and useful introduction to the range of theological and religious philosophical thinking, and impact of Hendrik M. Vroom of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The book introduces Vroom to the reader by narrating a short reflection of the academic and religious journey that shaped Vroom’s work. This is performed by indicating and describing the context of his student years, the various places of ministry as well as the great mentors that influenced and shaped his thought in the exciting and turbulent times of the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland [Reformed Churches in the Netherlands].The chapters are divided according to central themes in Vroom’s work, such as faith, Scriptures and hermeneutics, Reformed ecumenism, theology and religions, cultural and political engagement. The author discusses these themes within the context that formed and shaped them. Van Keulen does this by drawing the reader into the world of Europe, the Netherlands and more specifically the world of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands from the early 1960s until well into the first decade of the new millennium. This context, together with the great philosophical and theological minds that shaped and responded to it, is brought into the discussion and it becomes clear how Vroom’s thoughts emerged in this dialogue of texts and contexts. Vroom was a strong believer in the importance of the context and the fusion of horizons through dialogue, something that Van Keulen remains true to.The themes are discussed by focussing on and shortly describing a particular work, either an article or a book that best captures the specific theme under discussion, but with numerous cross references to other works.Annewieke Vroom’s compilation of Hendrik Vroom’s published works, Bibliography of Published Works by Hendrik M. Vroom (pp. 99–120), is useful for further in-depth study of the themes and following up on the cross references.The book is a good introduction to the range of Vroom’s work. As the title indicates, it is not intended to be a comprehensive nor an in-depth study, but a brief introduction to the main lines of thought. The book awakens the reader’s appetite to further explore the thoughts of this Dutch theologian and with the compilation of the published works the book becomes a useful tool for further in-depth study of one of the more recent modern Dutch theologians.
Verbum et Ecclesia, Vol 32, No 1, 2011 (found January23,2k12)
Hendrik Vroom is a reformational philosopher and theologian, professor at the theological faculty of the Free University in Amsterdam (VU University). His monumental book, Religions and the Truth: Philosophical Reflections and Perspective is part of the "Currents of Encounter" series published jointly by Rodopi in Amsterdam and William B. Eerdman in Grand Rapids (1989). Vroom is a theologian who has considerable ins+t into the philosophical undergirding of every theology that rises above irrationalism, including our Christian Fundamentalism/s. He advocates intra-Christian dialogue, and inter-faith dialogue where the particularities of belief are not surrendered at the outset.
The article below is by Dirk van Keulen and Annewieke L. Vroom, authors of the title of a book also published by Rodopi, Amsterdam, some two decades after the appearance of his Religions and the Truth. The Van Keulen / Vroom book itself is in Dutch and has not yet been translated into English, I guess. Their title is Een waaier van gedachten over geloven: Hoofdlijnen in het theologisch werk van Hendrik M. Vroom. (2010) [A dispersion of thoughts on religion: Main themes in the theological works of Hendrik M. Vroom] Bibliography of Published Works by Hendrik M Vroom compiled by Annewieke L. Vroom.
The reviewer in V& E is Johann-Albrecht Meylahn, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
— Re-posted here by OwlbFollow @Owlb
general editor, refWrite Special Features (page 3)
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Academics: Historiography USA: Roger Williams under the microscope
Roger Williams:
The Great Separationist
By JOYCE E. CHAPLIN
Published: December 30, 2011
New York Times
Should you find yourself in front of the Rhode Island Statehouse in Providence, look up and east, and tip your hat — real or imagined — to Roger Williams. A 35-foot statue of the Protestant theologian (1603?-1683) stands high in Prospect Terrace Park, with right hand extended, as if blessing the city he founded. The beatific image does not quite resemble its cantankerous model, for reasons that John M. Barry explores, if only partly, in his new biography, “Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul.”
Barry is the gifted author of several historical works that examine the early 20th century, most notably “The Great Influenza.” He had begun working on a biography of a figure from the same period, the American evangelist Billy Sunday, but his curiosity about the longer history of religion in public life whisked him back in time and to Williams, long regarded as the original American proponent of liberty of conscience and the separation of church and state.
