Henry Imler January 28th, 2007

“Those that are truly religious are commonly looked upon as crackbrained.”

- Johnathan Edwards, from Johnathan Edwards, A Life by George M. Marsden, page 199.

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Henry Imler January 26th, 2007

The LORD spake, saying, “Let the eight AM Friday section be accused for it as abominable in my sight.”

No one wants to talk at eight AM in the morning about the limits and
tools of historical inquiry as they relate to the study of early
Christianities. This is the especially the case when 80% of them are
taking the class because it fills a gen ed.

What is with the little avatar over there? It is just mine from the brendoman.com forums.

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Henry Imler January 23rd, 2007

Mark Noll’s work, America’s God, was primarily concerned with showing the unique interplay that occurred between American views of religion, political theory, and ideas of knowledge. He was primarily concerned with how the latter two ideas affected the first. The account is distinguished others in that Noll attempted to show 1) how unique and unexpected this development was, and 2) the role that the development of the commonsense theory of knowledge played. Noll focuses on the dominant trends in the above categories, specifically, Protestantism, republicanism, and a commonsense, or intuitional, theory of knowledge. None of these were uniquely American developments. Whether it was Protestantism from Europe, republicanism from France, or notions of commonsense from Scotland ; each was inherited. The combination of these factors resulted in the widespread adoption of Protestantism in America. The adoption of Protestantism reversed fortunes from their decline in influence in the mid to late 1700s to an adoption rate of 85% in 1860. Noll sees Jonathan Edwards as the premier shaper of American Theology. Everyone either utilized or had to respond to his work. The great north/south schism of Evangelicalism in early parts of the 1800’s aided the national rift over slavery and was a contributing factor in America’s decent into civil war. Continue Reading »

• Christianity , Religion
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Henry Imler January 23rd, 2007

Soon I need to come up with ideas for my thesis, ultimately picking a topic by the end of the semester. Here is a list of things I am kicking around along with my interests.

• Anything on the formulation of cannon in religion
• Anything on early Christianities and the level of doctrinal and actual laity difference.
• Heresy creation / Polemics over the years and their effect on the laity.
  • By Proto-Orthodox Christians
  • By Church fathers / Opposing bishops in church councils
  • By the Catholic Church
  • By the Leaders of Protestantism
  • In America by anti-Mormon leaders
  • By Modern Evangelical leaders
• The Relation of Philosophy and Science as the background of the formulations of Christianity
  • Utilization of Philosophies by Christians and the resulting sythesis
  • As philosophies and science change - the impact on the formulations of Christianity
  • Infancy Gospel of Thomas and Zeno
• Religion and Heisenburg’s Uncertainty Principle
  • Comparison between behaviors of similar scale in the movement of atoms and the religious patterns in Christianity
  • Use this as a structuralist view of religion
  • Show how large events with large populations of people can be predicted/modeled/described generally and historically
  • As you refine the picture, the ability to be predicted/modeled/described generally and historically declines with the scale
  • Set the limits of historical knowledge and embrace them as to limit errors in history and judgment
• Disconnect between denomination and the members

Those are some of the things that I have been interested in, but I know that my thesis will need to have a very specific question about a very specific group. We will see how it goes.

• Christianity , Personal
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Henry Imler January 22nd, 2007

Ok, so they are really questions of the day.

1. Who did Number 3 (forget the name) see and say that she was “so sorry” to?
   The strongest case would be for Baltar, but do you think there are other possibilities?
2. Is the “Baltar 6″ really 1) an Angel of God, 2) a product of
   Baltar’s latent Cylon programming (assuming he is one of the Final
   Five), or 3) just part of Baltars fractured subconsious as a result of
   being responsible of the death of over 99% of the human race?
3. What will happen with Baltar and Caprica-Six on Galactica?
4. What will the connection between Thrace and the Nova? Will she be some sort of prophet?

I think that after last night’s episode, the Battlestar Galactica Wiki is down due to too many mysql connections. Also, if you don’t watch the series, I bet this post makes no damn sense at all.

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Henry Imler January 21st, 2007

The following is a quote from the famed observer of American affairs, Alexis de Tocqueville

“I do not know if all Americans have faith in their
religion - for who can read to the bottom of their hearts? - but I am
sure that they believe it necessary to the maintenance of republican
institutions. This opinion does not belong to only one class of
citizens or to one party, but to the entire nation; one finds it in all
ranks.” (Tocqueville. Democracy in America. p. 280.)

• Philosophy
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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

Got to school at 7:45 AM, started to read a few feeds before I started some reports… 10:30 was there in a heart beat.

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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

Was Augustine’s transition from a libertarian to a determinist?

Abstract:

This post is taken from a paper submitted for my class on the life and works of Augustine. It posits a forum where three people are invited to give their interpretations of Augustine’s works. The papers are then followed up by a discussion on how or if Augustine’s thought developed throught his life.

Henry:

Continue Reading »

• Christianity , Religion
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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

What is sad is that I can actually say that is true for me.. both
the “no x-box” thing and the “finger shredding farm equipment” thing.

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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

There
are lots of buzz words that people use. The use of these buzzwords
begin with a proper definition of the thing they are describing, but
later on accumulate a certain negativity. This is aided by polemic statements
by those opposing the group at hand. Through the continued use of the
polemics, the buzz word begins to stray far from the actual meaning of
the term and becomes something derogatory.

