"With the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other" –Karl Barth's pithy recipe for prophetic ministry challenged his fellow theologians, during the rise of the Third Reich, to practice religion with a keen eye for the signs of the times. Today, perhaps Christians online should open scripture in one tab and Technorati in the other. For that purpose, read the Zeitgeist roundup - hyperlinks to spirit of the age.
If you come across something that speaks to you about "the spirit of the times", email us at: zeitgeist@beatitudessociety.org.
Submitted by Alex Carpenter on January 25, 2008 - 10:38pm.
Why a black theology, but not a white theology? First, until the 1970s almost all academic theology was de facto white. But there were still differences due to -- and this is key -- cultural experience. Theologians who lived through the horrors of war were writing differently about God than those who only knew the angst of missing 4 o'clock tea. Like post-WWI Neo-Orthodoxy, post-segregation Black theology speaks to a culture, for some that means ethnicity, for others, that geography is a greater influence.
Hannity wonders why we should have a black theology at all, but that's like speaking about Christianity apart of denominational differences. One cannot speak historically without mentioning Catholic theology or Reformed theology or Evangelical theology. Like the mix of British methods and culture in Methodism, Black theology is a mix of 1960s black culture and mores. One reason that the pundits continue to beat their heads against the wall is that they treat black primarily like a color whereas it is actually functioning as an hermeneutical method, aiding believers in the constant quest to see God working in their lives. Pastors like the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr. read culture and scripture through their experience, not too differently from the way that Martin Luther read "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17) through his own very local experience with unscrupulous religious leaders who required payment for salvation.
Submitted by Alex Carpenter on December 1, 2007 - 7:59am.
Welcome to Beatitudes Society "church," something I created as an excuse to combine some good music with Christianity's ultimate concerns. If you do stay for the service below, feel free to drop a comment about your week and what's on your mind.
The beginning of Advent. The service today centers on the the apocalypse and how humanity confronts our always, already present end.
Opening Prayer
Michael Franti and Spearhead: Time To Go Home
Submitted by Alex Carpenter on November 1, 2007 - 5:30am.
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(World)
Hunting through Haiti, Blog the Debt's saintly scholar, Jeb, researches some economic violence:
In mid-August 2007 Nazaire St. Fort and myself took a tap-tap transport heading out on Delmas toward downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. We soon passed in front of the National Palace, the seat of so many past Haitian presidents and governments.
Crossing a street near the palace, we reached the Ministry of Planification and right next to it the Ministry of Finance. We visited two other government ministries soon after, spending the next few days traveling between them all, entering into rarely touched archives and in the process probably bugging quite a number of ministerial employees (although making friendly acquaintances along the way).
Submitted by Peter Laarman on June 8, 2007 - 12:23am.
So, yeah, I got drawn into the memory hole just a little bit last Friday when the folks who keep track of such things reminded us all that “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released on June 1, 1967. My wonderment (has it been forty years?) intensified on Saturday when I read John Colapinto’s somewhat fawning profile of Paul McCartney’s current life (and just imagine HIS flashbacks) in the June 4 issue of The New Yorker. But all this Beatles-memoro-mania left me thinking more about the future than the past. It left me thinking about the deeper meaning of McCartney’s celebrated add-on couplet: “And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
Here's a pretty revealing one-on-one interview of George Bush on his approach to extracting information from people. It's interesting to see this pattern emerging, evident in the press conference this week as well in which President Bush names the journalist's family as threatened unless we continue to torture human beings or continue the fight in Iraq - a practice that experts (not lawyers) say doesn't actually provide good intelligence. Good intelligence - like WMDs or al Qaeda in Iraq - hmm, it seems that we might want to recheck our methods.
These days it seems that everyone is a part of a faith group coalition for justice. It's exciting to see this level of cooperation and it bodes well for changing the climate of Christian involvement in American public life. Get to know these coalitions, and if I've missed any, drop a note in the comment section.
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I found this video of Iraqi graduate students strangely compelling. First, the usual mix of quotidian stuff flashes by-- exams, summer plans, travel, work, the FUTURE. It seems familiar to anyone around school this time of year, but then one realizes, oh yeah, they all want to get the hell out of their own country.
Rebels from the Sudanese Liberation Army play cards in a house in a deserted village in northern Darfur, May 2006. This branch of the SLA refused to sign the peace deal concluded in May between Sudan's government and another SLA faction, led by Minni Minnawi.
