The Power of Music (& Why the Taliban Wants to Banish It)

I've been slow-reading Jeremy Begbie's Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music. It's time to make a post. Begbie is Research Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School.

In his intro to the book Begbie writes of the power of music. I'm now thinking of when I was a campus pastor at Michigan State University and the massive offensive lineman Tony Mandarich was there. Mandarich used to listen to Guns 'N Roses music before he ran onto the field to play the game. That music empowered him. I was listening to Tracy Chapman's incredible "Revolution" song recently and felt like running out into the streets to change the world. This summer when I was sitting for hours on the shores of Lake Michigan I was listening to Bruce Cockburn, and his passionate lyrics and melodies were interpreting nature and life for me. As a musician myself I have no doubt that music has "power."

Begbie writes that "few doubt that music can call forth the deepest things of the human spirit and affect behavior at the most profound levels. Anyone who has parented a teenager will not need to be told this - study after stufy has shown that music often plays a pivotal part in the formation of young people's identity, self-image, and patterns of behavior." (15-16)

I wrote a song that was sung at my wedding. But I had it recorded, because I would not have been able to sing it to Linda on that day without totally losing it.

Music relieves factory workers of boredom and fatigue, "warriors forget their fear and rush into battle, and the mentally ill are helped to health." (16)

I've listened a lot to the music of Arvo Part. It haunts me, it makes me want to cry. It's on my mp3 player, ready to play when I need a metaphysical readjusting. 

Begbie writes: "Polish sacred music played a key role in the solidarities that eventually overturned communism. It is small wonder that some totalitarian regimes have been extremely nervous about music (the Taliban administration in Afghanistan sought to ban virtually all music because of its perceived social dangers) and that others have unashamedly harnessed it precisely because of its influence (the Nazis, for example). Any Christian who cares about the good of human society ought to be concerned with what kind of power music might possess and how such power might be used responsibly." (16)

After my son David died listening to U2's "One Tree Hill" was part of my healing. For the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein "the slow movement from Brahms' third Quartet pulled him back from the brink of suicide." (16) Sting has said, Music "saved my life. It saved my sanity." (16)

"Music," said George Steiner, is "a preferred medium for expressing religious meaning." (16) Steiner writes:

"Music and the metaphysical, in the root sense of that term, music and religious feeling, have been virtually inseparable. It is in and through music that we are most immediately in the presence of the logically, of the verbally inexpressible but wholly palpable energy in being that communicates to our senses and to our reflection what little we can grasp of the naked wonder of life... It has long been, it continues to be, the unwritten theology of those who lack or reject any formal creed." (In Begbie, 16-17)

Begbie cites, for example, "the fierce crucifixion symphonies of James MacMillan." (17) OMG...  my soul bleeds out, as I listen to MacMillan's "Christus Vincet"...  or his "Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachtani?" (Both songs are on his "7 Last Words From the Cross.") Begbie gives us six pages on MacMillan. (176-182)

It's hard for me to listen to some of the songs on Glen Hansard's "Once" soundtrack since I was playing it a lot at the time our dog So-Fee had to be put down.

And then there's the thing about worship. Over the past 40 years as a Jesus-follower there have been a small number of worship songs (among bazillions of them) that have simultaneously broken and elevated my heart before God. When it happens, when it hits, it's non-discursive experience time. Such music is, for me, anointed by the Spirit of God, and speaks to me in ways that sermons and books cannot. Sometimes it heals. Sometimes in and through and by it I see sub specie aeternitatis.

Bono & U2 write "One Tree Hill" in honor of their friend Greg Carroll who died in a motorcycle accident. In the recording studio Bono felt he could only do one take of the song. It was too emotional, too power-filled, for him to do it again.

Friday Nights at Newport Beach Cafe - Worship + Word

Check out the new website (thank you Ben!) about our Friday Night worship/preaching thing at Newport Beach Cafe.

Tonight - Joy Bergesen leading worship; Darrell Brown preaching.

