The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis - This is a collection of three polemical essays against subjectivism. I do not have much of a background in postmodern thought, but Lewis really seemed to have some good arguments for absolutes (and not just moral absolutes). The last essay had a provocative argument concerning man conquering nature. A tree in its natural state can be lovely. It can serve a purpose apart from man. When it is cut down and turned into lumber, it is reduced to an object. The planets and stars can cause us to wonder, to dream, even dread. Once astronomy explains them, they too lose their mystery and become just objects moving in space. A dog can be a loyal and friendly pet. Once we breed and raise them to sell, they become an object that supplies us wealth. There is a continual pattern of man conquering and in so doing, turning that conquered part of nature into a tool - into an object. What happens if we conquer our own reproduction through genetic engineering? Does man turn into a tool, an object?

The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton - This was highly recommended to me. It is financial advice through the medium of a fictional story. The story is fairly contrived, but I can see how it appeals to people. The author has good advice (especially on life insurance), but is too conservative on credit card usage (as in don't have any). It also has a realistic discussion on the limited benefits of budgeting for personal finances.

Martin Bucer: Reforming Church and Community edited by D. F. Wright - Martin Bucer is currently my favorite reformer. When I purchased this book I thought it was a biography of Bucer, but it turned out to be a collection of essays. They provided some interesting insights such as Bucer not being as much of a softy as he is sometimes made out to be. He gets labelled this way because he often served as a mediator between various reformers and between reformers and the Catholic Church. I still feel like I need a big picture view of his life to appreciate many of the essays.

Defining the marks of a true church was an interest of the Reformers for obvious reasons. The objective of this exercise was to find a set of criteria that can be used to distinguish true churches from false churches (or dead churches in our day). Martin Bucer contributed to this discussion through his commentary on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. His five marks of the true church were

• heeding the shepherd's voice
• the ministry of teaching
• suitable ministers of the Word
• the lawful dispensation of the sacraments
• righteousness and holiness of life

This lists seems to reflect a reaction against the current state of the church that Bucer had just left. The priests often lived far from moral lives. Many could not read a word of Latin so not only were the people prevented from hearing teaching in the common language, but they were subjected to mumbled Latin. I also find it interesting that correct doctrine was not explicitly stated as a mark.

Reference: “Bucer’s Commentaries on Ephesians” by Peter Stephens

Back in April when I was putting this site together, I also started a photo site. I managed to code up the main page, but I never got around to integrating the rest of the photo gallery code. Unfinished projects... Well, I have been working on completing this for the past two weeks, and I am happy to say it is done.

New features include slide shows, an rss feed, and a family photos area (also with a separate rss feed). I also worked on making the interface more consistent. (That should please some people.)

The main photo gallery is where I will post what I consider to be my best photos. I am trying to post at least one new photo a week there. Now you're not likely to see embarrassing pictures of Shannon in the main gallery. For that, you need to go to the family photo site.

I receive a fair number of visits from people looking for RSS Bible verse services. These are often provided by the publisher of a particular Bible version and send out a new verse each day through RSS. Here are two sites that I have tried or know about:

• English Standard Version - a few different options
• Bible Gateway (variety of versions in the feed) - direct link to RSS feed

There are also many that send out a short devotional with one or more verses like the IBS.

When I consider the English language, I think of it as a rich language — well, at least lexically rich. It's in the Germanic family of languages but also has inherited a significant number of words from French (Norman conquest) and from Latin (language of education and law). Somewhere along the line it lost its pronouns. This can cause confusion in every day communication as everyone has probably experienced. It is even more of a problem when translating from a language that has plenty of pronouns. (See my last post for an example.)

Recently, I came across an interesting case of this latter problem being examined in an article in the journal Babel. (Great name for a linguistics journal.) You can read the abstract here. Basically, a short story by Anton Chekhov requires two different second person pronouns that exist, of course, in Russian but not in English. The author of the article claims that this prevents a reader from appreciating the story when read in translation. He says that the English reader loses information about the relationship between the two main characters. I am fascinated by the concept of text that is untranslatable.

And if the current lack of pronouns in English wasn't bad enough, grammarians tell us we are losing another one: whom.

“Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” (NIV)

The “you” here is plural and so refers to the church. But what does it mean to destroy the church? It must be more than building it with “wood, hay or straw” for the man who does that sees his efforts burned up, but he himself survives. In contrast, the man who destroys the church is in turn destroyed by God. That sounds painful. This verse leads to the corresponding question of what does it mean for God to destroy a man. The Bible Knowledge Commentary also points out that this sounds like an application of the Old Testament law of retribution (an eye for an eye).

As a side note, when I was comparing different translations of these verses, I decided that I preferred the NIV version for two reasons. One, it was the only one that I looked at that preserved the second person plural pronoun when talking about the church. English does not have a distinct second person plural pronoun unlike many other languages. The translators communicated this information by using “you yourselves” instead of just “you.” (I suppose it could have been “Don't you know that you all are God's temple.”) Two, the NIV uses “destroy” for both the man's and God's actions unlike the versions in the KJV family. Doing this does a better job at preserving the reference to retribution that a reader might remember from a passage like Genesis 9:6.

