Google maps is awesome.

The Christian Blogosphere now knows what I’ve known for a few days: GodBlogCon 2005 will be hosted by the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University. The official announcement is up over at Andrew Jackson’s blog. How, you ask, was I privy to such information?

Simple.

I’ve been organizing the effort at Biola to bring GodBlogCon here at Torrey. Over the next few months I will be planning details for GodBlogCon 2005. This means that until the event occurs (or shortly thereafter), my time is going to be drastically reduced by the new job. I am considering suspending my blogging activities until then, but have not decided yet. Your prayers would be appreciated for both me and my beautiful fiance as I undertake this task. I am daunted, to be sure, but excited.

Christian apologist Peter Kreeft visited Biola University this weekend as a guest of the Torrey Honors Institute. Kreeft has written numerous books in various styles on numerous subjects including apologetics, heaven, prayer, Catholicism and Aquinas. His next work (and the subject of tonight’s lecture) will be on the philosophy of Tolkien.

It’s hard to understate how impressed I was by Kreeft himself. He is gracious, humorously self-deprecating, gentle and intelligent. In a lecture on building a culture of life, Kreeft surprisingly implored the audience to do nothing. That’s right–do nothing. Kreeft’s thesis was simply that we live in a culture of people who are (to use Eliot’s phrase) distracted from distraction by distraction. The culture of life is not built through work, but through contemplation of Jesus. Kreeft offered Mother Theresa and her Missionaries of Charity as an example, who apparently pray for two hours before ministering. Kreeft also pointed out that the proliferation of technology has actually decreased the amount of leisure time we have, rather than increased it. Practically, Kreeft admonished us to give our time to Christ, beginning with 15 minutes of prayer and contemplation per day. Unlike appeals I have heard in the past, Kreeft emphasized that God multiplies all gifts given to him, just as he multiplied the fish and loaves when he fed the 5000. Kreeft’s conclusion was (in essence) that Mother Theresa and her order were (and are!) as productive as they are contemplative and prayerful–the relationship between these two is one of one-way direct causation.

If you ever get the opportunity to listen to Kreeft, take it. I was challenged and inspired by both him and his words. He is someone who obviously speaks from experience.

Paul Musgrave has an excellent summary of recent developments in East Asia.

The East Asian security story is the most consequential of this decade. China is rising to power; North Korea’s regime is clinging for life to a nuclear life raft; South Korea is moving away from the United States; Japan is seeking to counter Chinese and Korean economic and military potential; and the United States is seeking to preserve American power in the region. The flashpoints described above will remain live issues as long as the equilibria in the region are unstable.

Bold claim for a decade that includes 9/11. Read the whole thing.

“One time a cop pulled me over for running a stop sign.
He said, ‘Didn’t you see the stop sign?’
I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t believe everything I read.’”

Mark Olson at Pseudo-Polymath offers this reflection on the virtues of the quill:

A good fountain pen has finely engraved metal, is machined to fine tolerances, and writes smoothly and well. I still find it amazing for instance, that the groove cut in the nib is cut with a stone cutting wheel. Now granted some people, collectors, take the whole thing to a different arena (financially as well) which interests me little. I like the feel and the idea of using the pens, nothing more. A good well maintained bicycle has some of the same appeal. It is a simple machine, but made to work well, with fine tolerances.

Indeed. I was told by an Oxford professor from Bavaria that all Bavarian students are required to write with quills through the eighth grade (equivalent). She praised them for helping her develop the fine motor skills that allow the good handwriting Olson and I lack.

Stacy Harp of MediaSoul has started a new company designed to promote books through the blogosphere. She states, “We exist to help people in the media, such as authors, filmmakers, musicians and others get their message out to a targeted audience of consumers.Using carefully selected and trusted Bloggers to review and promote products, Mind & Media is the most affordable source of advertising online.”

This is the sort of innovative marketing that GraceHill Media has utilized for movies they promote. Members of this blog have benefited from their programs twice. Harp’s announcement raised these concerns from Adrian Warnock: “I wonder how media will take bloggers honesty- what if I am given a book to review on emerging church and totally diss it? Will I get another one? Will they realise that dissing something gives other bloggers a chance to leap to its defence and actually amplifies the level of attention, or will they move onto someone more amenable?”

I would think that any writer/filmmaker/musician would be happy to know that what they produced is rubbish. “Word of mouth” promotion happens around relatively unknown books that are quality, and quality products will survive a few bad reviews. On the other hand, a bad product won’t be saved by a few good reviews It seems that the media has nothing to lose by promoting their products through blogging, seeing as if their product is quality, “word of mouth” marketing will happen faster, will be more permanent (the posts don’t go away), and will reach more people.

Check her company out and if your interested in working with her, let her know!

The U.S. Bureau of the Census conducted a study on the amount of literary reading (as opposed to electronic) in America. They bottom line is that reading has declined across all age and social categories, and that this decline has accelerated within the last several years. “Reading is not a timeless, universal capability. Advanced literacy is a specific intellectual skill and social habit…” For the comments of chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts board, Dana Goia, see here.

