Favorite Photos From My Shedd Aquarium Adventures

Seafood Soups!

The past two weeks I've made Cajun-Spiced Gumbo Soup and Corn & Basil Bisque with Crab Sticks. Both were delicious and I changed a few ingredients just based on what was in my refrigerator.

Summer Corn & Basil Bisque with Crab Sticks

4 tsp unsalted butter, divided use

1 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup chopped carrot

1/3 cup chopped celery

4 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) corn kernels

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup loosely packed basil leaves, divided use

2/3 cup canned fat-free evaporated milk (from a 12 oz. can)

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

6 oz chopped crab sticks

Melt 2tsp of the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the onion, carrot, and celery, then season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir 3 minutes. Add the corn and cayenne and cook 2 minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in half of the basil. Slice the remaining basil into slivers. Melt the remaining 2 teaspoons butter in a heavy, large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bell pepper and saute until almost tender, about 5 minutes. Bring the soup to a simmer. Ladle into bowls and top with the bell pepper and basil. Makes 6 servings.

Cajun-Spiced Gumbo Soup

1 and 1/2 tbs canola oil

2 tbs all-purpose flour

1 and 1/4 cups chopped onion

1 medium bell pepper, seeded and chopped

3/4 cup chopped celery

5 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

3/4 cup uncooked long grain white rice

One 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 tsp hot sauce

1/2 pound fresh or frozen (thawed) medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

6 oz crab sticks

2 green onions, trimmed and chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the flour. Cook and stir 4 minutes, until the mixture is medium brown. Add the onion, bell pepper and celery. Season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Whisk the broth into the pan Bring to a boil. Add the rice and reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, 15 to 20 minutes, until the rice is just tender. Add the tomatoes with their juices, thyme, and hot sauce. Cook 5 minutes. Add the shrimp. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, until opaque. Add the crab sticks. Cook 1 minute to heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve sprinkled with green onions. Makes 6 servings.

The World is Messed Up.

Reading A Continent for the Taking and watching Food,inc in one week breeds extreme nihilism.

On the bright side, I've discovered the delicacy that is non-fat, plain, Greek yogurt with honey. And honey is actually found in nature so its not made from corn and it won't rot my innards! Not that some honey brands don't inject every bee with corn particles that somehow genetically alter them to make bee hives that have an addictive chemical in them. Don't worry, that's not really in Food, inc.

Two Favorite Tea Brands

Overall, I totally prefer coffee. However, I have some very pesky digestive and health issues and teas really make a difference! I enjoy two brands: Traditional Medicinals and Yogi. Traditional Medicinals is the culprit of my favorite tea: Eater's Digest. It is a peppermint and fennel-based tea that actually tastes good and literally makes the nausea go away when I haven't treated my belly very nicely. I also have a digestive aid by Yogi called Ginger, but it is like a ginger bomb. If you love ginger then you'd probably like it...and I actually do love ginger but its still too much for me. Yogi, though, has a great Immune Support tea that tastes very refreshing. When I was dealing with mono I finally remembered echinacea and at the end I drank a ton of this stuff. I don't drink this one very often because echinacea is known to lose its affect if you are exposed to it on a regular basis. My last favorite is the Female Toner by Traditional Medicinals. Every girl needs some extra help around that time of the month.

Two Views on Women in Ministry: Part II

I know I said I would post on each chapter that I read, but I haven't had time. I've been reading Two Views of Women in Ministry and my reflection/review is due this Monday. Here is my mostly-final draft. It had to be no more than 5 pages so this doesn't even do the issue justice...

Two Views on Women and Ministry, edited by James R. Beck and Stanley N. Gundry, is a refreshing and illuminating resource for the current debate on women’s roles in the church. From the outset, all four contributing authors are dedicated to treating each other and the topic with respect, sensitivity, and authentic reflection. All four authors are also entirely dedicated to the integrity of scripture and they go so far as to assert that,

We believe one can build a credible case within the bounds of orthodoxy and commitment to inerrancy for either one of the two major views we address in this volume, although all of us view our own positions on the matter as stronger and more compelling (15).

The two major views that the authors address in the book are an egalitarian perspective and a complementarian perspective; of these two views Linda Belleville and Craig Keener represent the egalitarian camp and Craig Blomberg and Thomas Schreiner represent the complementarian camp. In the pages that follow I will attempt to express the most valuable points of each author’s arguments and then express my own personal view and the primary reasons why I have the opinion that I do.

The book begins with a thoughtful and intricate egalitarian perspective written by Belleville. As a doctor, professor of biblical literature, and author, Belleville’s credentials show her exegetical prowess and she presents a chapter to match. If you did not believe that an egalitarian could be committed to orthodoxy and inerrancy of scripture, Belleville should have thoroughly challenged, if not destroyed, your assumptions by the end of her portion of the book. At the most fundamental and reduced level, her chapter shows the reader that the scriptures concerned with women and ministry (either explicitly or implicitly) do truly leave room for an egalitarian interpretation. In addition, Belleville sheds light on the varying, significant, and supported roles in ministry that women have held throughout history and in the Bible. Regardless of which camp you find yourself in, her chapter proves to be a good read that will help to either affirm or challenge already existing convictions.