Recommended. Read more ...
refWrite comment: In her NYT review of John M. Barry's new book, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, Harvard historian Joyce E. Chaplin probes her counterpart's latest study and finds it wanting. People interested in iconizing Roger Williams (1603-1683) will find plenty to whet their appetites in Barry's new work. However, too much is claimed, by both historians Barry and his critic Chaplin, too much for the founder of the British colony of Providence Plantation in North America in the department of church and state relations as far as historical consequences are concerned.
Although he took Holy Orders in the Church of England, he had become a Puritan at Cambridge, forfeiting any chance at a place of preferment in the Anglican church. After graduating from Cambridge, Williams became the chaplain to a Puritan lord, Sir William Macham. He married Mary Barnard (1609–76) on December 15, 1629 at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England. They had six children, all born in America. Their children were Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel and Joseph.
Williams was privy to the plans of the Puritan leaders to migrate to the New World, and while he did not join the first wave in the summer of 1630, before the end of the year, he decided he could not remain in England under Archbishop William Laud's rigorous (and High church) administration. He regarded the Church of England to be corrupt and false, and by the time he and his wife boarded the Lyon in early December, he had arrived at the Separatist position.The ignorance of Joyce Chaplin in regard to "separation of church and state" (a key doctrine of Williams), is palpable and ideological, a leftwing and ACLU corrupted historical interpretation, and little else. It does not enter into the language or purpose of the First Amendment of the USA Constitution, where the wording "make no law concerning ... establishment of religion" pertains only to the federal government. Almost all of the colonies and the states that followed them had established churches, which states eventually abolished the establishments, altho they didn't have to do so under the USA Constitution. You cannot get this from Chaplin's review and it makes suspect what she says otherwise regarding Barry's historiography at hand. A much better formulation may be found in Wilkipedia:
When Roger and Mary Williams arrived at Boston on February 5, 1631, he was welcomed and almost immediately invited to become the Teacher (assistant minister) in the Boston church to officiate while Rev. John Wilson returned to England to fetch his wife. He shocked them by declining the position, saying that he found that it was "an unseparated church." [Unseparated from the state and from the Anglican Church which was tied to the Crown. New England's established Churches considered themselves Anglican Congregationalists, rather than Anglican Episcopalians. - Owlb] In addition he asserted that the civil magistrates may not punish any sort of "breach of the first table [of the Ten Commandments]," such as idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, false worship, and blasphemy, and that every individual should be free to follow his own convictions in religious matters. Right from the beginning, he sounded three principles which were central to his subsequent career: Separatism, freedom of religion [as a matter of indivudual conscience], and separation of church and state.
As a Separatist he had concluded that the Church of England was irredeemably corrupt and that one must completely separate from it to establish a new church for the true and pure worship of God. His search for the true church eventually carried him out of Congregationalism, the Baptists, and any visible church. From 1639 forward, he waited for Christ to send a new apostle to reestablish the church, and he saw himself as a "witness" to Christianity until that time came. He believed that soul liberty freedom of conscience, was a gift from God, and that everyone had the natural right to freedom of religion. Religious freedom demanded that church and state be separated. Williams was the first to use the phrase "wall of separation" to describe the relationship of the church and state. He called for a high wall of separation between the "Garden of Christ" and the "Wilderness of the World." This idea might have been one of the foundations of the religion clauses [is there more than one? I had thawt not. - Owlb] in the U.S. Constitution, (although the language used by the founders is quite different) and First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Years later, in 1802 Thomas Jefferson, writing of the "wall of separation" echoed Roger Williams in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.In other words, Williams gets credit from the angle of the history of ideas for launching the base formulation of separationist thinking, but the influence of that idea became possible in American statecraft only under a radical modification whereby it become a different idea, a different idea which was inscribed in a clause of the Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments to the Constitution), an idea of a freedom of religion and belief (freedom of conscience but not some absolute freedom of behaviours), a freedom of religion without outlawing establishments of religion in the various states. Indeed, the USA has never had "a wall of separation between church/es and state/s," even in regard to the Federal Government. The absolutistic metaphor of "wall" here is misleading and dangerous. But in any case, the idea has never been constitutionally enshrined — no matter what Roger Williams or Thomas Jefferson wrote.
