Owner: America's Young Theologian - The Life and Theology of Dan Morehead URL:http://americasyoungtheologian.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:59:05 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: America's Young Theologian seeks to bring you, not simply music, poetry and mirth, but theological biography and biographical theology. Site statistics:Click here
misc | Happy Monday Morning! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It's 9am, which in Aberdeen, Scotland at this time of year means that it's still half dark outside. Winter has come, not in any dramamatic way, no snow on the ground, nothing like that, but the open field of the park across the steet was silvered with morning's frost. I'll be in the library today reworking a paper on desire from a couple years ago that deals with Aristotle, Aquinas, Martha Nussbaum, and to a lesser degree, Augustine. Classes are done as of last friday, so the library has abbreviated hours and I thought it best to be up early. It only required setting three alarms on my mobile phone to accomplish that. Here's a song that sounds like Monday
morning to me:Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) was just on one of the covers of STOPSMILING. In the interview she was asked, "You've become a recording artist almost by chance. Have you got any sense what you would be doing if not this?"Her response: "I don't know if I'd be alive. If I had stayed in Atlanta, I'm sure I w Read more:Happy
, Morning
blog | The Disappearing Blogger Navbar 1970-01-01 00:59:59 With a little help from Avatar, AYT now has a delightful little piece of code operational. Thanks!Check out his post here.Now whether or not this is a TOS violation, he responds:Well, the way i see it, it is not, becuase the nabvar is intact in all it´s funtionality and original look, and every single user can see it.That´s why i think this is the optimus blogger navbar hack, this way it doesn´t disrupt the look of your blog and you comply not only to a good blogetiquette (more on this later) but to your google contract. becuase as stated in the very last message from a blogger representative, in this case you have not:1. Removed your navbar,2. You have not altered it´s functions,3. You have not limited it´s use.Thanks again!Update: I've not figured out how to get rid of the Navbar now that I've switched to Blogger
beta.[America's Young Theologian][Blogging] Read more:Disappearing
article | Why Imagination Matters 1970-01-01 00:59:59 On the Soup Line, Endive and OctopusBy KIM SEVERSONDecember 20, 2006EVEN at the soup kitchen, everyone's a critic.At a church on the Upper West Side, Michael Ennes has earned a reputation for serving what may be the best soup kitchen meals in town. The multicourse lunch that Michael Ennes cooked in the basement of Broadway Presbyterian Church last week started with a light soup of savoy and napa cabbages. The endive salad was dressed with basil vinaigrette. For the main course, Mr. Ennes simmered New Jersey bison in wine and stock flavored with fennel and thickened with olive oil roux.But some diners thought the bison was a little tough, and the menu discordant."He's good, but sometimes I think the experimentation gets in the way of good taste," said Jose Terrero, 54. Last year, Mr. Terrero made a series of what he called inappropriate financial decisions, including not paying his rent. He now sleeps at a shelter. He has eaten at several New York City soup kitchens, and highly
Merry Christmas! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 [Picture of Southwark Cathedral, London]Horn at hip went my love ridingriding the echo downinto the silver dawn.MerryChristmas
![America's Young Theologian][Christmas] Read more:Merry Christmas
news | America Wins! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 With Christmas over, can we take the gloves off? Remember that in a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. America
was scared. After all, America hadn't experienced a World War like Europe did, or a Vietnam as the Vietnamese did, or even a Beirut. Not to be put in a box, or be outdone, on Christmas day America proved that it was better than all the little countries of the world! In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll of 9/11 and we're still racking up numbers. Take that Bin Laden! We're better at killing ourselves than you are! Now I can rest again, knowing that what I have to fear are not terrorists, but being in the U.S. military. Thank you for that sense of safety. And to think that the Middle East thought fondly of the U.S. a hundred years ago being convinced that America was anti-colonial. Not anymore. Now we'll come to your doorstep just to prove that nobody kill
prayer | Holy Innocents 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."