Following Belleville is a complementarian perspective written by Blomberg. Blomberg’s chapter does not show the exegetical intricacy displayed by Belleville; instead, Blomberg displays a deep sensitivity to scriptures and historical Christian witness as a whole as well as within their context. His chapter is well-organized as he expresses his opinion systematically – touching on the Old Testament, intertestamental period, the New Testament, and church history. In addition he recognizes the link between roles of women and men in marriage as well as in the church. Blomberg celebrates women in ministry, affirms that women may have any spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit wishes to bestow and at the same time, the office of pastor and elder are reserved for men; the positions themselves are not ‘gifts of the Spirit’. In the same vein, he makes it clear that pastors and elders occupy an office of utmost service. Pastor and elder are positions that should imitate the service and love of Christ, wherein decisions are made for the best interest of the flock. In addition, Blomberg argues that churches should seek to encourage women’s involvement in the church. If a woman has the gift of teaching or knowledge, it is the pastors’ and elders’ responsibility to utilize, develop, and exhort such a gift.

Blomberg, then, is followed by a second egalitarian position that is most compelling and authentic. Written by Keener, this chapter is similar to Belleville’s in that Keener first lists the various positions that women historically held in the Bible and then expresses his own opinions on particular scriptures. What is so interesting about Keener’s chapter, however, is his personal note at the end. Keener used to occupy the opposing camp, he was a complementarian. After pouring through scripture, witnessing the mistreatment of women in ministry, and recognizing the worth of the argument as it related to Biblical inerrancy, apologetics, and interpretation, Keener was compelled to change and share his new egalitarian position. In conclusion, Keener agrees that people have every right to charitably disagree with the egalitarian view; however, rendering the opposing viewpoint as trivial, heretical, and sinful is unhelpful and slanderous.

Lastly, we have a second complementarian perspective written by Schreiner. I could barely hold in my excitement when I (finally) began to read about the three Greek words: presbyteroi (“elders”), episkopoi (“overseers”), and poimainein (“shepherd”). Until Schreiner’s chapter I had not read such a clear explanation of the terminology at hand in the debate. It is these three words or positions from which most complementarians exclude women. Schreiner shows the reader that women hold a vast array of other positions, but they are never mentioned as holding one of these distinct three in the bible. Schreiner, too, is very concerned with the dignity and sanctity of women. After his portion on terminology he readily defends women’s rights and involvement in ministry before he even attempts to argue for their exclusion from the three offices. Schreiner’s treatment is incredibly helpful and most compelling while he argues for a complimentarian position as well as the involvement and importance of women leaders and workers in the church as organization and institution.

After this brief summary of Belleville, Blomberg, Keener, and Schreiner’s positions, where do I stand? Before reading this book I would have reluctantly called myself a complementarian, and I still do. I believe that a woman should not hold the office of elder, overseer, or shepherd but outside of those official roles in the institutionalized church, women should serve and lead in ministry. I say my position reluctantly, because I do not think the terms egalitarian and complementarian are particularly helpful and I also think that the doctrine of women in ministry should really be a secondary concern in the life of the church and individual Christians. Sometimes, it does come to the fore, but ultimately we should be more concerned with questions of soteriology, Christology, and the Trinity. I understand that the doctrine of women in ministry may and does overlap with these other doctrines, but in general, the issue is divisive rather than unifying.

Now, I claim to be a complementarian but let me make one thing clear: I do not believe it is a sin to be egalitarian or that it is a sin when a women holds the position of elder, overseer, or shepherd. Rather than a conviction, I call my identification with the complementarian camp a preference because I do not believe I have the right to say that egalitarians are sinners and wrong in the sight of the Lord. If Two Views of Women and Ministry were to teach anything, it should be that both views can be well-argued – if both views are present then there is not enough information to warrant moral judgment against one or the other. Another doctrine that seems to be of the same vein is infant baptism versus dedication. I prefer infant dedication because I think it is better argued in scripture and in the historical witness of the church, but would I be so bold as to say that infant baptism is a sin? Definitely not. Similarly, people often compare women’s ministry with homosexuality. The logic flows that if passages on women in ministry are contextual rather than timeless, then so must be the passages on homosexuality. I disagree, for homosexuality is only ever condemned as a sin; women in ministry, however, are often commended and sometimes excluded.