Yet, we shoud not begrudge the h+est respect for Williams in regard to his thawts regarding the Native Americans, a point appropriately stressed by both Barry and Chaplin. I think this is William's real achievement, and it certainly is integral to his notions of freedom of conscience and religion. Yet, for the Naragansetts and other tribes with which he got along well, there was no separation of church and state. Of course, we have to look past the lack of differentiation in this respect in Native tribal societies of the time, and discern among them the functions of governance and faith-community without any "wall of separation." So, what was Williams doing when he explained the Gospel to these folks? Was he hoping some woud convert and join his utopic community in Providence Plantation where local church and the local state were presumably walled apart? Wasn't he calling the Native Americans away from their 'benited' lack of such a wall in their own society? Was Williams calling them to something that woud be disintegrative of their own societies?, so that to become a Christian was in important part to erect a wall of separation between the civil and faith-functions of life. I prefer, in principle, the constitutional way of communication between the various levels of government and the churches / faith-communities of the society. Why shoud churches and religions be singled out for non-communication?
All this history feeds into the question of civil religion, civic religious expression. I'm wondering how today's successor state to the Providence Plantation colony — namely, Rhode Island — handles the walling off of religious expression by its citizenry?
Wikipedia provides "a 'clarification' of how the Establishment of Religion Clause should be read" , penned in a concurring opinion by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor:
The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community. Government can run afoul of that prohibition in two principal ways. One is excessive entanglement with religious institutions ...The second and more direct infringement is government endorsement or disapproval of religion. Endorsement sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.I think this year the quarrel in Rhode Island was over whether a Christmas tree coud not be called such but woud have to follow the usage of Governor Lincoln Chafee by referring to the government's lighted tree as the "Holiday Tree." A bunch of protesting carol-singing Christians disrupted the ever-so secularist ceremony at Rhode Island's Statehouse
This is sometimes referred to as the "Endorsement Test." A law which fails this test is found to be unconstitutional because it "endorses" religion or religious beliefs in such a way that it tells those who agree that they are favored insiders and those who disagree that they are disfavored outsiders. The other side of the coin would be the "disapproval" of religion or religious beliefs in such a way that those who agree with the beliefs are told that they are disfavored outsiders while those who disagree with the beliefs are told that they are favored insiders.
New American (December2,2k11)
Ignoring protests from residents and a resolution from state legislators calling for the state’s seasonal celebratory tree to be called by its Christmas designation, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (left) insisted that the blue spruce that graces the Statehouse this year be referred to officially as a “Holiday Tree.”The song "O Christmas Tree" was sung in the protest.
According to the Associated Press, Chafee, who changed his party designation from Republican to Independent in 2007, said that eschewing the term “Christmas” is in line with the principles laid down by Rhode Island founder Roger Williams that the state would supposedly be a place where religion and government are to be kept separate.
— Owlb
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Media: Online news & opinion: Best 10 books I've read or am still reading as 2k11 draws to a close
refWrite's 10 top books,
titles I've read in whole or in part, this year:
titles I've read in whole or in part, this year:
My list of top ten books I've read
1.) Maarten Verkkerk, Trust and power on the shop floor
2.) Romel Regalado Bagares, attorney, philosopher of law, Beyond Sovereignty versus Community: A Social Pluralist Perspective on the International Legal Order, dissertation University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Even more developed, is his full-length dissertation for VU University, Amsterdam, with which he earned the doctorate.
3.) Anthony Tol, Philosophy in the Making: D.H.Th. Vollenhoven and the emergence of Reformed philosophy, dissertation VU University, Amsterdam.
