What’s Going on With Me

I haven’t post a blog entry for awhile but that doesn’t mean that I’ve lost interest in blogging. I have several topics I want to write about, but I thought for now I would give a snapshot of what’s going on in my life.

The sovereign will of God is mysterious, yet when I look back, His plan is incredible. During the past couple of years, I planned to continue my theological education at least through the M.Div. level and hopefully through the PhD. level. After finishing my MA at BJU, I really desired to go to another seminary this fall and continue in an M.Div. program. I checked into several seminaries but for whatever reasons I practically could not attend at least not now. Since I’m single and I don’t possess any marketable job skills, I’m limited to going somewhere I have a connection. I definitely wanted to leave Greenville for different reasons, so realistically I was limited to one seminary, Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Virginia Beach, VA. 

I have a couple of really close friends in Virginia Beach whom I love dearly, but the biggest problem I had, among other things, was that I really wasn’t sure about the quality of education at Central. I would love to go to the same theological seminary as my friends, but I don’t think that should be the primary factor for choosing a theological seminary which was basically the primary reason I would go to Central. Since I don’t really know the profs at Central, my chief impressions of the seminary come from the several people I know who attend or had attended the seminary. After much pray, two visits, and much discussion with various people, I was still unsure about committing the next two or three years in Virginia Beach. This left me in a sort of bind for several months because realistically I had no other immediate options for seminary. Finally, I decided to go to Virginia Beach after all because at least I would be with my good friends and become involved in a good local church and hopefully finish out an M.Div. in a couple of years and then move on.

My parents, whose advice I greatly value, suggested that maybe I should learn a skill that would be useful in future cross-cultural ministry and also learn a skill that was a marketable job. After I graduated from BJU this last May, I really thought about this advice and concluded that I could best use my time these next couple of years acquiring such a skill especially since I have the time and opportunity. In the last couple of weeks, I have applied for the associate of nursing program at Greenville Technical College. I’m still waiting for them to process all my paperwork, but hopefully I can start my studies to become a Registered Nurse at Greenville Tech the Spring of 2009.  The RN program at Greenville Tech is a two year program, so afterwards I hope to continue my theological education or possibly launch into a foreign cross-cultural ministry.

I’m looking forward academically to studying something besides theology. I love studying theology, but right now I need theology to become a personal, relational pursuit rather than an primarily academic pursuit (not that the two are necessarily exclusive). I’m also excited about the possibility of really becoming involved in a local church in Greenville. Right now, I’m working full-time at the BJU Press printshop and preparing to teach in and travel to Asia this July. In regards to this blog, I hope to write a couple of book reviews including a review of Bob Kauflin’s new book, Worship Matters.

All I can say is that God leads in mysterious and unimaginable ways. Soli Deo gloria. 

Why Worship Matters

Here’s my response to Bob Kauflin’s Blog Worship Matters.

Worship matters because God matters – a simple, yet infinite reason for true worship. Only God can declare that He is perfectly holy, uniquely different from all His creation. He alone fashioned our universe ex nihilo. He alone sustains all around us – all existing because He spoke. Yet even in His holiness, He loves us who are rebels, bent against Him and naturally exalting ourselves. He proved His love through the bloody sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who received God’s wrath against us and reconciled us to our Creator God forever. Worship matters because God infinitely matters in this universe.

The Evangelical Manifesto

A group of self-defined Evangelicals released a manifesto on a website this last Wednesday, May 7, 2008. The Evangelical Manifesto seeks to rescue the Evangelical identity especially in light of recent social and political changes and especially in light of the United States presidential election. I think the authors did a decent job of defining their identity as centered on the “Good News.” They are careful to declare that right belief must connect with right behavior. They clearly state that Evangelicalism is not associated with a particular leader or political group. The authors are careful to distinguish between Liberalism and Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.

I think that for the most part that the Manifesto provides a good definition of an Evangelical, but I’m not completely comfortable with everything. The Manifesto is blatantly for American Evangelicals. I also think the Manifesto is so broad that it really doesn’t help define much of anything. I think the distinction between Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism and Liberalism is passé because the Fundamentalism of fifty years ago when Evangelicalism was birthed is today much different and more fragmented (and sometimes hard to identify as historic Fundamentalism). In fact, the Manifesto seems to imply that Fundamentalists were a spin-off group from the Evangelicals when in fact the Evangelicals were Fundamentalists. Liberals also are a much different group. Just look at a some brands of the emerging church. Despite this, the Manifesto is a good attempt to redefine a movement that defies definition. Since I think the Manifesto primarily targets the media, I guess it serves its purpose as a general declaration that Evangelicalism is not a political movement but rather a spiritual movement with civil obligations. Although in my opinion, the active declaration of the bloody sacrifice of the God-Man Jesus as a substitute for sinners under God’s curse and his supernatural, physical resurrection will never be acceptable to the world at large.  

A brief roundup of the response to the Evangelical Manifesto                (by Between Two Worlds blog)

A detailed summary of the Evangelical Manifesto                                   (by Between Two Worlds blog)

Bock on the Evangelical Manifesto                                                          (Bock is a signatory of the Manifesto)

Mouw on the Evangelical Manifesto                                                (Mouw is president of Fuller Theological Seminary which was the birthplace of modern Evangelicalism)

Os Guinness at Christianity Today on the Evangelical Manifesto    (Christianity Today is the main Evangelical journal which was founded to become the Evangelical Christian Century)

The Aesthetic Experience: Why the Grand Canyon is beautiful and concrete walls are not – Part 2

Emotional Nature of the Aesthetic Experience

The primary elements involved in an aesthetic experience are primarily emotional in nature rather than tangible propositions or ideas. The ability to please greatly affects the aesthetic experience. But the aesthetic experience is deeper than mere hedonistic properties. The quality of the emotion is more important than the pleasure produced by the observed object. These emotive elements of the aesthetic experience culminate in an intuitive or instinctive emotion of completion or fulfillment. 

 

Rational Component of the Aesthetic Experience

What place then does the rational or the thinking play in the aesthetic experience? I propose that the rational enhances or refines the aesthetic experience. All humans naturally by intuition or instinct have common aesthetic experiences especially in relation to natural wonders. But the student of the arts refines and “specializes” his aesthetic intuition through study of both history and art skill. The result is almost a customized aesthetic experience. For instance, an object of art may not be appreciated by the common person, but the art specialist will appreciate the object of art in a much more enhanced and refined manner. The same is true of non-artisans; we (I include myself as unskilled in art or art history) refine our aesthetic experience by what we study or constantly expose ourselves to whether formally or informally, knowingly or unknowingly. Thus while I enjoy a beautiful scene in nature like most people, I also enjoy reading good literature because I purposely study and have learned to enjoy the well-thought (or not so well-thought) written medium. Others thoroughly enjoy well done classical music and opera. I’m convinced these are primarily culturally learned (rationally refined) aesthetic experiences.