As a complete novice, my complementarian position is supported by five observations. First, women’s dignity is more important than complementarian or egalitarian positions. Both women and men are created in the image of God and both receive commendations for ministry within the bible. There is no question that men and women are equals in dignity and value. Second, women and men can have the same spiritual gifts, aptitudes, character qualities, and temperaments. While there are stereotypically male-gendered qualities and female-gendered qualities, there is no temperament or aptitude that is always ontologically or biologically predicated by one’s gender. There are exceptions to the norm, and the Spirit gives to whom he wills. In addition, as women are able to play sports, received education, work, and raise families, they are continually exhibiting that women can have male-gendered qualities and abilities. Third, altogether in scripture, I see an undeniable typology of male headship. Adam was created first, the Levite priests were all male, God is given the male pronoun, Christ was a man, Christ had 12 male disciples, Christ and the church are likened to a husband and wife where Christ is the man and the church is the woman, and mentioned elders within the New Testament church were male. I know that scholars can refute various aspects of this typology, but for me, the complementarian argument is too strong and the egalitarian argument relies far too much on silences from scripture rather than overt proclamation. Fourth, within the complementarian tradition, mutual-submission and service is always ideal. Everyone must submit to Christ and serve one-another. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Complementarians should view headship as the lower position and submission as the true privilege, for Christ’s crucifixion is the ultimate display of selfless headship, love, and authority.

Fantasy Jewelry Box

I finally found a good costume jewelry store online! Its called Fantasy Jewelry Box and I wish I had found it BEFORE I started wedding planning. It has wonderful items for bridesmaids, mothers, brides, and girls who just want to have fun. They also have FREE shipping. Yes.

Teacups

Rings

A bit more photography...

Aquamarine, Electric Indigo, and Coral

I am currently obsessed with three colors that can be found in precious stones and nature. I think my obsession with these three colors really came about after spending way too much time trying to decide what color stones I would like for my engagement ring. Since then, I have continued to be enamored with all three colors and after doing a bit of research for this blog, they've become a little more enigmatic to me. Also, keep in mind that I'm doing all this on an old mac screen - so the images may be off on your screen...but they look right to me.

AQUAMARINE

Aquamarine is a pale tint of spring green toned towards cyan. Because its such a light tint, it is basically a mix of blue, green, and clear which simply makes it quite variable in clothes, jewelry, paint, fabrics, etc. While researching the color I found that seafoam and spring green were more readily 'searchable' than aquamarine but its not because the hue was wrong, its because it was simply the wrong tint...so it needed more clear (if that makes any sense). For instance, Amy Adams' dress (below) is a very saturated, darker tint than aquamarine proper. In addition, the aquamarine stone can have varying tints and shades within it and the smaller the stone, the lighter the tint.

ELECTRIC INDIGO

Electric Indigo is a hue of violet tinted towards blue. It is a very saturated hue (hence the name electric). Indigo is the title of the color right between blue and violet on the color spectrum. You can find this color in nature on the Indigo Bunting (little birdie pictured below) and in Tanzanite (princess cut stone engagement ring pictured below). Tanzanite, however is a little less saturated than electric indigo - though I suppose if you had a stone deep enough it would look completely saturated like that boot or Amy Adam's dress. Amy Adam's has apparently worn all of my favorite colors.

CORAL

Coral is a pink-ish orange. Like my other two favorites, its an "in-between-color." Thus, there are a lot of variations of it. I tend to like less saturated and more pink versions of coral. It can be found in nature in...coral. As well as in flower variations. The flowers I have pictured here are peonies. I really like accessorizing in coral, I'm not quite as comfortable wearing it as a main piece (such as a blouse or dress) though I'm sure if I found the right one, I'd love it. I also enjoy peach, but peaches tend to be a bit tinted towards yellow rather than red and I care for that much less. You can comment and ask if you'd like the sources of any of these images. I don't have the patience to record them all for you. :)

Candied Class and Treasure Chest

As it turns out, I'm actually having more than one bridal shower! After my AMAZING one this past weekend, my side of the family decided I needed on too. Thus, back to the palettes. I already own all this stuff - though I am continually tempted to buy new things my wedding events. I'm also having a Personal Shower with my best girl friends so I made a palette for that shower as well. However, I'm conflicted because the red/purple/gold theme doesn't really match my engagement ring and thus far all of my palettes have been complementary to the aquamarine stone. So...I may end up making a different palette with a different dress.

Candied Class: powder blue, grey/silver, black, and pink.

Necklace: Mine is different from the one pictured, but this is as close as I could get. I think mine is from Forever 21 and the one pictured is from Charlotte Russ.

Twofer Dress: I got my dress from Target last summer, it looks quite similar to this one but the skirt is silky and a bit longer.

Earrings: Princess cut cubic z's from Kohl's!

Ring: ENGAGEMENT RING!

Cardigan: Black cardigan from Target.

Headband: Mine is from Target, the one pictured is from The Loft.

Shoes: Easy Street pumps from Endless. Easy Street is one of the few designers that sells wide shoes that look fashionable.

Nail Polish: Cherries in the Snow by Revlon.

Treasure Chest: red, purple, and gold.

Dress: From Victoria's Secret.

3/4 Sleeve T: Old Navy.

Earrings and Bracelet: Both were a gift from one of my best friends when I was in her wedding.

Nail Polish: Fiji Weejee Fawn by OPI.