4.) Jeremy Ive, A Critically Comparative Analysis and a Trinitarian, ‘Perichoretic’ Reconstruction of the Reformational Philosophies of Dirk H.Th. Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd (dissertation submitted Dec 2, 2k11 for PhD) King’s College, London
5.) Leonard Sweet and Hendrik Hart [in series Value Inquiry Books] Responses to the Enlightenment -- an exchange on foundations, faith, and community
6.) Nadia Szilvassy, editor, Brick, an international review, twice yearly, Toronto
7.) Lambert Zuidervaart, After Dooyeweerd: Truth in Reformational Philosophy, online digital publication, Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto
8.) TV viewing: television political & economic
news and opinion, shows — narrative series with
news and opinion, shows — narrative series with
consequent episodes, specials, awards shows
or at least the latest news on who's won what
when it happens this year ....
9.) James Olthuis The Beautiful Risk: A new psychology of
Loving and Being Loved (2001)
10.) Here's where the goin' gits ruff, folks. Wow! come to think of
Loving and Being Loved (2001)
10.) Here's where the goin' gits ruff, folks. Wow! come to think of
it, I'm spending many hours reading online texts of many kinds,
but I can't think of any other books, right now.
11.) I've drawn a blank. I read to keep abreast of the 24-hour news
cycle, simulating a future with quick and clear up-to-the-minute
reformational media institution online, international. I don't read
enuff novels or a book of poetry or literary critique. Sad to say.
reformational media institution online, international. I don't read
enuff novels or a book of poetry or literary critique. Sad to say.
— Albert Gedraitis
Media: Online news & opinion: Steve Bishop puts out a list of his favourite reads (most importantbooks he'd read this last year, I guess ...
An accidental blog (December28,2k11)
Steve Bishop is the dean of reformational blogging in English.
Here is his selection in the waning days of the year, of the top books he's encountered.
Pirated 8-) and reposted here by Owlb
My top books of 2011 - in no particular order:
Jason Zuidema (ed.) Reformational Thought in Canada: Essays in Honour of Theodore Plantinga
James K. A. Smith Letters to a Young Calvinist
Tom Nelson Work Matters [review to come shortly]
Anthony Tol Philosophy in the Making
Jonathan Chaplin Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society
Steve Bishop is the dean of reformational blogging in English.
Here is his selection in the waning days of the year, of the top books he's encountered.
Pirated 8-) and reposted here by Owlb
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
My top books of 2011
by Steve Bishop UK
My top books of 2011 - in no particular order:
Jason Zuidema (ed.) Reformational Thought in Canada: Essays in Honour of Theodore Plantinga
Richard Mouw Abraham Kuyper:
A Short and Personal Introduction
Abraham Kuyper Wisdom and Wonder
Geoff Hall The Cultural Way of Being
Ernst Conradie Creation and salvation:
Abraham Kuyper Wisdom and Wonder
Geoff Hall The Cultural Way of Being
Ernst Conradie Creation and salvation:
Dialogue on Abraham Kuyper's Legacy for Contemporary Ecotheology
Mike Goheen A Light to the Nations
Michael P. Schutt Redeeming Law
Mike Goheen A Light to the Nations
Michael P. Schutt Redeeming Law
[technically this was released in 2007 but I read it in 2011 so it makes the list - it's my blog and my rules :) ]
James K. A. Smith Letters to a Young Calvinist
Tom Nelson Work Matters [review to come shortly]
Anthony Tol Philosophy in the Making
Jonathan Chaplin Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society
and Robert A. Wauzzinski Ruth: The Story of God’s Unending Redemption
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Pisteutics: Christian misisonary: In Cairo missionary William-Jan de Witt is acclaimed for his just-awarded dissertation
Machine translated by Google Translate (December 24, 2k11)
De Wit PhD at the VU in Bavinck
23/12/2011 9:45
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag.
Willem-Jan de Wit works on behalf of the Reformed Mission League (GZB) in Cairo.
Violence Erupts in Egypt - Christian Reformed Church
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag, translated into English from the Dutch original
Dr. Willem-Jan de Wit werkt namens
de Gereformeerde Zendingsbond (GZB) in Caïro.
Nieuwerbrug, Netherlands — The Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck (1854/1921) prayed to God for him to keep going while studying in Leiden. "He saw that the stream of his time comes from the point at which Christ and the cross is," says Dr Willem-Jan de Wit, "Bavinck was a man who felt challenged by the modern philosophy of his day."