Some prime examples of this process are the terms “neo-conconservative”
and “liberal”. These are often shortened to neo-con and lib and used to
disparage the respective groups. Yet, the terms in themselves can
accurately and dispassionately be used to denote these groups.

Another example of this is the term “evangelical.” Now-a-days it is
used to describe groups of “ultra” conservative Christians who are
usually lacking common sense and are extremely ignorant of everything
and everybody. Evangelicals have not helped themselves in cases regarding science and religion, but these are merely accidental qualities that have been unjustly tacked onto the proper definition of the group.

The best definition of evangelicals is laid out by David Bebbington:

[Evangelicals have] four main characteristics: biblicism (or reliance on the Bible as ultimate religious authority), conversionism (or an emphasis on the new birth), activism (or energetic, individualistic engagement in personal and social duties), and crucicentricism (or focus on Christ’s redeeming work as the heart of true religion. (emphasis added) (Noll, Mark. America’s God p. 5)

That describes myself and I find nothing inherently negative in that depiction.

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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

Today’s “Simmons / Bauer Humor of the Day“:

Jack Bauer (+13.5) over THE CHINESE
Two nights away. I’m giddy.

The pick (in body counts): Jack Bauer 23, The Chinese 0.

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Henry Imler January 19th, 2007

There have been some fruitful discussions at Theology for the Masses:

I asked if most Christians are “A follower of Paul, or Christ?.”

Do
you take the sayings and teachings of Jesus first and interpret Paul
through them? Or do you start with Paul’s writings and view the
teachings of Jesus through that prism?

So far today, there have been seven comments and good conversations.

Earlier, Hank talked about the death penalty and Christianity with “What is the sword?.” He got seven comments in a few hours and was followed up with Dave’s reply, “Bible, Authority, and Death.”

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Henry Imler January 18th, 2007

Did both Vader and Obi really turn into old fogies in 25 years? Mace was just a little older than Vader (45), and a bit younger than Obi (57) when he died @ 51 and he almost drilled the Emperor. Yoda was a flippin’, killin’ machine well into his 870’s.

I have always wondered about how I will show my
children the Star Wars Saga (SWS). Helluva weird thing to wonder about
huh? There are several issues at hand. There is a part of me that wants
to never show my young daughter Episode I because of… well, I think
we know humanity’s verdict on that movie. But as bad as that movie was
at times, meesa thinks that you can’t leave it, or any of the prequels
out. Actually, I bet I show the Phantom Edits when I do show the movies.

So, issue 1 is settled, whether I acknowledge the existence of the
prequels. Now on to the more important matters. Which order is best to
watch the SWS? Do you go with 1-6, in that order? Or do you go with
4-6, then 1-3?

Going thru the Saga in order gives you a continuous storyline, but
sacrifices all the hooks of the Original Trilogy (OT). No surprise with
Vader being Luke’s father or Yoda being the uber-badass that he was.
Also, seeing the Anakin/Kenobi fight in The Return of the Sith and following it up with the Vader/Kenobi fight in A New Hope is like taking one of the best fight scenes in movie history and replying it on geraticvision.

On the flip side, seeing the OT first and then the prequels makes for knowing the conclusion of the story before it even begins.

Today I came across another way. Consider seeing A New Hope, then The Empire Strikes Back first. Next, take a flashback and watch episodes 1, 2, and 3. Now follow it up with the conclusion of the Saga, Return of the Jedi. That preserves all of the hooks without knowing the conclusion of it all.

This approach tries to reconcile the biggest problems
with the chronological and episodic viewing orders: plot and cinematic
continuity. The oldest episodes are placed first in the viewing order
while the newer episodes are nested in the middle. The climactic finale
provided by Episode VI, however, is still retained. Additionally, some
of the key dramatic twists are still preserved such as the surprise
revelation in Empire Strikes Back about Luke’s parentage. The prequel
is preceded by a nice cliffhanger from episode V and episode III also
serves as a nice cliffhanger before the final culmination of episode
VI. The special effects continuity is mostly contained since episodes
IV and V have the most dated appearance (episode VI holds up relatively
well against the space battles from the Prequels).

I think that is the way to go. What about you?

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Henry Imler January 18th, 2007

• Blogging
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Henry Imler January 18th, 2007

Mahdi Army Leaders Arrested
It is beginning to look like the Iraqi government is going to hold up
their end of the deal, a huge factor in whether or not the new plan
will work.

Bush gives ground on domestic eavesdropping program

The
Bush administration said Wednesday it has agreed to disband a
controversial warrantless surveillance program run by the National
Security Agency, replacing it with a new effort to be overseen by a
secret court.

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Henry Imler January 17th, 2007

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Henry Imler January 17th, 2007

Or do they?

I don’t think they do and the last six months of not wearing a tie every day have been great.

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Henry Imler January 17th, 2007

Otherwise known as nine pieces of advice for 1^st semester grad students.

My first semester of school is over and began my second one
yesterday. As a whole, the semester went well, but there are somethings
that I wished I had done better. The above link is a list of those
things.

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Henry Imler January 15th, 2007

Meredith and I have added a new show to our list: Boston Legal. It was recommended my my sister-in-law, Jen.

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Henry Imler January 15th, 2007

24 is crazy - I think that they have redeemed last season in the first four hours of this one.

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