Tote: Mine was a gift from another friend for whom I was a bridesmaid.

Shoes: Seychelles gold sandals from Endless.

Pendant: Heart necklace I got from my parents when I was younger.

Mythopoesis for Postmodern Ecclesiology, Evangelism, and Mission

Just finished this paper for a class. Its not good. But it has some good ideas.

In 1994, Peter Kreeft wrote a description of modernity and the twenty-first from the viewpoint of Christianity:

We have so far witnessed five major holocausts in this century, and along with every ‘civilized nation’ in the Western world except Ireland, Portugal, and Malta, we are now participating in the sixth largest one of all, the only one that shows no sign of ending as the other five did.[1]

Kreeft argues that the killing of unborn babies is this last major holocaust; he says that even the Supreme Court sins against the mothers of aborted babies by conditioning and pressuring them to believe that the body is more precious than the soul. On a larger level, Kreeft is bringing his reader’s attention to the moral atrophy that Western culture has undergone over the past millennium. This atrophy has been facilitated by philosophical and cultural trends such as nominalism, secularism, subjectivism, and modernity – to name a few soul-killing, intellectual movements that have evinced over the past thousand years. Kreeft is not just conjuring up these arguments on his own, he is heavily drawing upon the life and works of C.S. Lewis. The book from which Kreeft’s aforementioned quote comes is entitled, C.S.Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on the Abolition of Man. Lewis, too, thought that modernity had brought a grave moral atrophy and spiritual death to Western society and culture and he publicized his views very candidly and especially in his book, The Abolition of Man, to which Kreeft is appropriately responding.

Lewis and Kreeft, however, were both penning these warnings to Western culture quite a few years ago; Kreeft in the 90’s and Lewis in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Just in the mere sixteen years that have passed since Kreeft published his book, much has changed. Is morality still in atrophy? Is spirituality still wasting away? I think this is a question that is worth investigating particularly in light of ecclesiology and missions. If Christians are to understand how to build Biblical churches that meet the needs of Western peoples and if they are to share the gospel with them, Christians must have a clear understanding of the cultural climate. Often, more work is put into understanding the culture and context of the Other, but Christians must understand and observe their own culture so as to be ministers of redemption within their local context. In Tim Keller’s book, Counterfeit Gods, he says that there is no way to challenge the sins and idols of a culture without doing cultural criticism.[2] A biblical witness to this practice is in Acts 17 where Paul goes into Athens and first observes the spiritual climate and practices, and then challenges the Athenian’s pagan beliefs. In order to proceed with this analysis and critique of culture, I will be trying to recover one practice that has been largely marginalized by the academy in the past two centuries due to modernity, subjectivism, and naturalism. I am working to recover religious sight. Brent Plate first brought the term ‘religious sight’ to my attention in the introduction of Religion, Art & Visual Culture.[3] Plate is a professor of religion and visual arts at Texas Christian University and he notices that religious sight is especially important when trying to analyze and understand even secular institutions. Plate argues that one can find, “the religious in the most secular of places, and the secular in the most religious of times, all the while rethinking hierarchical relationships between the sacred and profane.”[4] Cultural critics must learn how to practice criticism with religious sight, lest they be blinded to new discoveries and observations. Religious sight is very difficult for secular critics to participate in because it requires a keen ability to understand activities and events “situated in an environment conductive to belief, devotion, and transformation.”[5] Unfortunately, the academy has become such a secularized institution that it often lacks the understanding of faith that is necessary for religious sight. There is one academician, in particular, who really fought against this type of secularization: C. S. Lewis.

For this reason, I would like to use a Lewisian lens to analyze the three religious trends that the Oxford Handbook of Sociology of Religion defines for the present time: a resurgence of spirituality, a decline in traditional religiosity, and an upsurge in fundamentalism.[6] In a close investigation of the manifestations, definitive attributes, and motivations for these three trends, it becomes clear that the Christian church is more than able to respond in a way that would compel people to follow Christ and contextualize the gospel message for this age. I argue that mythopoeia or enchantment that puts precedence on both aesthetic expression and commitment truth would be a fitting response from the Church to these three religious trends.

The historical development of these Western religious trends is an essential building block for understanding our current spiritual climate. Kreeft, with the extensive help of Lewis’ work, is able to define four main stages of Western history, each of which carries a distinct religious climate: pre-modern, Renaissance, modern, and future.[7] Lewis and Kreeft both argue that the pre-modern era was the time of medieval Christendom, and this stage was not just a unified social order but a “unified cosmos.”[8] The medieval man had his head in the clouds and his feet on the ground – they talked more readily about large universals such as death, friendship, and salvation and yet they had their roots firmly planted on the earth with knowledge and practice of skills such as of forestry, archery, sawing, and all sorts of earthly labors.[9] Kreeft, following in Lewis’ footsteps, argues that in modernity we have lost both the “solid objectivity of high universals (especially Truth and Goodness) and the low particulars, the concrete world.”[10]