Friday, the PhD was granted at the VU University in Amsterdam to De Wit by Prof. A. van de Beek and Prof. C. van der Kooi on the thesis "On the Way to the Living God" (publ. VU University Press).
In the first half of his thesis, he offers a "cathartic reading" ("cathartics reading") of Bavinck: the story of Bavinck's struggle to tell readers he extends a mirror to face their own struggle.
The research is based in Bavinck on correspondence with his university friend Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and texts that have not previously been published or been forgotten (were lost). "My image of Bavinck was that he entered the Reformed denomination of his life-time, but I soon discovered that his horizon was much larger, and that brought him to battle with them. He writes concerning his "naive childlike faith about his lost soul" and even an unspoken desire becomes detectible "that the Scripture might be true, that the new criticism could be right."
Two sections of the dissertation is devoted to the concluding chapter of Philosophy of Revelation (1908-09, Stone Lectures at Princeton Theoligical Seminary). "Bavinck argues that the modern evolutionary worldview of man without hope in the world makes and points to the cross as the place where we see God's will to save the world."
Wits dissertation consists of six essays that that are both scientific and personal. "My method of theology is not descriptive or prescriptive, but inviting. I begin the book with a short walk through post-Christian Amsterdam, the city in which I've lived for seven years and where life seems to be without God. Bavinck called the unchurched neiborhood one of the greatest evils of his time, but it has since risen spectacularly. In this context, I based on Psalm 42 at the invitation of the heart's desire to be understood as a thirst for the living God. "
De Wit will not prove the existence of God, but explains: only a God who really is the deepest thirst of the heart can fill it. "Christians and atheists can therefore stand side by side when debunking gods which are no-gods at all. Bavinck more so than I am open to trying the natural world to explain. While I do the invitation to the world of signs and references to the living God to see. When we open with two eyes, a scientific and a religious eye of reality, we can see depth. "
Now, besides many delicious to see much harm, he says. "The brokenness of the references may raise the question whether they really refer to God. The Christian faith at its core, however, shows that this is indeed possible: it knows the revelation of the Lord of glory, without form or glory on the cross. "
After studying theology in Utrecht, Durham and Tübingen, De Wit worked at the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI) at the Free University. Today he teaches in the service of the GZB, Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.
Since the revolution of January 25, De Wit writes regularly blogs about life in Egypt. "The revolution has cawzed many Egyptian Christians to feel are more involved in their country and people as a whole. Simultaneously, they are concerned. The future will have to learn what is to be the outcome of the permanent revolution. "
Amsterdam and Cairo, according to De Wit, are both post-Christian: In Egypt, the Gospel of the cross was largely supplanted by Islam; in the Netherlands by a secular worldview. "But you will also find that secularization in Cairo and Amsterdam includes many Muslims. This double challenge of "post-Christian" deserves further reflection. Life on the road to the living God always follows the narrow path between religiosity and searching disbelief. The exciting question remains: is it nonsense, profanity, or truth when we say that Christ is the Crucified [and risen and ascended] wisdom of the living God revealed? "
De Wit PhD at the VU in Bavinck
23/12/2011 9:45
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag.
Willem-Jan de Wit works on behalf of the Reformed Mission League (GZB) in Cairo.
Congratulations to Bavinck Society member Willem-Jan de Wit, who received his doctorate from the VU University Amsterdam on December 16, 2011 (see also this Reformed Daily exclusive).
De Wit’s dissertation, under the supervision of Prof. A van de Beek and Prof. C. van der Kooi, is titled, On the Way to the Loving God (VU University Press, 2011). It offers a “cathartic reading” of Herman Bavinck’s faith wrestlings, beginning with his student years at Leiden. The dissertation is available as a free download via his web site as is his related article in TBR 2: “Will I Remain Standing?”: A Cathartic Reading of Herman Bavinck.
Dr. de Wit works in Cairo, Egypt on behalf of the Reformed Mission Union (Gereformeerde Zendingsbond), teaching at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in that city. A recent graduate of Calvin Theology Seminary, Anne Zaki, is also now teaching at Cairo's Evangelical Theological Seminary.
