Review: "Coffeehouse Theolgy" by Ed Cyzewski
Today’s book review is Ed Cyzewski’s Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life. (Full disclosure, I’m participating in a Blog Tour coinciding with the book’s release.)
I really appreciated Jim’s review of the book, both for its description and criticism. I don’t have too much new to add, but… 
In the book, Ed lays out an introduction to what he calls “contextual theology” which is basically saying, “Hey, it turns out our lives, faith, and experienced are really influenced by factors beyond us. So I bet our faith, our theology, even the way we read the Bible is too.”
As Ed writes elsewhere, “In other words, we have mission, culture, the doctrine of God, Biblical theology, church history, and global Christianity, but need a fresh look at how they all relate together in our pursuit of contextual theology.”
For those of us for whom these ideas of context, social-location, and different world perspectives are a new concept the book would be really great — perhaps someone who grew up with a very strict black/white faith but who, after whatever experiences, is beginning to feel some cracks in the foundation of that sort of faith. For those folks this book may be a really valuable resource — especially considering the suggested opportunities for further reading at the close of each chapter.
For me, however, the book didn’t particularly pique my interest for a simple reason. Ed and I come from very different backgrounds. I was encouraged to consider the veracity of the virgin birth in middle school youth group. It was at public school — not church — where I first heard that evolution was questionable. “Context” is practically my seminary’s motto.
I appreciate Coffeehouse Theology for what it is, though, an introduction to contextual theology in a clear, easy-to-read, and approachable way. If you’re new to the idea that people in different parts of the world will read the Bible very differently from you, or that the authors’ original intent is not always explicit, or that theology colors the way we read the scriptures, then pick up a copy, take it to your local coffeehouse, and enjoy.
(Very theological) Review of a Secular Ecological Work: Brown's "Plan B 3.0"
I’ll be putting a few book reviews up over the next few days. Guess what I’ve been doing recently?
The first is of Lester R. Brown’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. I read Brown for my Creation, New Creation, and Ecology class and to a person the class was really impressed with the book.
As Matt points out here, it is pretty overwhelming at times, and indicting too. I’ll analyze it below with some theological terms, but I’d say that it’s by far the best book I’ve read on the ecological crisis and what we must do to correct it–or die.
Brown structures his book in a simple two-fold manner. In part I, “A Civilization in Trouble,” Brown lays out the harrowing facts of our time. We may hit peak oil production by 2030. And while an oil-based economic system is severely flawed as it is, without ecologically-sensible alternatives in place in the next few decades our way of life–indeed, the very lives of millions of people, let alone animals–will be in grave danger. Brown continues the sobering story with heavy details about rising temperatures and sea-levels–and the creatures they will affect–food shortages, water crises, desertification, extinctions, and population growth. The first half of the book informs, convicts, and horrors in striking ways.
Part II, “The Response–Plan B” paints a prettier picture of what might be done to curb, prevent, and restore such devastation. In “Plan B” Brown gives hope by explaining what progress has already been made. With well-spent funds he instructs how we might avert epidemics, feed more mouths, re-structure our transportation systems, and gain efficiency. The hopeful second half of the book charms and excites while a the brief third section explains how the means to financing these changes are within reach.
Though it was pretty really effective, as a theologian Brown’s two-part structure gave me pause as it reminded me of a misreading of Martin Luther’s law/gospel theology. That misreading, but a common stereotype of Luther, holds Luther’s law/gospel theology uses a stark dichotomy to distinguish between law and gospel. “Law is bad, negative, convicting, sinful” goes this reading, “and gospel is good, positive, affirming, grace-filled–in short, Jesus Christ.”
This law/gospel stereotype builds assumptions onto old pseudo accuracies and ends up barely resembling Luther’s original theology.
… Continue Reading
Stewardship in an Economic Downturn
Several of my pastor friends are in the midst of overseeing their first stewardship campaigns in the midst of the worse economic crisis since the great depression. Darn.
I’ve heard it said, though, that church givings tend not to go down in difficult economic times. If this is true, what might it suggest?
Do people just feel too bad about lowering a pledge to a church so they cut back on other things but not givings?
Certainly, then, people could afford to give more generously to their congregation in good economic times, right?
Does it also suggest that people tend to give not as a percentage of their income (which may be dropping or not rising as quickly as usual) but as a lump sum per month as in a membership fee?
Though congregations particularly affected by the economic crisis remain in my prayers I also remember the fact that Presbyterians give about 2.5% of their income to all charitable causes including their congregation. This statistic remains, in my estimation, a brutal indictment of our lack of generosity.
And don’t get my started on the giving rates in the Church of Scotland…
For funzies, my first poll with the new wordpress easy poll maker is below. Hope it works!
image by gravityx9
Quote of the Day
From Lester R. Brown’s Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization…
“The key to building a global economy that can sustain economic progress is the creation of an honest market, one that tells the ecological truth. To create an honest market, we need to restructure the tax system by reducing taxes on work and raising them on various environmentally destructive activites to incoporate indirect costs ino the market place.