poem | New Year's Day 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I read this poem last night as I was crawling into bed around 3am and it seemed fitting for a new year (despite being more about spring).The TreesThe trees are coming into leafLike something almost being said;The recent buds relax and spread,Their greenness is a kind of grief.Is it that they are born againAnd we grow old? No, they die too.Their yearly trick of looking newIs written down in rings of grain.Yet still the unresting castles threshIn fullgrown thickness every May.Last year is dead, they seem to say,Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.--Philip Larkin, High Windows[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Poetry] Read more:New Year
blog | Slight Change In Layout 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I spent a little time today reworking the layout of the blog. Nothing is drastically new, though it should be easier to bookmark the blog, subscribe to the feed, and add AYT as a Technorati favorite. And if you're reading this, have a blog, and haven't linked here, throw me a bone. As I think we all know, I'm not that skilled with crafting websites. With that in mind, how does it look. Any sidebars jumping to the bottom of the page, etc.? Even though I spent more time on form than content, I need to pass these two links along. The first is about Paul House, a man who shouldn't be on death row. The second displays why the role of the bishop is important, and a bishop that has his head on straight.[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Blog] Read more:Slight
, Change
quote | Language As The Limit Of Interpretive Play 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "The claim that we can make a literary text mean whatever we like is one sense quite justified. What after all is there to stop us? There is literally no end to the number of contexts we might invent for its words in order to make them signify differently. In another sense, the idea is a simple fantasy bred in the minds of those who have spent too long in the classroom. For such texts belong to language as a whole, have intricate relations to other linguistic practices, however much they might also subvert and violate them; and language is not in fact something we are free to do what we like with. If I cannot read the word 'nightingale' without imagining how blissful it would be to retreat from urban society to the solace of Nature, then the word has a certain power for me, or over me, which does not magically evaporate when I encounter it in a poem. This is part of what is meant by saying that the literary work constrains our interpretations of it, or that its meaning is to so Read more:Limit
music | Discuss A Song: The Blow's "Parentheses" 1970-01-01 00:59:59 You know the rules: AYT selects a song he loves, you listen, you comment on the song. Simple enough. Let me know what you think.For those who aren't on my email list, this track free online, in case you want to participate. Download the track here.AYT Notes: "You're not a baby if you can feel the world." The Blow is yet another reason to love Portland. I like indie pop perhaps more than rock, so I guess I can't complain that I wish this track had a little something extra to go along with the head-bobbing rhythm and hand claps. Perhaps I just find it too repetitive, but don't get me wrong I like the song or it wouldn't be here. Hand claps improve almost any song, yes, even Mozart...try it next time you're at the symphony. I included the video as well, though, the song is significantly better than the video. [See below.]This week's single:Parenthesesby The Blow[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Music][Mp3][The Blow]
film | Review of Casino Royale 1970-01-01 00:59:59 If you tired of James Bond films during the reign of Pierce Brosnan, you're not alone. However, if you were to line up Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Sean Connery, and the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, asking who does not look like James Bond, I might answer the new guy. This probably has more to do with his hair color, though one friend commented that Craig looked more like a boxer than the sophisticated spy. Not being overly polished and squeaky clean is part of what makes this the greatest James Bond film since Connery played Britain's best.The movie begins even before James Bond has been awarded 007 status providing a less accomplished, less proven Bond than the one we have encountered in the bloated and sagging Bond films of recent memory. There's something rough around the edges in Craig's Bond from which the film benefits. Craig has said, "I think there has to be an element of cruelty. Certain things he does should be questionable. I thi Read more:Casino
, Royale
, Casino Royale
poem | Cana Revisited by Seamus Heaney 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Cana Revisited
No round-shouldered pitchers here, no stewardsTo supervise consumption or suppliesAnd water locked behind the taps impliesNo expectation of miraculous words.But in the bone-hooped womb, rising like yeast,Virtue intact is waiting to be shown,The consecration wondrous (being their own)As when the water reddened at the feast.--Seamus
HeaneyI picked up Heaney's little 1969 book Door into the Dark in a little used book store in Dublin. I've been thinking a lot about why I think poetry is important. Word-care is an important notion to me since language allows us to interact with the world around us, or, to be in a world at all. There is something more than this though, something not unrelated but more determined by what we call aesthetic. Still, I know that the aesthetic bears ideology and there's a classism that I'd like to avoid that seems to creep in when recommending that people read poetry.[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Poetry][Seamus Heaney]
Plans... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 So, the school year ended and with it my time in Durham, North Carolina. I spent three years in Durham at Duke University (see pictures below; including a one semester sojourn at Princeton Univeristy--yet another lovely gothic wonderland). My name appeared in the graduation materials, goodbyes were said, boxes start to fill. The plans: Move all worldly belongings from North Carolina to Chicago storing them at the not-so-climate-controlled Morehead Family Garage; a week in Chicago; fly to Freiburg, Germany; learn Deutsch -- June/July; back in the States -- August. Follow and the road will lead...[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Duke University]
Saying Goodbye... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or: on loving, leaving, and some lessons learned) The end of the school year occasioned another round of goodbyes. Having moved three times in one year [Duke to Princeton; Princeton back to Duke (though a very different Duke than I had left); and now on the verge of Duke to Chicago], I've had these emotions before, especially the sadness that occasions questioning of choices made. I had the same feelings when I was leaving Princeton and the people I had grown to love there.(From L to R: Lucy, Abby, Dave, Emily; Reno)Feelings ranging from, "What the hell am I doing (leaving a place and people I love)?" to "How's it going to be?" to a simple "I'll miss you." I've done this enough that I've had the conversations before. The conversations that say goodbye, the conversations about staying in touch, the conversations that highlight the fact that sadness in leaving speaks plenty of one's affections and the blessings one has received. As I've commented to friends, Durham feels like a b Read more:Goodbye
misc | Videos Of Music In Film 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Last night with some friends I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind again. I love the film. I love Michel Gondry's directorial brilliance and Kaufman's script that has one on the verge of mental vertigo.[Kate Winslet with Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry in front.]Something I had not seen, however, was The Polyphonic Spree's video included on the DVD. I started listening to the traveling circus which is The Polyphonic Spree in April 2005. This is a good song and the video is captivating if not a little creepy. [America's Young Theologian][Film][Music
][Eternal Sunshine...]
