[the power of words and the wonder of God]

Video from the Desiring God national conference this weekend is up here:

Conference Video :: Desiring God

I watched Sinclair Ferguson’s message on James this afternoon, and it was good stuff.

[sanity, sin, and the gospel]

These articles by Dr. David Powlison at Boundless have been very pastoral for me. What do you think of Biblical counseling? And what do you think of this quote in particular, from part 3:

It’s crucial, by the way, to understand sin accurately. Most people think that to identify something as “sin” means saying that the person consciously chose to do some bad action. The person also has the power to Just Say No.

But the Bible comes at sin from the opposite direction. We do many wrong, unloving things without even knowing what we’re doing or why. Most sin is not a matter of conscious choice. The “high-handed” sins are conscious. But much of what we do, think and feel expresses that we are blind, self-deceived, metaphorically drunk or sleepwalking, calloused, acting like brute beasts, walking in the dark. So we do not have the power to Just Say No.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[making men with chests]

The following is an excerpt from my final paper in Art, Emotion, and Morality entitled “Fiction and Moral Education: Making Men With Chests”. The title is a reference to C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, a book I heartily recommend!

“When Socrates kicked poetry out of the Republic, he did it on the grounds that art, being a representation of the physical world which is itself a representation of the formal world, is two removes from the truth. Small wonder, then, that Homer is replete with errors about the gods and the afterlife. For anyone seeking to raise up a generation of ethically trained truth-seekers, education by fiction is, according to Socrates, counter-productive: These errors lead to the inculcation of false moral values like fear of death and doubt of the gods.

For those of us who reject Plato’s idealism, we may admit the possibility of stories that convey moral truth. But can such a story give us moral knowledge? Given that knowledge is justified true belief, it is not clear that fiction can provide epistemic justification except in special cases. As a Christian who accepts the divine inspiration of the Bible, I believe that Jesus’ parables can give moral knowledge. Their origin in God is justification for believing whatever ethical truth-claims are put forth or implied in the stories. But what about a novel like A Clockwork Orange, a short story like “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor, or a movie like There Will Be Blood? Apart from divine inspiration, I am unsure that fictions can provide justification for believing the ethical content or accepting the ethical point of view represented therein.

But perhaps there is more to moral education than just the acquisition of moral knowledge. Perhaps the faculties we use to make moral choices based on such knowledge need development to be implemented effectively. After all, learning usually requires a transitional phase of training between the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and actual practice. For example, if you are teaching a student how to write critical essays for a standardized test, you will begin by teaching her the basic theory of literary criticism and essay writing. Then, you will have her hone her skills through writing practice essays. This practice will probably include reading and critiquing poor essays as well, so your student will know just what makes a bad essay bad. Only after this practice is she ready to put her theoretical knowledge, quite literally, to the test. Or one might think more readily of sport as an example. Coaches give their players theoretical knowledge of the skills required for their game. This knowledge is ingrained through drills, the repetition of correct actions until they become habit or ‘muscle memory’. The players supplement their drills with strength training, building up the muscle groups relevant to their sport through resistance. Thus trained, the players are ready to play an actual game where their actions count.

Just like writing a critical essay or making a rugby tackle, moral virtue must be learned through training if it is to be practiced in real life. This training includes both repetition, as in the practice essays and drills, and opposition, as in the bad essay critiques and strength training. Stories in the main may not provide knowledge to the head, but neither do they simply titillate the emotions of the gut. They work on what Plato called the ‘spirited element’, or what C.S. Lewis called, “The Chest—Magnanimity—Sentiment—these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man.” They can provide us with ethical training both through repetition and opposition. This position I call Virtue Training Theory.

“Repetition” in Virtue Training Theory means the process of positively rehearsing the patterns of right thought and emotion, or sentiments, necessary for good moral choice. This occurs when one reads (or watches, etc.) a work of fiction that manifests a true ethical attitude toward its content. It is important that it concerns the morality of the manifest attitude and not the content itself; reading a story that contains immoral content is still an exercise in repetition if the story calls a spade a spade. For example, reading A Clockwork Orange, though its anti-hero Alex perpetrates such immoral acts as rape and murder, is repetition because the immorality of his actions is implicitly acknowledged and even crucial to the novel’s exploration of the ethical dilemma of psychological conditioning and human free will.