“I have this existential map. It has “you are here” written all over it.” -Steven Wright

I want to write a book called “Listening can save your marriage.” I am not married, personally, but I know the power of listening and the equal and opposite power of not listening.

“Listening” to whom? You ask?

To God, and to your fellow man, for starters.

I find as I go about my day that oh-so-few people are really practiced at looking me in the eye, shutting up, and taking in what I’m. I am not the master at this, but I’m trying my best to learn. Sometimes I feel like the only one.

We all have an “inner conversation.” As Jerry Seinfield called it, “that voice in the back of your head saying “What did I forget to do?’” How often does yours pause so as to take in some new bit of information, some new sight, or sound, or thought?

I don’t mean pause like “we hear the crickets chirping” pause, but pause to attentively and actively ingest some part of the real world.

I will assert to you that the cultivated ability to attend to the world, another person, or yourself… Simply to attend, without speaking… Is one of the single-most important abilities human beings have. It effects all your friendships, all of your business relationships, and, for those of you who buy into his existence, your relationship with God.

By way of facts, for starters, research identifies that marital satisfaction is closely related to sexual satisfaction. Sexual satisfaction is necessarily correlated to emotional satisfaction. And emotional satisfaction rests almost entirely on how well or poorly one person successfully listens to the other.

That’s why I am so motivated. If you want to join me in my ear-enlarging efforts, I encourage you to pick up this handy little skill and see how it works for you. I will give you everything you need to be off and running. Step one: Practice.

There.

Like everything else, from knitting to talking to riding a bike, the art of listening comes with time and practice.

Even if your attention span is 3-seconds, focus on something, a book, a piece of music, a friend, for 4-seconds at a time until your head hurts. Then rest. Repeat this activity until 4-seconds becomes your natural, effortless attention span, then try 5. Continue until you notice that all of the people in your life love and appreciate you and feel heard, valued, and understood.

This is a crash course, I understand, but I thought I’d better start somewhere. I challenge you to test my theory. Let me know if it works or not.

Dennis Prager wrote an article arguing that liberal “values” are based on feelings while conservatives have reasons for their values. He is using sweeping generalizations that are nevertheless helpful so long as we continue to engage arguments by the left, which they do indeed have.

Alexander Pushkin is often referred to as Russia’s national poet. Basically, as Virgil was to Romans so is Pushkin to Russians. A major theme in his legendary “novel in verse”, Eugene Onegin, is that of fate. The main character, Eugene, is often described as “playing his part” and fate rules over the actions of the characters. Pushkin frequently alludes to the lack of autonomy in the characters’ lives as they act out what has already been scripted for them.

The key example of this is the relationship between the novel’s hero, Onegin, and the heroine, Tatyana (who, incidentally, Dostoyevsky called “the apotheosis of the Russian woman). Tatyana, as her romantic 18th century French novels prescribe, fell madly in love with Onegin. She somewhat indecorously revealed her love to Onegin, who subsequently rejected her. As things turn out, however, Onegin runs into Tatyana later on and she has become a beautiful and elegant lady. Naturally, he falls madly in love with her, but she has married according to her mother’s wishes. The man she has married is a well-to-do general who was maimed in a war.

From Tatyana’s perspective, her husband certainly did not make her blissfully happy and her former flame charged back into her life and wanted her. Fate has struck and the hour has come for Tatyana to follow the script.

However, Pushkin shocks his reader (at least me!) and Tatyana rejects Onegin declaring, ‘I love you (why should I dissemble?); / But I am now another’s wife, / And I’ll be faithful all my life.’ This beautiful assertion of marital faithfulness is the only time I can find in the poem that a character breaks out of his or her scripting and acts in an unpredictable, free manner.

In this work about modern man and his attempt to deal with freedom and interact with society, Pushkin turns at the end to the ancient conception of freedom, which is to do what is moral and upright. The truly moral, selfless action ends up undoing the fetters of the scripted character and Tatyana emerges pure and bright. This story beckons the contemporary American reader to consider the nature of freedom and gives a clear picture of the abuse of freedom in Eugene.

I highly recommend this novel, but be sure to get the translation by James E. Falen published by Oxford University Press, 1995.

Naturally, Dr. Reynolds offers a unique and insightful perspective:

We are people of the Book. We cannot accept a post-literate culture
anymore than we leave pre-literate cultures alone. We must teach all God’s
people to read. Media other than books cannot contain arguments. Media other
than books cannot transmit the kind of information on which modern science and
culture is based. If we allow evangelical young people to stop reading, we doom
them to follow the readers. On the other hand, if we keep reading in high
numbers and secularists stop, they may be trendy, but we will end up with all
the money and power. It is an old lesson.

Making a new translation with hip new ads is easier than teaching kids
to read. It is cheaper than supporting our local public school literacy
programs. It is simpler than opening reading classes, poorly attended at best,
for those students we can help escape post-literacy. But ask yourself this: what
is a more Christian activity than teaching a young man or woman to read God’s
Word?