quote | Why Justice Is Not Enough 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "Rational self-interest and social reciprocity are genuine goods in proportion, but when they are the central political motivation, justice itself atrophies. The surest way to secure peace may be to work for justice, but the surest way to promote justice is not to value it too highly or to aim at it to the neglect of other virtues, such as love...Otherwise we forget those human ties that bind - compassion, mercy, forgiveness - and reduce our life together to contractual obligation or historical convention." [1]==========[1] Timothy P. Jackson, "Prima Caritas, Inde Jus: Why Augustinians Shouldn't Baptize John Rawls," Journal for Peace and Justice
Studies, 59.[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Politics][Timothy Jackson] Read more:Enough
film | Review of Pan's Labyrinth 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "I consider Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth
, and Babel sister films, three films that speak about similar themes. I think that the theme of ideology as a world between the communication of people is a common theme of the three films."--Alfonso Cuaron, director of "Children of Men."Guillermo del Toro sets Pan's Labyrinth in 1944 Spain, and like The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, has a militaristic point of departure for his fantasy. However, Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) never actually departs from this situation. Del Toro's fantasy follows a little girl, Ofelia, as she travels with her pregnant mother to live with her mother's new husband, a harsh man and a captain in Franco's military, in a mountainous rural area of northern Spain. The story weaves her fantasy world - full of fairies, fauns, and magic - with the oppression of the post-war Fascist regime.Pan's Labyrinth is not a movie for children and one would hope that the viewing public realizes that fantasy a
fun | Pantless Friends And A Songbird 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I'm a little late in posting about this, but in case you didn't ride the NYC subways on January 13th, you missed No Pants 2K7. ImprovEverywhere puts together random organized action/fun. I'm happy to say that a former L'Arche assistant got in on the action [Julia pictured at left].Improv Everywhere No Pants 2007Originally uploaded by crnphoto.com.Here's a fun video montage of the event:In other news, I went and saw Ray LaMontagne last night in Aberdeen. While I enjoyed his performance, I was more captivated by Leona Naess. I'd recommend listening to the song "Ghosts in the Attic" on her MySpace page. If anyone has an Mp3 of the song, could you please send it my way. Thanks. Happy Wednesday![America's Young Theologian][ImprovEverywhere][No Pants 2K7][Music][Leona Naess] Read more:Friends
, Songbird
quote | Death & The Dialectic Of Soul And Body 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "[I]n his creatureliness, for all its inner differentiation, [the human] may be a solid inner unity, a whole. That he is soul and body does not threaten him with an infinite contradiction which he would have to meet with an achievement of which only God is capable...Death is the final and conclusive result of the delusion in which man wants to be both creator and creature. In death as the unnatural division of soul and body this sin is paid for...The difference and antithesis between soul and body is as great in death as it can possibly be within the created world. In death man is only the spent soul of a spent body, and he cannot live at all unless the God who let him live and then die gives him new life." [1]=============[1] Karl Barth, CD III.2, 370.[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Karl Barth]
theology | Gandhi, Graffiti, and Christian Ethics 1970-01-01 00:59:59 If one looks at the percentage of the history of the United States that have been spent at war or is aware of our current disillusionment with our current war, then it makes sense why I'm frequently asked about my commitment to Christian
non-violence. I've promised to post a set of responses to questions I've received, a promise I intend to keep, but have not yet fulfilled. Elsewhere I have suggested that the killed or be killed scenarios that people often rhetorically paint may be the result of a limited imagination. Here, I'd like to point briefly to something that Mahatma Gandhi
and a UK graffiti artist, Paul Curtis aka Moose, have in common which might prove suggestive for Christian imagination.Everyone should be familiar with Gandhi's use of non-cooperation and peaceful resistance in his pursuit of justice. Like the Christian non-violence I support, Gandhi's ideas were anything but passive. He called for a nationwide protest against the Rowlatt Acts. This included the call t Read more:Graffiti
, Ethics
, theology