This IPCC report is unique from past reports because it has been able to draw on observed trends, not modeled projections alone, several witnesses noted. Stephen Schneider, from Stanford University, explained that after sitting in the same seat thirty years ago to testify on climate change, this time he was able to confirm that “nature has been cooperating with theory.”
Scientists can attribute changes in the ecosystems of all seven continents and most oceans to alterations in climate. Spring events are arriving earlier, luring eggs to hatch sooner and birds to fly different migration routes. Lakes are warming, glacial lakes are expanding, and permafrost is thawing.
We cannot expect that these changes in nature will not also change our way of life.
Global warming will increase the frequency and severity of floods and droughts, which will influence agricultural crop yields and threaten food security worldwide. Dr. William E. Easterling, one of the hearing’s witnesses, noted that 75 percent to 80 percent of the world’s calories—for animals and humans—are consumed in cereal crops such as wheat, corn, rice, oats, and other staples that are susceptible to floods and droughts. Globally, we can expect exacerbated stress on water resources. In the United States, communities west of the Rockies will come to know this all too well.
Extreme climate variability will force the relocation of millions of people worldwide due to rising sea levels, flooding, storm surges, and droughts. Coastal communities and developing countries are at a magnified risk and will bear a disproportionate amount of the burden.
Action can and should take a range of shapes, from international cooperation and smart agricultural conduct, to localized preparedness, a national cap-and-trade program and more stringent fuel economy standards for our vehicles.
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(America)
In this special report, Anderson Cooper 360 profiles Dr. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed in Longwood, Florida. A longtime conservative, Dr. Hunter stepped down as president of The Christian Coalition of America because he believes that Evangelicals must care "for the vulnerable outside the womb, as well as inside the womb." The "Compassion Issues" we must address, he teaches, include sanctity of life, marriage and family, justice, poverty and creation care.
As emerging Christian leaders, how do we relate to this emerging political realignment?
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(World)
In his NYTimes essay, The Rehabilitation of the Cold-War Liberal, Peter Beinart channels "the tall, German-American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr." Niebuhr was a dedicated opponent of communism, but he was concerned that in pursuing a just cause, Americans would lose sight of their own capacity for injustice. "We must take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization," he wrote. "We must exercise our power. But we ought neither to believe that a nation is capable of perfect disinterestedness in its exercise nor become complacent about particular degrees of interest and passion which corrupt the justice by which the exercise of power is legitimized." Americans, Niebuhr argued, should not emulate the absolute self-confidence of their enemies. They should not pretend that a country that countenanced McCarthyism and segregation was morally pure. Rather, they should cultivate enough self-doubt to ensure that unlike the Communists', their idealism never degenerated into fanaticism. Open-mindedness, he argued, is not "a virtue of people who don't believe anything. It is a virtue of people who know. . .that their beliefs are not absolutely true."
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Submitted by Alex Carpenter on March 23, 2007 - 10:25pm.
(World)
What?! Check out the "World Health Care Conference. Co-sponsored in part by the Wall Street Journal, it is the "most prestigious meeting of chief and senior executives from all sectors of health care. The 2007 conference will convene over 1,800 CEOs, senior executives and government officials from the nation's largest employers, hospitals, health systems, health plans, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and leading government agencies."
Oh, I wonder why it's been so difficult to get 1 out of every seventh American health coverage.
In "Declaration of the Religions for a Global Ethic," Hans Kung writes:
All historical experience demonstrates the following: Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved. This has already been seen in areas such as war and peace or economy and ecology. And it is precisely for this alteration in inner orientation, in the entire mentality, in the "heart," that the religions bear responsibility in a special way... Above all, we would welcome it if individual religions also would formulate their very specific ethic: What they on the basis of their faith tradition have to say, for example, about the meaning of life and death, the enduring of suffering and the forgiveness of guilt, about selfless sacrifice and the necessity of renunciation, compassion and joy. All these will be compatible with a Global Ethic, indeed can deepen it, make it more specific and concrete...We are convinced that the new global order will be a better one only in a socially-beneficial and pluralist, partner-sharing and peace-fostering, nature-friendly and ecumenical globe. Therefore on the basis of our religious convictions we commit ourselves to a common Global Ethic and call upon all women and men of good will to make this Declaration their own.