Draw Me After You - Let Us Run

This Sunday evening, Sept. 19 at Redeemer, Holly Benner will be starting a women's class at church called Draw Me After You, Let Us Run. If you fall in the age bracket of 18-134, you are welcome to join us! This Sunday we will be kicking things off with a guest speaker. Danielle Bilen (daughter of Gary and Linda Wilson) will be sharing her testimony of how God took her from a life of self-hatred to a life of embracing the identity God gives. She'll talk about these things and more. Her story is powerful! Please join us from 6-8 pm in the sanctuary.


Bring your Bible and notebook/journal. You're welcome to bring friends. Child care will not be provided because the hope is that this will be a night out for all who come and that each of you will be free to receive and fellowship.

Marriage Conference at Redeemer with Craig Miller

Linda and I, and Darrell and Holli Brown are excited to announce our coming Marriage Conference.


WHEN: Nov. 5-6 (Fri evening; Sat. until around 6/7)

OUR SPEAKER: Craig Miller, director of Masterpeace Center for Counseling and Development in Tecumseh. Craig has also written an excellent book on marriage - When Your Mate Has Emotionally Checked Out: Radical Steps to Transform Your Relationship.

More details to come! (Location, conference cost, etc.)

CRAIG MILLER, MSW ACSW

Administrative Director, Speaker, Therapist

For thirty years Craig has been counseling with individuals, families, and couples in both medical and mental health settings. He has served as the Director of Social Work at Herrick Memorial Hospital in Tecumseh, Michigan, and currently is the co-founder, Administrative Director, and a therapist for MASTERPEACE.

Craig continues his passion for helping people through his syndicated radio talk show "Insights From the Heart" (North American Broadcasting Company), TV program, Better Life Spotlight (WLMBTV-40) copyrighted material, National speaking in the USA and Canada with PESI Education Seminars and Cross Country Education, and his books: "When Feelings Don't Come Easy" and "When Your Mate Has Emotionally Checked Out."

Craig has been speaking in churches and to the general public with topics such as, Finding the Joy of Christ in a Hurting World and Living with an unemotional mate. He speaks with professionals with topics such as, Integrating Faith Based Principles with Clinical Mental Health Issues: A Christian approach for improving treatment outcomes. For information about his speaking engagements, books, and DVD material log on to: http://www.feelingsbook.com/

Over the years Craig has learned the unique ability to successfully combine his skills as a Christian and mental health practitioner to bring healing and restoration to the spirit, mind, and body. Craig desires to work with each person, couple, and/or family to receive emotional and physical healing to bring restoration of your heart and relationship, renewal of your soul and revitalization of your faith.

More on The Shallows

CNN has a nice article on Nicholas Carr's The Shallows. For me this was a good read. From the CNN article...

• Carr says: "Like many people, I've spent a lot of time using the net and other digital technologies over the past ten or fifteen years, and I've enjoyed the many benefits those technologies provide. But I came to realize, some time in 2007, that I was losing my ability to pay deep attention to one thing over a long period of time. When I'd sit down to read a book, for instance, I was only able to sustain my concentration for a page or two. My mind would begin to crave stimulation and distraction -- it wanted to click on links, jump from page to page, check email, do some Googling. The habits of mind the net encouraged had become my dominant habits of mind. That's when I began to do the research that led to the writing of 'The Shallows'."
• The argument at the heart of "The Shallows" is that that the changes Carr felt in his own mind are happening much more broadly throughout society.
• The way we think is shaped by the tools we use to think with. Carr: "This was true of the map, the alphabet, the clock, and the printing press, and it's true as well of the internet. The net encourages the mental skills associated with the rapid gathering of small bits of information from many sources, but it discourages the kind of deeply attentive thinking that leads to the building of knowledge, conceptual thinking, reflection, and contemplativeness. So, as with earlier intellectual technologies, the net strengthens certain cognitive functions but weakens others. And because the neural pathways in our brain adapt readily to experience, the changes occur in the actual cellular wiring of our brains."
• So should we be worried? "It depends on what you value about the human mind," says Carr. "Some people love the constant stimulation the net provides, and don't much care about the loss of more solitary, contemplative ways of thinking. For them, it's not a problem at all. Other people -- and I'm one of them -- believe that while it's important to be able to skim and scan and multitask, our deepest and most valuable thinking requires a calm and attentive mind. If you exist in a perpetual state of distractedness, you'll never tap into the deepest sources of human insight and creativity."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