life | Back To Exercise 1970-01-01 00:59:59 After taking last year off from academic work, I'm rebuilding habits which got a little rusty in the meantime. As I mentioned about three weeks ago, I'm not smoking anymore. I went twelve days without smoking at all and have probably only had two and a half cigarettes in the last three weeks. Today, I started back at the gym after taking a year and a half off. It's funny that it takes wearing academic shoes to get me back in the gym. I find my thinking much clearer when I exercise and also find an increased ability to sit in one place and read. For those who have only known me in the last year and a half, you'll probably be amused by the thought of me in the gym. I'll be sore tomorrow. Read more:Exercise
travel | Summer 2007 1970-01-01 00:59:59 [AYT will be being spending the summer, or at least a good part of it, in Paris at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Let me know if you'll be in town.] Read more:Summer
misc | Returning To That Which I've Never Left 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have an exceedingly good memory. Some have expressed jealously at this, however, few consider the grace of forgetting. Memory is important, I suppose, but sometimes memory can, like a cluttered attic or basement, leave one's life difficult to sort through or navigate. Still, it can be meaningful to rummage through mental boxes.This weekend I returned to two things I've never left. I began my theological education in New Testament studies and found myself lecturing on 1 Thessalonians by age 20. When my first academic mentor retired, he gave me the pick of the books in his office. Since then an unread book has moved with me to every new academic home. Fast forward nearly a decade and I'm reading through Barth's Church Dogmatics III.2. When Barth gets to the section on 'Jesus, Lord of Time,' he comments that he has R. Bultmann, O. Cullmann, Marcus Barth and Fritz Buri in mind. So I figured I'd finally pull down and read Oscar Cullman's Christus und die Zeit. Cullmann's book ha
life | The Super Bowl Meets The UK 1970-01-01 00:59:59 There is nothing like staying up until 3am in the UK to watch your favorite team lose the Super
Bowl. Here are my top three reasons to travel to the UK to watch the Super Bowl:1) Announcers have no idea what they are talking about. One of the announcers was a rugby player that looked particularly confused.2) No US "Super Bowl" commercials, so instead of spending time in the office on Monday talking about favorite ads, you'll spend Monday watching the ads on the internet.3) A UK Super Bowl party culminates with everyone whipped into a frenzy of sleep.Book your travel now for next year's Super Bowl...or skip it and watch a favorite Super Bowl ad from a few years back: [America's Young Theologian][Theology][Super Bowl]
travel | Tales Of A Late April 1970-01-01 00:59:59 "Some things determine our lives through duration, some through frequency, some through singular impact.""I was going to call last weekend, but couldn't remember if you were out of town," she said. AYT really doesn't travel much at least in terms of duration, but amongst friends he has developed a reputation for slipping through turnstiles, hailing a plane, or finding a busline. The frenetic energy with which AYT undertakes his travels occasionally has drawn comparison to Kerouac's Dean Moriarty. However, as one writer friend pointed out, without "sex with strangers in strange kitchens and hands off best friends' girls and don't let the cops hit you on the neck dragging you out of box cars," the comparison rings a bit hollow. AYT's travel has more to do with showing up in the lives of friends than any silly romanticism of the open road; there is, however, some experiential capriciousness, some resistance to boredom which impels his movement.Though the road narrows as it approache Read more:Tales
, April
life | Seattle Has Nothing On Aberdeen 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Thanks, Wess for the blog help.In other news:1) I thought the above forecast demonstrates the variability that you come to expect in Aberdeen
.2) I'm headed down to Edinburgh with four friends on the Feb. 20th to see Bloc Party perform. I didn't expect to like their new album, but have in fact been enjoying it. Most listened to artists of the last week: The Hold Steady, Bloc Party, Deerhunter, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Girl Talk.3) Feb. 23-27 -- Florence, Italy -- Vacation.4) I was listening to Beirut yesterday and realized that I've seen them in concert. They were the 'mystery' band that opened for Calexico a few months back in Dublin. I think I enjoyed their set more than Calexico's. It's hard to always be in the know when you don't know that you know.[America's Young Theologian][Theology][Travel][Music][Bloc Party] Read more:Seattle
, Nothing
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