“Opposition” in Virtue Training Theory means the process of negatively rehearsing right sentiments through engaging with a work of fiction that manifests a false ethical attitude towards its contents. The film There Will Be Blood manifests an attitude of moral nihilism, through twists and turns of plot getting the audience to feel sympathy for its reprehensible main character and, in the final scene, take pleasure in a brutal murder. In the end we are left feeling that statements about morality do not really say anything because they certainly cannot make sense of the situation presented in the film. Opposition to this film entails understanding its ethical viewpoint, considering its discrepancy with the truth that some attitudes and actions are actually wrong, and internally repudiating it. Both processes, repetition and opposition, contribute to moral education by inculcating just sentiments. [I believe the ideal fictional component of an ethical education would progress from total repetition in grammar school, exposing students only to works with true ethical viewpoints, to an even balance of repetition and opposition by the end of high school.]

I believe Virtue Training Theory finds a place for fiction in ethical education without wrestling with the tricky epistemological problem of grounding our moral knowledge in fiction…”

Throughout the rest of the paper I contrast Virtue Training Theory with another contemporary theory and answer possible objections. If anyone’s interested in reading it, e-mail me and I’ll send you a copy!

[sound doctrine pt. 3]

We’re going to take a break from following the flow of redemptive history in this series, [sound doctrine]. If you remember, part 2 concerned God’s revelation of Himself in the created order, in Christ, and in Scripture, which is the foundation of all our knowledge. The only reason we know about God’s action in history to redeem lost sinners is because He has revealed it to us! The song that went along with that post was my musical adaptation of Psalm 19. This week we’re gonna back up a notch for a meditation on Psalm 18.

The title of Psalm 18 tells us that David “addressed the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.” It’s a Psalm about rescue and warfare, about the Lord going to war on behalf of David and rescuing David from his enemies.

Man, where I’ve been at this summer, this Psalm is a salve for my soul. I’ve been embattled with mind-games and anxiety and been close to despairing. Throughout the month of May the Lord was teaching me about how to daily go to war against sin and for faith, and in the ensuing weeks I abandoned that teaching and chose to believe lies. I’ve failed to oppose temptation and succumbed to sin. But the Lord went to war on my behalf, and He is mighty to save! He has delivered me from my enemies.

I can’t say like David that “The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.” (v. 20) But I can say that He dealt with me according to the righteousness of Christ, Who stood condemned in my place on the cross and bore the wrath that I deserved. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

The Lord has “trained my hands for war” just as He trained David’s. (v. 34) But not against physical enemies like David faced. Rather, I battle against the sin that still dwells within me, the Enemy, Satan, who attempts to accuse and confuse me, and all the other enemies mentioned in the previous post. And the outcome of this battle is sure, because part of what happened at the cross is that God triumphed over evil in Christ. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (Col. 2:15)

I don’t know if where you’re at this summer accords in any with me. But if it does, I hope you are encouraged, because you’re not alone. For all who have trusted in Christ alone for the forgiveness of our sin, God doesn’t treat us as we deserve. He treats us according to Christ’s perfect obedience. And he trains us and empowers us to go to war against our enemies, especially indwelling sin, and we can know victory just like David. This week the Lord has delivered me from a miserable month into knowing His joy again.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Eph. 6:10)

The song that came out of this meditation on Psalm 18 is entitled Warfare Psalm. Just like what is written above, it takes the truths of Psalm 18 and sets them in New Testament context.

For your joy in the Divine Warrior,

Jonathan

Here’s a link to the file for your enjoyment and edification, and the lyrics are below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1i9j2gqtl3j

Warfare Psalm

I love You
O LORD, my strength.
You’re my Rock
And Fortress sure.
When I call
On Your great Name,
Worthy of praise,
Then I am saved.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

You have dealt
Well with me,
Not as I
Deserve, O LORD:
According to
The righteousness
Of Your Son
Given to me.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

The humble You will save,
For You equip with strength.
By You I run against a troop,
And leap a wall.
As I pursue my sin,
In this war within me,
Spirit be my strength to kill it
Until the end.

You, You are the LORD;
You train my hands for war,
And my steps are secure.
You are the LORD,
Mighty in wrath, mighty to save.

[stop it or i'll bury you alive in a box]

Really the greatness of Bob Newhart…