However, I have gotten ahead of myself, before modernity comes the Renaissance or what Kreeft calls, The Great Divide. Here Kreeft is referring to the Renaissance as the great divide between the middle ages and modernity. For Lewis and Kreeft the Renaissance was a transition point between the middle ages and modernity or between Christian and post-Christian civilization.[11] The trends which were introduced in the Renaissance brought a completely new summum bonum. Nominalism, skepticism, and economic mercantilism (to name a few) were all trends that evinced during the Renaissance but in modernity these new trends give birth to Naturalism and subjectivism. At the most fundamental level, modernity left civilization with greed, lust, and power but with no meaning. The modern man lacks an ultimate summum bonum or telos because those objective realities to which meaning was originally tied, were pushed aside as child’s play and nonsense.[12] That permanent thing that defined objective values, truth, and knowledge was decidedly false, unhelpful, and foolish.

As mentioned before, this drastic change was largely influenced by Naturalism and subjectivism, but Lewis also notes that “chronological snobbery” played a persuasive part in this move from the grounded ultimate to the displaced subjective. Chronological snobbery is simply the belief that we are a product of our environment, thus history is vastly flawed and incorrect compared to the wealth of knowledge in the present. Lewis uses his own chronological snobbery as a case and point in Surprised by Joy. When Lewis exclaimed, “Why damn it – it’s medieval,” he points out that he uses the names of earlier periods in abuse, pompously suggesting that his period is obviously the correct one.[13] Lewis eventually changes his tone and realizes that chronological snobbery is a sure way to lose the vast wisdom that history has to offer. Ultimately, Lewis, though immersed in modernity from every angle, thinks that modernity brings a false sense of progress and perfection. Modernity brought a sense of progressivism or universal evolutionism wherein there is an assumption that, “everything is provisional and soon will be superseded” until we have reached a man-made utopia.[14]

Lewis never put his faith in universal evolutionism. At the core, progressivism suggests that anything fundamental and unchanging is automatically primitive and out-dated, waiting only to be replaced by something better. Lewis saw that this mindset would wreak havoc on ethics, religion, truth, beauty and goodness and warned us in books and lectures.[15] Ironically, decades later, Western civilization seems to have realized that progressivism proves to be a delusion. While Lewis was alive, he conceived of the fourth stage in history as the future; however, as we are in Lewis’ future, we can begin to define the climate and trends where Lewis could only give educated predictions. Lewis was quite pessimistic in his predictions. The future would ultimately be left without meaning, with more and more things located in our consciousness leaving none in objective reality. In the Four Loves and God in the Dock, Lewis writes about what this sort of subjectivism can do to a civilization. Kreeft sums up Lewis’ argument when he says, “If you have nothing worth living for except mere living, you will not live.”[16]

Lewis predicted the death of civilization or at least the death of a summom bonum for civilization. But what has civilization come to now? After Lewis’ death and in the midst of Kreeft’s writing, the term postmodernism evinced. Postmodernism, as evident from it’s title, is the stage the secular West entered when the modernity-driven confidence in improvement and human capacity waned. Postmodernism is extremely ambiguous; there are competing definitions of the movement and some intellectuals argue that it is an unhelpful category and therefore, should not be used.[17] For the sake of this paper, I accept that the secular West is in the stage we know as postmodernism. Also, for the sake of functional analysis I want to limit my definition of postmodernism to include three concise attributes. In their essay on postmodernity and popular culture, Greg Miller and Michael Real provide a simple yet useful explanation of the principles that postmodernism includes:

1. The breakdown of the grand narratives that give us a framework for comprehending the world, particularly the metanarrative of science as universal human problem-solver, as Lyotard (1984) has argued.

2. The centrality of communication technologies in providing global access to a culture of mass reproduction and simulacra, or copies of which there is no original (Baudrillard 1983).

3. The consumer culture of late capitalism in which the puritan ethic of consumption has been replaced by the commercial ethic of conspicuous consumption (Featherstone 1990).[18]

Miller and Real’s concise definition of postmodernism does not account for the vast controversies that the movement brings, but it does offer an incredibly useful definition for the purposes of analysis. This sort of rebellious rejection of objectivism has brought many challenges to traditional religion, the institutions of which usually function in the style of truth. Within postmodernity the religious scene is enigmatic because we can observe three seemingly contradictory religious trends: a resurgence of spirituality, a decline in traditional religiosity, and an upsurge in fundamentalism.[19] Initially, those three trends do seem contradictory, but after a closer look it becomes clear that these three religious trends are incredibly compatible.

First, postmodernism has brought a sort of religious revival. Today people view religion as a product to be consumed. All religious practices are viewed as equally good and right which leaves the individual to choose which one will suit him or her. Wenzel says that people approach the religious market as a cafeteria menu – full of syncretism and tolerance – where people can create their own personal religious meal tailored to meet their needs. This religious consumption has reached all time highs. The spiritual experience of ones own religious journey is prized above dogma or truth and the consumption of religion is more important than commitment to one walk of faith. All of this means that people are more open-minded, tolerant than ever before. They are not necessarily interested in attending church every Sunday and reciting the Nicene Creed, but they are required to be tolerant because their worldview mandates it.

