Virtual Methodist

In order to counterbalance last week's repost of Ben Myer's 12 Theses on Sadness , and to allay the fears of those who think I'm about to take a long walk off a short pier, here is his recent post on "Joy." Maybe it's just where I am, but I don't find his thinking quite so compelling as in last week's post, however I do firmly believe in something said by Gerald Coates (always one to say something interesting, even if it is completely bonkers far too often) "If the joy of the Lord is our strength, it's little wonder that the church in Britain has been so weak and ineffective." Gerald Coates (1984) Anyway, here's Ben Myer's "Ode to Joy" 1. As icons are painted on gold, so the lives of saints are written on a background of light. 2. Evelyn Underhill knew a saintly man, Father Wainwright. ‘He was an indifferent – and in later years an inarticulate – preacher; people came to his sermons, not so much to listen as to look at h...

It's not often that I reblog someone else's piece in its entirety, but this is too good not to... I picked it up through Richard Hall over at Connexions (a great site for picking up material from across the blogsphere when it is not being assailed by Zionists) but it is originally by Ben Myers over on Faith and Theology . Its on a theme I've been touching on a lot recently (clearly my time of life!!!) but it isn't a theme that is covered by many Christian writers. It also mashes well with the song by Andrew Peterson I've posted at the end of the article. 1. The precursor of the human smile was the caveman’s savage grimace ( Angus Trumble, A Brief History of the Smile , p. 3). The invention of dentistry is the main difference between this threatening grimace and the polite social convention of the modern smile. 2. In the Protestant West today, smiling has become a moral imperative. The smile is regarded as the objective externalisation of a well ordered life. ...

I've been back from my summer travels for a wee while now and back at work for a few days, but I've had a lot to clear up both personally (I'll rant about that in due course) and in terms of the usual backlog of emails and paper, so I have hardly looked at the blog in ages... So I thought I would dip my foot in the water by sharing a few interesting links that I've come across in recent days... Some I've already posted on FB, but most of them demand more attention than I ever give to something over there. Most are of a theological bent, but some touch on my other diverse interests. On the theological front, Patrick Mitchel picks up on Ben Myers thoughts regarding theology in the blogosphere and applies them to denominational theology in Ireland. It will be interesting to see how this develops. Meanwhile, Karen Spears Zacharias (don't know if she's a relation of Ravi) has written an interesting piece on the hoary old subject of militarism and nationalism in A...

I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss... The sad thing is that my boys are now at the age where they are putting such chidlish things behind them... So I'll have to wait another 20 years or so until I unearth them again... I have used a couple of them in various ways within talks and church events in the past, and have previously blogged a version for 2 voices, but I have never attempted to discern an overarching "Seussian Theology". However, Robert Short, tired of mining the Peanuts cartoons for theological nuggets, has, and has just published "The Parables of Dr. Seuss" which seems to read FAR too much into them (just as he did in his former books). When will people learn that good parables (e.g. those told by a certain carpernter from Nazareth) are generally metaphorical, NOT direct analogies, and are to be inhabited and appropriated by the reader!? Sorry, just got side-tracked into a litero-philosophical rant... The reason I was posting was to direct fellow Seuss fa...