The Evangelical Theological Seminary of Cairo (ETSC) is the seminary for the Evangelical Synod of the Nile. One of the largest Christian Arabic-language theological seminaries in the world, it trains pastors, teachers, and musicians for Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, the Gulf States and North Africa. It offers a Diploma in Theological Studies, a four-year Bachelor of Theology degree, and a Masters of Theology in Biblical Studies and Middle East Christianity. In 2005 the seminary inaugurated its Center for Middle East Christianity, which invites both Western Christians and Arab Christians to come and study more about the roots of Christianity in the Middle East. It publishes theological books and Christian education materials in Arabic for the Middle East Christian community.Egypt - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) is one of Egypt's largest development organizations, providing integrated approaches to poor communities in the areas of economic development, agriculture, education, health care, and the environment. CEOSS uses a rights-based approach to improve the quality of life in impoverished Egyptian communities, empower communities and individuals with sustainable development, promote a culture of dialogue based on pluralistic democratic approaches, and encourage religious and social enlightenment. CEOSS positively impacts 2 million Egyptian citizens each year.
Violence Erupts in Egypt - Christian Reformed Church
In Egypt, [Anne] Zaki is teaching at a seminary and working with the Christian community. Her husband, Naji Umran, is working to create dialogue between Christians and Muslims. CRC leaders praise the effort. But the ministry in Egypt is not officially connected to the CRC. Zaki and her husband came the U.S. in 2002 to attend Calvin Theological Seminary. After graduation from CTS and before leaving for Egypt, they served a Christian Reformed Church congregation in Grand Rapids, Mich., and one in British Columbia.
Specifically, last Sunday’s demonstrators, said Zaki, were protesting the destruction in late September of Christian homes and a TV and radio broadcasting building in the village of Aswan. But there have been several other incidents of violence directed at Christians since the Egyptian Revolution occurred in January of this year.From Reformatorisch Dagblad, Christian daily online, an ariticle
by Dr. Klaas van der Zwaag, translated into English from the Dutch original
Dr. Willem-Jan de Wit werkt namens
de Gereformeerde Zendingsbond (GZB) in Caïro.
Nieuwerbrug, Netherlands — The Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck (1854/1921) prayed to God for him to keep going while studying in Leiden. "He saw that the stream of his time comes from the point at which Christ and the cross is," says Dr Willem-Jan de Wit, "Bavinck was a man who felt challenged by the modern philosophy of his day."
Friday, the PhD was granted at the VU University in Amsterdam to De Wit by Prof. A. van de Beek and Prof. C. van der Kooi on the thesis "On the Way to the Living God" (publ. VU University Press).
In the first half of his thesis, he offers a "cathartic reading" ("cathartics reading") of Bavinck: the story of Bavinck's struggle to tell readers he extends a mirror to face their own struggle.
The research is based in Bavinck on correspondence with his university friend Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and texts that have not previously been published or been forgotten (were lost). "My image of Bavinck was that he entered the Reformed denomination of his life-time, but I soon discovered that his horizon was much larger, and that brought him to battle with them. He writes concerning his "naive childlike faith about his lost soul" and even an unspoken desire becomes detectible "that the Scripture might be true, that the new criticism could be right."
Two sections of the dissertation is devoted to the concluding chapter of Philosophy of Revelation (1908-09, Stone Lectures at Princeton Theoligical Seminary). "Bavinck argues that the modern evolutionary worldview of man without hope in the world makes and points to the cross as the place where we see God's will to save the world."
Wits dissertation consists of six essays that that are both scientific and personal. "My method of theology is not descriptive or prescriptive, but inviting. I begin the book with a short walk through post-Christian Amsterdam, the city in which I've lived for seven years and where life seems to be without God. Bavinck called the unchurched neiborhood one of the greatest evils of his time, but it has since risen spectacularly. In this context, I based on Psalm 42 at the invitation of the heart's desire to be understood as a thirst for the living God. "
De Wit will not prove the existence of God, but explains: only a God who really is the deepest thirst of the heart can fill it. "Christians and atheists can therefore stand side by side when debunking gods which are no-gods at all. Bavinck more so than I am open to trying the natural world to explain. While I do the invitation to the world of signs and references to the living God to see. When we open with two eyes, a scientific and a religious eye of reality, we can see depth. "
Now, besides many delicious to see much harm, he says. "The brokenness of the references may raise the question whether they really refer to God. The Christian faith at its core, however, shows that this is indeed possible: it knows the revelation of the Lord of glory, without form or glory on the cross. "
After studying theology in Utrecht, Durham and Tübingen, De Wit worked at the International Reformed Theological Institute (IRTI) at the Free University. Today he teaches in the service of the GZB, Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo.
