Note 1: Some readers may have noticed that in addition to a new layout, this blog now has a new URL –jasongoroncy.com. But, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, ‘Don’t panic!’ Those who visit the old ‘cruciality’ address(es) will be automatically directed to their new equivalent, and those who subscribe to posts via the RSS feed or via email will continue to receive that service uninterrupted (or so I am led to believe). Please let me know if you encounter any problems accessing a page.
Note 2a: I’m wondering about replacing the ‘Some Current Reading’ section (in the sidebar) with ‘Good Recent Reads’, highlighting what have been my favourite reads during the previous month. This is because it seems to be more helpful to draw readers’ attention to books that one has most appreciated than to inform (or to show off) about what one is currently reading, although I accept that there may be some uses for the latter too. Might add film and music as well; in which case it may have to be under the title ‘Good Reads, Sounds and Films’. If anyone has any strong opinions to share on this subject, I’m all ears.
Note 2b: Please return now to what you were doing before you were rudely interrupted by this broadcast.
To those who read this blog’s content via the RSS feed,
Thank you for being a regular reader of Per Crucem ad Lucem via the feed. You will all almost certainly know by now that Google Reader will be retiring on 1 July. If Google Reader has been your preferred feed reader, and you’re an RSS junkie like me, then you will need to choose a new reader. If you’re yet to choose a replacement reader, it’s really time to do a bit of homework. Certainly there is no shortage of sites listing the pros and cons of the various readers, but the mainline options seem to be The Old Reader, NewsBlur, Feedly, Bloglines, Digg, Feedreader, Newsvibe, Pulse, Tiny Tiny RSS, FeedDemon and Yahoo Pipes. For what it’s worth, and these decisions are highly subjective, my first choice of reader – by far – is Feedly.
Of course, dear readers of this blog can also subscribe to posts here at PCaL via email. There are even some of you who get the email in addition to the feed; double points! If you fill out the form on the right hand side (on the desktop version), each new post will magically appear in your inbox. How cool is that!
Thanks again for your interest, interaction and encouragement.
Apologies to those who receive this blog’s posts via the email subscription and who inadvertently received an unbaked, or at least half-baked, version of the previous post. It was typed up on the WordPress app (as was this apology) while I was both horizontal and half asleep and I had meant to save the post as a draft and work on it sometime after the birds announced the new day.
I understand that such sloppiness indicates neither the end of the world nor a sign of such.
Quite a lineup – John Milbank, Benjamin Myers, Susan Neiman, Kevin Hart, Richard Kearney, Marilyn McCord Adams and Stanley Hauerwas – discuss God, good and evil
Finally, I want to give a big shout out to a friend, minister and musician named Malcolm Gordon. Malcs has been busy writing material for his latest album. (You can check out some of his earlier work here and here. You can even get some of it for free here.) The songs have grown out of his preaching ministry at St Paul’s Presbyterian in Katikati, in the Bay of Plenty. For a while now, Malcs has known that most of our theology (good and bad) is sung. He writes: ‘That’s how we retain and take ownership of anything, we hum it, we whistle it – we take the word made flesh and make it a song’.
Malcolm has recently stepped out of parish ministry to make more space for this wildly unpredictable gift of music, and he’s about to head into the studio to record an album that has the tentative working title, ‘Into the deep.’ You can listen to the title track itself here:
About this song, Malcolm writes: ‘This song seems to capture the incredible feeling of being out of our depth as we seek to follow the call of God into something that doesn’t even seem to exist yet. Still God’s word is a creative word, making so as it calls us to – well here’s hoping!’
Malcolm is currently and shamelessly trying to raise funds to complete the album through the mixing and mastering stage. So if you like what you hear, and want the church to hear more of it, and sing more of it, then please consider helping him out through this campaign on Social backing.
0800: I’m waiting for the final of the women’s 200-metre race to begin. I’m watching it on free-to-air tv. I have a mug of earl grey tea and an empty breakfast bowl. I’m liking the look of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and wishing that I had her hair.
0801: They’re off!
0801: They seem to be running faster than I could. This will not be a surprise to many.
0801: Allyson Felix has won. Her hair is definitely not as cool.
0802: Not sure the live blog format quite works for these events.
0810: I’m still thinking about Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s hair. Time for a shower and to get ready for work.
Since moving this blog from Blogger to WordPress, Per Crucem ad Lucem has received over one million hits. I’m not suggesting that there is any correlation between these two facts. I simply wanted to say ‘Thank you’ for visiting, for commenting, for sharing links, for leaving, and then for stopping by again.
Like most bloggers, I guess, I’ve wondered, from time to time, about packing in the mouse, but then something happens, and the mouse … well, the batteries get changed or re-charged and off we go again. It will not always be so, of course. With probably even less claim to life than grass and flowers, this blog (and its author) will wither and fade (Isa 40.8). Indeed, among its raisons d’être is to bear witness to this hope. But for now, and in the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, ‘For all that has been – thanks. To all that will be – yes’.
