True Confessions

Should 14 year olds be reading Augustine's Confessions? But of course:

http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2011/01/26/augustines-confessions-for-middle-schoolers/

The Pleasure of Damnation

One of the guilty pleasures of the Faust tradition is how much fun the Faust set-up can be. Berlioz's damnation of Faust, for instance, is just pure entertainment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBFfoZKylbA&feature=related

(I don't know what is up with the formatting: I can't get the link to embed properly. Sorry.)

Scaring Ourselves Silly

The Faust legend has been one of the most potent of the modern era. Though Marlowe kicked it off with his play, it really wasn't until Goethe got hold of the story that the narrative blasted off and has not come back down yet. The story of the man who wagered his soul has burned its way through opera, novels, films, comic books, and rock music. Much of the result has been awful (for instance, the hilariously bad film Faustus: Love of the Damned), but some of it has turned out quite well, such as "The Mephisto Waltz" by Listz.

We love playing around with Faust and Mephistophiles, telling stories that edge close to the edge of evil but which pull back at the last minute, like the ersatz fear induced by roller coasters. The Faust legend is a pile of fun, yet there's something curious about our love of this story that is so central to modern Western culture. Most of the Faust narratives depict evil, an evil that has been denatured usually by a romantic love which almost always saves Faust at the last minute.

We are entranced by the power of Love to overcome evil, but we seem fixated on Romantic Love as the source of saving power. Maybe we need to read some more Augustine on True Love. Augustine vs. Faust. Now there's an exciting cage match.

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine

"But we should not think that we ought not to learn literature because Mercury is said to be its inventor, nor that because pagans dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue and adored in stones what should be performed in the heart, we should therefore avoid justice and virtue. Rather, every good and true Christian should understand that wherever he may find truth, it is the Lord's."

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, BK II: XVIII

The Medium is the Message

In his book Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns, T. David Gordon writes:

"No one has ever written a requiem, for instance, to be accompanied by three people playing guitars. Why? Because death is still . . . a fairly serious matter, and guitar-playing just doesn't sound serious. It sounds like casual amusement."

Gordon goes on to make the exception for classical guitar, but his point is that in present day culture the overwhelming majority of people associate guitar playing with casual entertainment and hear guitar playing only in that context.

Gordon's book--along with his previous one, Why Johnny Can't Preach--is an excellent brief introduction into the ways in which musical forms and words shape religious experiences in ways most people are no longer aware of. His main argument is that the culture of amusement (pace Neil Postman, whom Gordon frequently refers to) now dominates nearly all thinking in the church, especially thinking about music. People today by and large no longer even are aware of different musical traditions and the ways they can convey religious truths and values (such as repentence from sin). Gordon's short study is provocative--and Christians today need to be provoked since most of their fundamental assumptions about worship are probably wrong, especially when it comes to music.

Thinking Christianly

Is there a Christian view of communication? Is there a Christian understanding of powerpoint?

Is powerpoint bad for you?

Reading Pleasure

For those of you who want to read the Inferno with some snacks, why not try Dante's Inferno Salsa?

Of course, not all the Inferno is hellfire and brimstone, so save the salsa for the funny parts where the demons dunk sinners in boiling tar.