Second, even while people are more desirous of spirituality, they also display an overall contempt for traditional religiosity. At a glance, this trend looks as though it is in contrast with the first, but as I mentioned before, they are mutually compatible. As people move away from religious institutions and systems, there is a twilight of the churches. Without a full understanding of the religious climate, it may look as though Max Weber and Frederick Nietzsche were correct in hypothesizing god’s death. There has been a noticeable retreat of religion from the public square and people are less interested in traditional participation.[20] However, this makes it even more palatable to find one’s own spiritual blend in the syncretistic religious menu discussed previously. Religion is no longer solely done in church; rather, secular places such as the movie theater, the stock market, the red carpet, and the sports arena have become places of worship.

Third, along with the off-beat religious revival and twilight of the churches there is a fundamentalist backlash. With the growth of deconstructionism and relativism, there has also been an increase in meaninglessness and nihilism as well as a loss of ethics. The fundamental blacklash has occurred because people need hope and rules. Peter Weibel is the director of the Centre for Arts and Visual Culture and professor of Visual Media at a university in Vienna and he argues that we are seeing a return of religion because religion has come to be understood as an ethical imperative.[21] In addition, there have been quite a few movements that derive their identity from resisting ethical relativism and postmodern nihilism.[22] For every book written by a leader in the Emergent Church there seems to be another one written to refute it.

In sum, the postmodern religious climate is closer to what we saw in the middle ages than in modernity. The postmodern man seeks meaning and experience, a connection with the transcendent and a concrete and practical connection with local and earthly surroundings. We see a profound disdain for ossified orthodoxy and a search for passion, conviction, and authentic faith connected with orthopraxis. There is an underlying re-enchantment of the secularized West that is opening doors for the metaphysical again, even after its death during modernity. David Morgan, professor of religious studies at Duke University, argues that we may be undergoing a re-enchantment that could mean our civilization is stepping beyond forms of religion in a way that allows a return of the soul – interestingly, his statement presumes subjectivism as he suggests a return of the soul rather than a Transcendental Interferer as Lewis would put it.[23] Speaking of a Transcendental Interferer, what does this postmodern climate mean for God and his organic and organized church?

For Lewis, the fitting response of a Christian is to cultivate the Goodness that was lost in modernity. We should seek to create a joyful cosmology.[24] In order to cultivate the innermost part of the soul that is connected to both earthly and transcendental reality, we must compel people to seek the true cause of Joy. I am speaking of Joy in the Lewisian sense. For Lewis, Joy is not a thrill or a feeling. It is not pleasure and it is not found in an object – Lewis even wonders if all pleasures are truly mere substitutes for Joy.[25] Joy is a brief experience of unity with our hearts greatest desire. At the core of all longing is the desire to be united with something from which you are separated. Some longings are easily fulfilled. If you long for a cheeseburger and have the means, it is quite an easy task to go to the nearest fast food restaurant to acquire one. There are other longings that are more difficult to assuage. For instance, some individuals long to be married but have yet to be blessed with that union. Others are separated from family or friends for which they lack the means to travel and see. There is also a third type of longing that is impossible to fill on this earth. Cornelius Plantinga explains this phenomenon well. He writes,

…we want to be reunited with a happy time or a lovely place or a good friend. We look at a green valley and want to crawl under its covers. We think of a happy home and want to dwell in its center. We keep wanting to ‘get back’ or ‘get in.’ What’s remarkable is that these longings are unfulfillable. We cannot merge with the music we love. Nor can we climb inside nature.[26]

The longing of which Plantinga speaks is a longing for unity with what we love, what moves us, and what is beautiful. Even if we were able to attain one of these desires, we would find it to be lacking. C.S. Lewis says that this type of longing is painful even when we find things we think should consol us.

It hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence…We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that settled the matter…But it is all a cheat.[27]

We long for something we cannot name. Thus, are humans left to wander in uncertainty, unable to find the object of our desire and continually heartbroken by the remedies found on this earth? Lewis says that we can, indeed, find the object of our desire. He says that the Bible gives us a symbolical and authoritative account of the object for which we so desperately long. Like St. Augustine and St. Bonaventure before him, Lewis argues that union with God in heaven as described by Scripture is the consummation of our true desire.

Scripture tells us that union with God in heaven is our true desire. The word epipotheō is used nine times in the Greek New Testament King James version. Epipotheō is always used to express the longing to be united with something or someone. In 2 Corinthians 5:2 epipotheō is used with heaven as the object:

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.[28] For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

The Bible tells us that the object of epipotheō longing is union with God in heaven and it also gives a symbolic account of what to expect there. Lewis says that this account can be reduced to five general promises: we shall be with Christ, we shall be like Christ, we shall have glory, we shall be fed or feasted or entertained, and we will have some sort of official position in the universe.[29] Since all mankind experiences epipotheō longing, are these great promises of fulfillment available for all humanity? Yes, but one can only attain the object of epipotheō longing through faith in Jesus Christ and, epipotheō longing is what motivates the Christian to abide in and walk with Christ.