Location: Mt. Washington, MA
Distance: 5 or 6 miles
Elevation Gain: I would guess >2000 ft
Date: August 20, 2005

We met up with our friend Andy in the exciting town of Torrington, CT for the purpose of hiking. The drive was suppose to take a little over five hours but ended up being over eight due to traffic. Yuck. We had hiked up the tallest mountain in Massachusetts (Mt. Greylock) last year and we were taking on number two this year. (This is Massachusetts so that is not too impressive.) Mount Everett is in the southeast corner of the state in a small state reservation. The Appalachian Trail crosses over the top of the mountain as it is wont to do with mountains. The day was not too warm — good for hiking. It was raining lightly, and it was foggy. It would remain that way for the entire hike.

The trail was a typical Appalachian type of trial. It was not wide like the access roads we have been hiking on lately. It had plenty of roots and rocks to trip you and it was also easy to miss a trail blaze in several sections. We were fortunate that even though it was raining the forest canopy was thick enough so that we did not get wet until we got up above the tree line. Shannon had blister problems and did the last mile to the summit in bare feet. Crazy.

The view from the summit was nothing to write home about as can be seen in the photo on the right. The waterfall that was suppose to be a big attraction was also a disappointment because the summer had reduced it to nothing more than a trickle. That's fine because we got to feast on beef jerky and trail mix at the top on what was left of an old fire tower. Hiking up a few thousand feet makes a person appreciate things like granola.

The highlight on the way down was the discovery of a large blueberry patch overflowing with berries. The whole hike was enough that we felt it in our legs on the way down — not enough to be sore the next day, but enough to be glad that we did not have to walk any further.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (ESV - entire text)

In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman makes an interesting suggestion regarding the Second Commandment. Worshipping and serving God required abstract thinking by the Israelites. He does not exist in bodily form nor can he be properly comprehended through any physical analogies. People who record their experiences in and communicate through images, statues and the like will probably struggle with the idea of a universal, spiritual God. This is why God reveals himself through the Word, which is conducive to abstract thought.

The Island of Dr Moreau by H. G. Wells - As pure science fiction, I found this ordinary. The science part was rather unbelievable and the plot was predictable. It is the themes that Wells was exploring that would make this an interesting read. I was listening to this in NYC traffic so I do not think I grasped all of it. I would say it was a commentary on the optimism of man's potential (Enlightenment), animal nature of man (Darwinism), self-enforced social orders, and religion.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - This is worth reading just for the puns.

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie - I guess I must be trying to catch up on my reading of children's literature. Great first line: "All children, except one, grow up." The narrator's sarcasm is something to appreciate.

Paul uses three metaphors in chapter 3 of First Corinthians: physical development to represent spiritual growth and the growth of the Church as farming a field or constructing a building. Here are some observations on the latter two metaphors — first separately and then jointly.

Church as Field
The Corinthians did not understand that God deserves the glory, not man. Making things grow is so much more difficult than just planting or watering.

Church as Building
Paul writes “Let each one take care how he builds upon it [foundation of Jesus Christ].” We will sometimes build with the wrong “stuff.” It is not always obvious to us what is the best way to build the Church.

General Observations
In both metaphors, there is a reward, but it is given in the future, not in the present. It is also given by God, not by man. Also, farming and construction both require multiple participants due to the amount of work and the different skills required (especially with construction). In both metaphors, Paul begins the work — planting the seed and laying the foundation — while others continue the work. One person doing all the work is not the ideal.

Location: Harpers Ferry, WV
Distance: ~6 miles
Date: July 23, 2005

We are always looking for good hikes within a day's drive. The hike up Maryland Heights qualifies. It is on the Maryland side of the Potomac River across from Harpers Ferry. This area was important during the Civil Way because of its location. One particular bridge was destroyed nine times during the war.

We had stayed the night in Harpers Ferry so we could get an early start on the hike. We started from the train station and joined the Appalachian Trail in the historic part of the town. After crossing the Potomac on an old railroad bridge, the trail to the heights turns left along the C&O Canal. The trail up the heights follows old military roads used to transport supplies and guns to the forts at the top. It is said that Abraham Lincoln tried to walk up one of the roads in order to inspect the troops but gave up due to some strenuous sections.

Due to our early start, we only shared the trail with several deer. We did not see any people until we were most of the way down. Along the trail to the stone fort commanding the top of the heights are interpretative signs pointing out the artifacts and giving some history. It is hard to believe that men dragged 10,000 pound guns up those heights. They also cleared off all the trees to give them a view of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers below. At several spots, remains of the stone walls can be seen. The views that were available to the soldiers of that time are there no longer since the trees have grown up.

We did have some nice views of Harpers Ferry from the cliffs on the way down. From there you can see the arsenal that John Brown raided and the only church to survive intact through the war in Harpers Ferry — St Peter's Catholic Church. Father Costello raised the British flag over the church to indicate neutrality. Some think the two armies were afraid of shelling the church because of that. This extension did add a mile to the hike, but it was worth it. By this point, it was almost ten o'clock and there was a steady stream of tourists headed to this overlook. We were glad to be going back down to escape the onslaught of the heat of the day.