The biggest threat to science and scientific progress is not religion or religious believers, with our superstitious or supernatural beliefs, but the arrogance of those atheist fundamentalists among the scientific community who believe that science is the only legitimate and conceivable way to explain or understand the world – and who antagonise a sceptical public in the process.
John Dennison reviewsThe Snake-Haired Muse: James K. Baxter and Classical Myth.
Keith Anderson reviews Eugene Peterson’s The Pastor: A Memoir(a book on my Wishlist; no this is not a hint for someone out there to buy me a copy).
And an enthusiastic plug: Among my current ‘listens’ (some of which appear in the sidebar) is the Hilliard Ensemble’s Perotin. Incredible! Yes, this is a hint to buy yourself a copy.
While much is abstruse in these caliginous times, and most blogging seems to be ‘for babes and the shallower type of women’ (as W.B. Selbie described the preaching of his own day), one thing is clear: Ben Myers has not been influenced in the slightest by my wife’s assessment of me. Apparently, I’m ‘relentlessly productive’ at something.
Now there’s a thought.
Speaking of such lists, check out John Crace’s latest piece on 2011’s ‘must reads’.
And speaking of productive, you may like to check out Rowan Williams’ wee chat with Bridget Kendall (of the BBC’s One to One program) about Dostoevsky.
Regular readers of Per Crucem ad Lucem may have noticed that of late I’ve been playing around a little with the template and layout of this blog. Seemed like a good idea at the time (i.e., I felt it needed a sprucing up), and it offered me a nice break from writing lectures (and blog posts for that matter). Anyway, any thoughts you may have about the new layout will be gratefully received.
I guess that it is encouraging to see blogging catching on among Presbyterian ministers (and their partners) here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here’s a list (repeated in the sidebar) of those that I know of:
Trevor Cairney reports on Jeremy Begbie’s 2010 New College Lectures on ‘Music, Modernity and God’. For those, like me, who couldn’t be there but wanted to, there’s MP3s to come!
Andy Goodliff draws attention to an upcoming conference – Nil Illegitimi Carborundum: A Conference on Theology, the Church, and Controversy – at the University of Aberdeen from 1–3 July, 2010. Speakers include Robert Jenson, Vigen Guroian, David Bentley Hart, Peter J. Leithart, Carl Trueman, John Webster, Laurence Hemming, Susan Frank Parsons, Markus Mühling, Peter McMylor, Francesca Murphy, and Brian Brock.
Finally, a good reflection by Rowan Williams, ‘Out of the abyss of individualism’: ‘… the importance of the family isn’t a sentimental idealising of domestic life; it is about understanding that you grow in emotional intelligence and maturity because of a reality that is unconditionally faithful. In religious terms the unconditionality of family love is a faint mirror of God’s unconditional commitment to be there for us. Similarly, the importance of imaginative life is not a vague belief that we should all have our creative side encouraged but comes out of the notion that the world we live in is rooted in an infinite life, whose dimensions we shall never get hold of. As for the essential character of human mutuality, this connects for me with the Christian belief that if someone else is damaged, frustrated, offended or oppressed, everyone’s humanity is diminished’. Read the rest here.
The paucity of regular blogging is an indication that it has been one of those weeks. The next 2-3 aren’t looking much better I’m afraid, after which time our regular blogging service will continue … Lord willing.
Sorry Rick, I’m all out of steroids at the moment.
Finally, a few years back I posted 12 wee reflections for Advent. I [probably] won’t be repeating this practice again this year but these Advent Reflections are still available online for those who might like to use them.
And yeah, don’t forget to cast your vote in our Who said it? competition.
Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Duke Divinity School recently hosted a conversation by Stanley Hauerwas and David Crabtree on the theme of living faithfully amid the social, political, and financial challenges of our day
He has a great nose (for theology that is) and his blog, Retired Pastor Ruminates, is one of my regular theo-blog stopping places. Many of Rick’s reflections bear witness to the sparks created at the intersection between pastoral ministry and theology, and draw sensibly on a lifetime of intimate and public engaging in both. To be sure, I never miss reading one of his posts, even those wherein he deliberates on things completely irrelevant like the Boston Red Sox. Regular readers of Per Crucem ad Lucem might consider adding Rick’s blog to your list and/or to your feed. Need a reason? Rick’s latest post on Karl Barth and preaching is all the reason you should require. He has also posted recently on Lesslie Newbigin, a Prayer for a Retired Pastor and a recipe for borscht.
Note 1: Some readers may have noticed that in addition to a new layout, this blog now has a new URL – jasongoroncy.com. But, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, ‘Don’t panic!’ Those who visit the old ‘cruciality’ address(es) will be automatically directed to their new equivalent, and those who subscribe to posts via the RSS feed or via email will continue to receive that service uninterrupted (or so I am led to believe). Please let me know if you encounter any problems accessing a page.
jasongoroncy.com 