Given the postmodern religious desire for authentic and meaningful religious experience, it is vital that Christians view this desire as longing and attempt to guide non-Christians towards fulfillment in Christ. However, I will not just stop with that exhortation. With the help of Lewis, I have formulated some concrete ideas for how the Church as organism and organization can help cultivate longing and union with Christ. At the onset of this paper I said that mythopoeia or enchantment that puts precedence on both aesthetic expression and commitment truth would be a fitting response from the Church to postmodern religious trends. I said this because mythopoeia can actually elicits longing and joy, and if done properly, would point to transcendent, objective truth.

Mythopoeia is a word that both C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien thought and spoke about quite a bit but they really believed that few – too few – literary works qualified the use of the adjective.[30] For Tolkien and Lewis, myths were the highest form of literature, though they are often marginalized as children’s stories.[31] The prototype of all myths is actually the story of Christ, it is “a myth working on us in the same way as the others but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.”[32] In the same token, a myth should also concretely express something that has been otherwise only understood as an abstraction. While one receives the myth you can experience the true principle correctly. Altogether, “the experience of receiving the myth – that story out of which ever varying meaning will grow,” is mythopoeia.[33] Thus, mythopoeia is not a genre, and it does not really matter what form the mythopoeia takes. The manner of conveyance is not important but the plot and pattern of events is crucial.[34] You will have to forgive the length of this quote, but Kirstin Johnson has put together an excellent montage of quotes in order to define mythopoesis.

Lewis says that this mythopoeic gift “may even be one of the greatest arts; for it produces works which give us (at first meeting) as much delight and (on prolonged acquaintance) as much wisdom and strength as the works of the greatest poets. It is in some ways more akin to music than to poetry or at least to most poetry. It goes beyond the expression of things we have already felt…hits us at a level deeper than our thoughts…” Tolkien echoes this. In searching around for what he calls “a less debatable word,” Tolkien gives us enchantment. “Enchantment,” he says, “produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of their senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in desire and purpose.”[35]

Mythopoeia, then, is not only the art of concretely expressing abstract truths but it is also the experience thereof. I think that there are concrete ways that the Church as organization and organism can practice mythopoeia, this highest form of art; art, music, architecture, stewardship and appreciation of nature, poetry, and drama to name a few. The Church should really have little difficulty in doing this as it is steeped in the ultimate mythopoeia: the Gospel! If we are to serve the needs of our postmodern culture then we truly need to become artists. Tolkien put forth this very challenge: “If God chooses to by mythopoeic…shall we refuse to be mythopathic?”[36] I posit that there are obvious ways that the church can practice mythopoeisis. There are many more, but here is one concrete example that forms an excellent starting point.

First, nature itself is mythopeic, it is God’s own poem and it conveys truths that cannot be expressed in words. Among others, C.S. Lewis and the apostle Paul are two theologians who have written specifically about the sublime in nature. C.S. Lewis says that Christians should confess their faith and he says that the sublime must take us back to the church, the Bible, and to our knees.[37] Lewis is adamant about insisting that nature does not teach. Sublimity does not teach that there is an infinite God of glory; rather, it stirs up longings and feelings in humans that are religious in nature and can lead to the understanding of God’s sovereign power, without necessarily being able to call it by that name. Lewis says, “I do not see how the ‘fear’ of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags.”[38] Sublimity gives religious meaning and spiritual capacity. It enchants the soul and softens hearts.

Still, one can ignore this enchanting or softening. In Romans 1, Paul says that the wrath of God will be revealed against the wicked who have purposely ignored the revelation of God’s divine qualities in nature leaving men without excuse. However, it is not ultimately the Christian duty to judge the hearts of men.[39] Rather, it is the Christian duty to recognize the religious longings of non-Christians, observe their behavior in order to understand their desires and treat them with respect, and then teach the gospel. In Acts 17 we see Paul practicing this exact model of missiology.

Nature as mythopoeia has particular power now more than ever because we are in an ecological crisis. Critics of the Christian tradition charge that Christianity is the primary source of the crisis. Some of the scriptures that lead to this accusation are the teaching that human beings are alone made in the image of God and that they are commanded to exercise dominion over the earth. These accusations are obviously over simplistic, but the critique does offer food for thought. As theologian Daniel Migliore says, “it would be a mistake to react in a purely defensive way to the criticism of the Christian theological tradition as unfriendly to the natural environment.”[40] There may, in fact, be common mistreatment of nature by that hands of Christians. In truth this should not be the case, as Millard Erickson so eloquently writes, “Everything that is has value, because while it is not God it has been made by him.”[41] Nature is an important mythopoeic expression of abstract truths such as fear, beauty, sovereignty, power, and creativity. Especially now, when people are realizing the gravity of the ecological crisis, Christians should seek to protect the mythopoeic value of nature and use it help people understand the greatest myth of all: the gospel.

