The paradox of the King of Peace

The baby that was born in the manger was not exactly what the Jews must have been expecting their Saviour to be.
There was a good sermon at church on sunday about Isaiah 9
⁶ For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given;
 and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
   and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
   to establish it and to uphold it
 with justice and with righteousness
   from this time forth and forevermore.
Jesus was not quite the Saviour that might be expected from this passage. A baby born in a stable in an obscure part of the Roman empire. In that context a Governor who brings peace would be the Pax Romana - a political "peace" that was brought by violence and fear. Wikipedia states:
Romans regarded peace not as an absence of war, but the rare situation that existed when all opponents had been beaten down beyond the ability to resist.^[3]

A secular education is an oxymoron

It is hard for me to believe that modern history and western literature can really be understood without a good knowledge of the Bible and the basics of theology; regardless of whether one believes it or not. I have even heard Richard Dawkins make this point! Alister McGrath has a relevant book, In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and how it changed a Nation, a language, and a culture.

However, it seems the new national curriculum proposed for Australia claims otherwise, as discussed here. Just before Christian there was a good opinion piece in the Australian, Bible study opens door to mastering literature.

The picture is from the Gospel of John in the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The interplay between football and politics

Football is art; but also politics, economics, and sociology.

I bought a great book for my family for Christmas, How Soccer explains the world: an unlikely theory of globalization. I really enjoyed reading the fascinating mix of history (both football and political). Each chapter focuses on a different country (Serbia, Scotland, Italy, Ukraine, Brazil, England, Spain, ...) and how football clubs become expressions of politics, racism, corruption, capitalism, and nationalism. As a purist who enjoys football for its own sake, I found aspects of the book are quite depressing. It almost makes you want to never watch a professional football game again.

The book is very well written and easy to read. The main weakness is it does not achieve what its title (and every chapter heading) claims. It does not really show that football explains anything. What it really does (and does it very well) is show how football reflects and interacts with significant social change such as globalisation. The book reflects the common fallacy of not distinguishing between causality and correlation. For example, the Rangers-Celtic rivalry/animosity in Glasgow does not cause or explain the origins of the ethnic (Irish vs. Scottish) / "religious" (Catholic vs. Protestant) animosity. I think the Rangers-Celtic rivalry provides a vehicle for some people to express some of these hatreds.

The book also illustrates humanities deep need for community, group identity, to be right, and to express passionate emotions. I sometimes think that being a fanatical fan can provide outlets that God intended us to express in worship and church life. 

The author is Franklin Foer, who was editor of The New Republic from 2006-2010. There is an interesting review in the New York Times. 

In conclusion, it is a great piece of literature and even if you are not a football fan, you will learn a lot about the world from reading it.

Barking at woolly priorities

I am a effusive dog owner. But sometimes things need to be kept in perspective.... We live in a very affluent age; many of us have too much time and money. I think this is reflected in an article in todays Wall Street Journal about how some owners of border collies [who have a very strong herding instinct] are renting sheep to keep them entertained!

An American Christmas icon

Last night my family followed an American Christmas tradition and watched the iconic movie It's a Wonderful Life. It is a "feel good" movie about the value of one life and how we can be a much greater blessing to people than we realise. It also highlights the personal cost to one man of standing for justice in a community.

It is interesting to see how banks, debt, and mortgages figured heavily in American life in the first half of the twentieth century, as they do this Christmas.

There is an interesting post about the movie on the Desiring God website. [My wife brought it to my attention]. As long as you don't use the movie to define your theology, your concept of heaven, or your notion of what Christmas is all about, then it is good harmless fun. But is such a separation really possible?

The end of parenting

Ross Campbell has written a number of books on parenting that my wife and I have found very helpful. We are currently reading Help your Twentysomething get a Life... It discusses the phenomena of the "boomerang generation" who are coming back to live in their parents homes as adults ... sometimes bringing with them emotional scars, large financial debts, little motivation, and young children...
Some of these problems are a consequence of modern affluence and a desire to "bless" our children, not realising that we are not helping them reach independence and maturity.
My children are not twenty yet, but the book does have helpful advice and warnings that are relevant.

The full Doonesbury comic from December 19 is here.

What can Christians expect of a secular society?

There is a good op-ed piece A Tough Season for Believers in the New York Times by Ross Douthat. Here are a couple of extracts:

University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter’s “To Change the World,” [is] an often withering account of recent Christian attempts to influence American politics and society....

Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity has become what Hunter calls a “weak culture” — one that mobilizes but doesn’t convert, alienates rather than seduces, and looks backward toward a lost past instead of forward to a vibrant future. In spite of their numerical strength and reserves of social capital, he argues, the Christian churches are mainly influential only in the “peripheral areas” of our common life. In the commanding heights of culture, Christianity punches way below its weight....

Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom — and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week.

It is great to see such issues being discussed in the "public square".
Indeed, if Western Christians read the book of Revelation we should not find the secular nature of  Christmas or of public policy hard, but to be expected.