If we can get the market to tell the truth, then we can avoid being blindsided by a faulty accounting system that leads to bankrupcy. As Oystein Dahle, former Vice President of Exxon for Norway and the North Sea has observed, ‘Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Captialism may collapse because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.’“
I'm a Georgia Voter
I voted on Friday. It took an hour. It was amazing. When we arrived at the Dekalb County Office we saw plenty of cars in the parking lot and figured we’d probably have to wait a bit in line, so we weren’t too surprised to see the line, once we got inside, went a good ways down the hallway. So we picked up our forms and started following it.
And following it.
And following….
We walked all the way down a long hallway and turned, only to walk a long way down the next hallway. At the end of that we ended up in an old warehouse-feeling part of the building and the line just kept going.
Here’s some pictures.
It was a great civic moment, or hour actually. People of all races and socio-economic classes. Gay couples and straight. Moms with babies and single men who had never voted before.
When we finally got to the end of the line we arrived at the room with about 30 voting machines. I popped in my electronic card and used the (silly) touchscreen voting machine. My vote went off into the ether. I sure hope it was counted because I don’t have any proof that it was made.
But I’ll remember that line forever. Yes it should be shorter and easier to vote. But, who knows, maybe one day I’ll tell my grandchildren about the day when I helped elect a remarkable leader, a true patriot, a paradigm-changing figure, the first black President of the United States.
I wonder
I wonder.
I wonder if Michelle Bachmann, R Minn, really does think a significant portion of the US congress is “anti-American.”
I wonder if McCain regrets the tenor of his recent rallies.
I wonder why Palin is so narrow in her definition of true Americans.
I wonder if McCain/Palin would rather win at all costs, or have every American aware of Obama’s Christian faith and patriotism.
I wonder why “spreading the wealth” is socialist if that’s what all taxes do in the first place.
I wonder why we’re so scared of socialists.
I wonder what America would look like if we had more patriots like Colin Powell who served two Bush presidents and said,
Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
I wonder if we can blame things on “silly season” in politics, or if this season just brings out what we already think but usually don’t say.
I wonder why we don’t have more insightful discussions of church and politics like Jan Edminston’s.
I wonder who benefits the US more: a school teacher on the prairie or another DC lawyer.
I wonder if it might just be more patriotic to plant vegetables in our front yards than buy chicken raised in California shipped to China for packaging then shipped back to California to be sent to grocery stores on the east coast.
I wonder how many us will vote.
I wonder.
image by salingpusa
Super-quick new MacBook Review
After saving and waiting for months, I purchased a new uni-body aluminum MacBook on Friday. No surprise here: I love it. I moved up from a three-year old iBook G4 which was great, but you could tell it was three years old.
Here’s my quick two cents:
Big pros:
- I love the screen. I was skeptical and wasn’t sure of the lack of ridge, but it’s so bright and shiny it’s impossible not to fall in love with it. If I go back to something on my iBook I have to practically get a magnifying glass.
- It’s fast as, well, something really fast. Love that. At one point during my transfer of files I had 4,000 pics in iPhoto and it was smooth and silk.
- The design is gorgeous. I feel like I have a piece of highly functional art more than I have a computer.
- I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I’d be upgrading to Leopard operating system with the purchase but, wow, it’s great too. No enormous changes–and some are so logical that you barely notice–but it’s really great to work with. I really do like Spaces, and the new iWork is spiffy, and Stacks is cool too. And little things like having sticky notes that minimize so folks sitting beside you can’t read them is nice as well.
- the mouse/track pad. It’s the perfect size and I don’t miss the button at all. Once I get really used to it, I think it’ll save big time. I don’t have any errant clicks, but I do have lots of easier use of it due to its size and not having to find the button (oh, the big change is that they took away the button and now the whole track pad is the button/can be pushed down.) I really like the fact that you can click with two fingers and it functions as a right click.
- the sound quality from the speakers is really pretty amazing.
- I really like the efforts Apple is making to go green. All the recyclables and lack of bad chemicals in the new MacBook makes me feel all gushy inside.
A few cons:
- I wish the electrical cord thingy was a new design. It was great a few years ago, but making it smaller and a different color would be nice.
- due to the secrecy of the roll out, it’s hard to find a case that fits it snugly. I’m now on the look out since the only 13’ incase one is a bit loose.
- the black keys get a little smudgy — when you look at them at an angle you can see finger oils.
- some people miss the firewire cord. I’ve never used one, so that’s no big deal to me. But I’ll put that out there.
- I’ll add more later, but that’s all that comes to mind at the moment.
- UPDATE: The up and down arrow keys are tiny and too close together. This throws me of when maneuvering.
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