Since the revolution of January 25, De Wit writes regularly blogs about life in Egypt. "The revolution has cawzed many Egyptian Christians to feel are more involved in their country and people as a whole. Simultaneously, they are concerned. The future will have to learn what is to be the outcome of the permanent revolution. "
Amsterdam and Cairo, according to De Wit, are both post-Christian: In Egypt, the Gospel of the cross was largely supplanted by Islam; in the Netherlands by a secular worldview. "But you will also find that secularization in Cairo and Amsterdam includes many Muslims. This double challenge of "post-Christian" deserves further reflection. Life on the road to the living God always follows the narrow path between religiosity and searching disbelief. The exciting question remains: is it nonsense, profanity, or truth when we say that Christ is the Crucified [and risen and ascended] wisdom of the living God revealed? "
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Academics: Christian Philosophy: The Enlightenment - scrutinized and evaluated by two Christian philosophers
-
-
Rodopi's New Titles
includes a new book by
Leonard Sweet (Catholic, analytic philosophy) and
Hendrik Hart (Reformed, neo-calvinian, reformational philosophy)
-
-
Rodopi's New Titles
includes a new book by
Leonard Sweet (Catholic, analytic philosophy) and
Hendrik Hart (Reformed, neo-calvinian, reformational philosophy)
-
 | Responses to the Enlightenment. An Exchange on Foundations, Faith, and Community. by William Sweet & Hendrik Hart Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2012, XIV, 294 pp.  |
Series: Value Inquiry Book Series 241 Philosophy and Religion Since the time of the Enlightenment in Western Europe, discussions of faith and reason have often pitted the believer against the skeptic, the theist against the atheist, and the person of one faith against the person of no professed faith. But the relation of reason to faith has been a matter of debate among believers as well. There are those who hold that religious faith can be proven or supported by rational argument. Others say that to try to give reasons and arguments does violence to religious faith, or opens it to misunderstanding and doubt, or trivializes it. Responses to the Enlightenment: An Exchange on Foundations, Faith, and Community is a dialogue between Hendrik Hart and William Sweet, two philosophers who identify themselves as Christians, and who seek to respond to the challenges of the Enlightenment and its legacy. The authors approach the relation of faith to reason, however, in very different ways: Hart from the perspective of the Calvinian tradition and postmodern philosophy, Sweet from the Catholic tradition and analytic philosophy. Among the topics discussed are the nature of religious faith and of reason, liberalism and orthodoxy in religion, the relation of religious experience and rationality, and building community in a religiously and culturally pluralistic world. This exchange presents two distinctive perspectives to some of the major challenges of the reason to religious belief, but seeks to find common ground between them. Contents Kenneth A. Bryson: Editorial Foreword Preface Hendrik Hart: Reason and Religion Hendrik Hart: Liberalism, Pluralism, and Lived Faith William Sweet: Anti-Foundationalism and the Nature of Religious Belief Hendrik Hart: Faith as Trust and Belief as Intellectual Credulity William Sweet: Faith, Belief, and Religious Truth William Sweet: Discourse and Religious Truth William Sweet: Religious Belief, Meaning, and Argument William Sweet: Final Vocabularies and Building Communities William Sweet: Religious Belief and Community Hendrik Hart: Sorting Out Reason Hendrik Hart: Focused in Faith: The Epistemology of Faith as a Way of Knowing Hendrik Hart: The Give-and-Take of Cross-Traditional Discourse William Sweet: Distinguishing to Unite: Reason, Religion, and the Legacy of the Enlightenment Works Cited Appendix About the Authors Index | |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
