Beauty (Pt.1)

Yesterday, I asked a good friend of mine to define “beauty.”

He said beauty is different for everyone. He also said there are different types of beauty (physical, emotional, social, and spiritual). While I agree with the latter, I disagree with the former. I think beauty is beauty and people will recognize it as such. Here’s what I mean by that:

I was driving to Sisters, Oregon two weekends ago. A long stretch of the drive is spent going through a mountain valley. On the way there, it was all snow, all white, cliffs and evergreens. On the way home, the temperature had risen 15 degrees. All the snow was melting and it was raining. So, on one side of the road was a river, raging and roaring. On the other side of the road was waterfall after waterfall, rushing down the steep cliffs and literally falling into the ditch on the side of the road. At a couple points, the water from the falls would gush onto the road, sweeping across into the river. And yes, I was driving in the daytime, so all was well and safe.

If you can picture such a drive, would you call it beauty?http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodreverendflash/5275329696/

Up the Ante!

In my Tuesday night class, we did a nifty in-class activity. As a result of this activity, I learned that I am longing for more enjoyment in life. I want to celebrate more, to dance spontaneously, to have outbursts of singing, to laugh uncontrollably, etc. Call me weird, but I also find a great deal of pleasure in writing. So, good for you, I will be writing more blogs. Celebration anyone?

Inception

If you haven’t seen Inception, watch it. It will blow your mind.

Ever since I watched the movie, I’ve been wanting to write about it, so here it goes:

What’s going on beneath the surface of this action-packed movie? Is it about the subconscious mind? Is it about the power of dreams? Is it about Alzheimer’s? Is it about the theory of relativity? Is it about corporate espionage? Is it about the importance of family? Is it about the possibilities of time travel? Is it about the power of an idea?

I don’t want to ruin the ending for those of you who haven’t watched it (but if you want to know, just watch the movie or read the article on Wikipedia). I guess I will simply ask the question: Was the ending satisfying? Was it enough? Did it get the point across? I know my answers, but I would like to hear yours. The director of the movie said he has never been asked about a part of a movie more than he has been asked about the ending of Inception. He also chuckles about it because, of course, he’s not giving them an answer; nor should he.

I’ll conclude with this: Ideas are powerful things. They are planted in our minds everyday. Pay attention to them. Ponder them. See if they are affecting and/or effecting your life.        

All Hail Schleiermacher!

“Christianity is not about religion; it’s about a relationship.” If you have run in Christian circles for the past ten years, or even if you have just run into a Christian in the past ten years, you’ve heard this little apothegm. I have grown very weary of hearing it, but I’ve always wondered where it came from and what philosophical thought it is promoting. After all, most pithy sayings are oversimplified attempts at summing up some great philosopher’s thought.

While I would love to set forth some philosophical tome, I realize this is a blog, which means if I don’t say what I want to say in three minutes, I’ve lost you. So, here it goes:

Immanuel Kant, a philosopher of the mid-to-late 1700s, tried to place Christianity in the realm of morality. God is beyond scientific, sense-based experience said Kant; God is to be found in morality. So, in a sense, Christianity is about being a good, ethical person. (Sound familiar?)

G.W.F. Hegel, a philosopher of the late 1700s and early 1800s, is famous for his influence on Karl Marx, which, for most Americans, gives Hegel a bad name. He actually did much more than influence Marx, but just as an aside, Marx fundamentally changed some of Hegel’s teachings to fit his own framework (shifting Hegelian thought from ideas to materials). But back to Hegel, he devised more than the famous dialectic of thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Hegel’s ideas on “Geist” and “truth as a process” are, in my estimation, worth pondering. While his idea that God comes to greater self-knowledge through history might be oddly contrived, his influence in other areas is tremendous. For example, if you think about how the educational system is set up, it operates on a Hegelian model–thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Research this issue, understand the views on both sides, then offer a nuanced third alternative. All of this is in an effort to make “progress” and discover “new knowledge.” (Sound familiar?)

Finally, you have Friedrich Schleiermacher, a favorite of Christians across the board–arguably. Rather than mankind finding God in morality (Kant), or God finding himself in history (Hegel), we all, as humankind, have this God-consciousness (Schleiermacher). We have this feeling, this sense, this awareness, that we are utterly dependent on God. Or, in more condensed vernacular, “we have this God-shaped hole in our heart.” How do solve the problem? In Schleiermacher’s view, experience is supreme; theology is all about experience–experiencing a relationship with God. (Hmm?)

What I see is this: 1. Many of us are living like Kantians–trying to be good, moral people. 2. Many of us are becoming Hegelians–trying to make progress and find new knowledge as we synthesize other people’s views. 3. Many of us are being told, or telling people, that life is about experience–and if you’re a Christian, life is about the experience of living in a relationship with God.

So…If you think you have a new idea, think again. Then, read some history. I say this to myself first, and then, to you.