Thus, I end my analysis with optimism. Lewis predicted the atrophy of objective values, but within postmodernism we can see the re-enchantment of civilization. This re-enchantment and the religious trends we discussed leave more space for the gospel message than we have seen throughout modernity. The Church should prayerfully seek to cultivate these spiritual longings and interests lest they become men without chests – and more importantly, men without salvation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bassham, Gregory and Eric Bronson, eds. The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All. Chicago: Open Court, 2003.

Bassham, Gregory and Jerry L. Walls, eds. The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview. Chicago: Open Court, 2005.

Berger, Arther Asa, ed. The Postmodern Presence: Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society. London: Alta Mira, 1998.

Bustard, Ned, ed. It Was Good: Making Art for the Glory of God. Baltimore: Square Halo, 2007.

Danto, Arthur C. After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History. New Jersey: Princeton University, 1997.

Elkins, James and David Morgan, eds. Re-Enchantment. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Erickson, Millard. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1998.

Hart, Trevor and Ivan Khovacs, eds. Tree of Tales: Tolkien, Literature, and Theology. Waco: Baylor University, 2007.

Hein, Rolland. Christian Mythmakers: C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, J.R.R. Tolkien, George McDonald, G.K. Chesteron & Others. Chicago: Cornerstone, 1998.

Keller, Timothy. Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. New York: Dutton, 2009.

Kort, Wesley A. C.S. Lewis: Then and Now. Oxford: Oxford University, 2001.

Kreeft, Peter. C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium: Six Essays on the Abolition of Man. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994.

Lewis, C.S. The Abolition of Man. New York: Touchstone, 1944.

Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. London: Harcourt Books, 1960.

Lewis, C.S. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. London: Harcourt, 1955.

Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949.

Markos, Louis. Lewis Agonistes: How C.S. Lewis Can Train us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2003.

Migliore, Daniel. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Plantinga, Cornelius. Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living. Grand Rapids: Eardman’s, 2002.

Plate, S. Brent, ed. Religion, Art, & Visual Culture: A Cross-cultural Reader. New York: Palgrave, 2002.

Ward, Graham and Michael Hoelzl, eds. The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics. London: Continuum International, 2008.

Weibel, Peter. “The Re-enchantment of the World and the End of Modern Art.” In The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics, edited by Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl, 117-128. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008.

---

[1] Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium, 34.

[2] Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, (New York: Dutton, 2009), 167.

[3] S. Brent Plate, ed., Religion, Art, and Visual Culture: A Cross-Cultural Reader (New York: Palgrave, 2002).

[4] Plate, Religion, Art, and Visual Culture, 16.

[5] Plate, 11.

[6] Nikolai G. Wenzel, “Postmodernism and Religion,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sociology of Religion, edited by Peter B. Clarke, 172-193 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 172.

[7] Kreeft, 20.

[8] Kreeft, 20.

[9] Ibid, 20 & 30.

[10] Ibid, 30.

[11] Ibid, 30 & 40.

[12] Kreeft, 34 & 36.

[13] C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (London: Harcourt, 1955), 206.

[14] Kreeft, 16.

[15] Lewis gave a lecture at Cambridge entitled, “De Descriptione Temporum,” concerned with this topic and also wrote extensively on his disagreement with progressivism.

[16] Kreeft, 25.

[17] Arthur Asa Berger, ed., The Postmodern Presence: Readings on Postmodernism in American Culture and Society (London: Alta Mira, 1998), 18.

[18] Berger, 19.

[19] Wenzel, 172.

[20] Wenzel, 176.

[21] Peter Weibel, “The Re-enchantment of the World and the End of Modern Art,” in The New Visibility of Religion: Studies in Religion and Cultural Hermeneutics, edited by Graham Ward and Michael Hoelzl, 117-128, (New York: Continuum, 2008) 120.

[22] Wenzel, 179.

[23] James Elkins and David Morgan, eds, Re-Enchantment (New York: Routledge, 2009) 16.

[24] Kreeft, 165.

[25] Lewis, Surprised by Joy, 170.

[26] Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God’s World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living (Grand Rapids: Eardman’s 2002), p. 4-5.

[27] Lewis, The Weight of Glory (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949), p. 5.

[28] Emphasis added

[29] Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p. 7.

[30] Kirsten Johnson, “Tolkien’s Mythopoesis,” in Tree of Tales: Tolkien, Literature, and Theology, edited by Trevor Hart and Ivan Khovacs, 26.

[31] Ibid, 25.

[32] Ibid, 30.

[33] Johnson, 30.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Ibid, 33.

[36] Johnson, 31.

[37] C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: Harcourt, 1960), 21.

[38] Ibid, 20.

[39] 1Corinthians 4:5

[40] Daniel Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 93.

[41] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1998), 410.