• I made my first contribution to the seminary blog. It's about books. I will be providing content there the 2nd, 12th and 22nd of every month, so mark your calendar. And leave comments, because that's what they pay me by.


• What might the creation story look like if all the deities were present and had the personalities of the guys of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"? Paul Rudnick of the New Yorker has the answer. (link via Dr. Cook; not for the easily offended.)
  

  Day No. 4:
  
  “One word,” said the Lord God. “Landscaping. But I want it to look natural, as if it all somehow just happened.”
  
  “Do rain forests,” suggested a primitive tribal god, who was known only as a clicking noise.
  
  “Rain forests here,” decreed the Lord God. “And deserts there. For a spa feeling.”
  
  “Which is fresh, but let’s give it glow,” said Buddha. “Polished stones and bamboo, with a soothing trickle of something.”
  
  “I know where you’re going,” said the Lord God. “But why am I seeing scented candles and a signature body wash?”
  
  “Shut up,” said Buddha.
  
  “You shut up,” said the Lord God.
  
  “It’s all about the mix,” Allah declared in a calming voice. “Now let’s look at some swatches.”



• Speaking of the New Yorker, Geoff over at Communality references a piece from the print magazine by social guru Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink) about what fame and fortune have done for purpose-driven Rick Warren. According to Warren,
  

  Out of that Psalm [72], God said to me that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. That changed my life. I had to repent. I said, I'm sorry, widows and orphans have not been on my radar.....I started reading through scripture. I said, How did i miss the two thousand verses on the poor into he Bible? So i said, I will use whatever affluence and influence that you give me to help those who are marginalized.

  
  Very interesting.


• This just in: Sufjan Stevens reference at OverCompensating!


• Alan has a piece for the online version of Relevant Magazine about the lifestyle of liturgy:
  

  As we re-examine the mode of our active Christian lives, we are discovering the real value of a liturgical lifestyle, not only the trappings of liturgical worship. We are finding, once again, the real spiritual formation that happens in the context of close Christian community, and we are finding ways of living that out in the midst of "real life." The monastic life is not merely a life of quiet and solitude, although there are elements of that within it. It is a liturgical lifestyle—a life of "spiritual work" that is done by a community together.

  
  Two thumbs up. Read it all yourself.

posted by Peter at 12:36 AM
| | permalink |