To Admire the Logic of Atheism Is Neither to Attack Atheism Nor to Agree With Atheism

(For my MCCC Logic students)

Today I was invited to travel to Wayne State University to listen to Peter Singer speak. I would have loved to do that, but my schedule did not permit it. When I came to my Logic class this evening I thought I'd use Singer's reasoning from his atheist worldview as an example of good logical thinking. In this regard Peter Singer is someone I admire. I am not an atheist, so obviously I'm in disagreement with Singer about his worldview. But were I an atheist I'd be listening to Singer's reasoning. What I admire about Singer (and other Nietzschean-type atheists) is their logic of atheism. For example, here atheist Richard Dawkins refers to Singer as having "one of the most logically thought-out ethical systems in the world."

In this interview with Dawkins Singer states that not all human beings have a right to life. Watch the entire interview to see what he means by that and how he arrives at that controversial conclusion. Which, by the way, Dawkins finds supremely logical. Singer also clarifies what he means by referring to humans as essentially and only "animals." He also talks about what is "special" about humans and what is not "special" about humans. Singer says we must get over the idea "that we are an especially created species."

Atheism is a worldview. As such, certain thoughts logically follow. For example, it follows, on atheism, that there is no Creator God. Really, this is evident by definition. If there is no Creator-God, then there is no "creation." Note, then, that an atheist who talks about nature as a "creation" has borrowed an idea from theism that does not fit within atheism.

Philosophical naturalism also fits within atheism. Which means: "nature" is all that there is. There are no non-natural or super-natural events.

With nature being all there is, Singer's thinking about humans seems to follow logically. Dinesh D-Souza describes this as follows.

Singer "argues that we are not creations of God but rather mere Darwinian primates. We exist on an unbroken continuum with animals. Christianity, he says, arbitrarily separated man and animal, placing human life on a pedestal and consigning the animals to the status of tools for human well-being. Now, Singer says, we must remove Homo sapiens from this privileged position and restore the natural order. This translates into more rights for animals and less special treatment for human beings. There is a grim consistency in Singer's call to extend rights to the apes while removing traditional protections for unwanted children, people with mental disabilities, and the noncontributing elderly."

Note that, for Singer, not to do this is to be guilty of "specieism" (a term he helped popularize). At the end of the Dawkins interview Singer defines "speciesism" as "an attitude of prejudice towards beings because they're not members of our species."

D'Souza writes, in admiration of Singer: "Singer, virtually alone among their numbers, is uncompromisingly working out the implications of living in a truly secular society, one completely purged of Christian and transcendental foundations. In Singer, we may be witnessing someone both horrifying and yet somehow refreshing: an intellectually honest atheist."

Note that this does not serve as an attack on atheism. Were I to attack the worldview of atheism it would not look like this. Rather, it is an explanation of the logic of atheism, as displayed by Singer the atheist. Were I an atheist, I would be thinking in the same way.

Praying Pancakes?

I confess two things:

• I very much like Mike Bickle's ministry and his International House of Prayer (IHOP).
• I also too much like pancakes (International House of Pancakes).

Today we found out that IHOPancakes is suing IHOPrayer over the rights to the acronym "IHOP." Here's the story in the Kansas City Star.

No one's asking me for advice, but I think if I were at IHOPrayer I'd change our name. God is more than big enough to handle it.

98.6% of Today's College Students Have Never Heard of Sufjan Stevens

This week I took a poll in my two Logic courses. The question: "Who has heard of Sufjan Stevens?" Out of 70 students only 1 student raised his hand. That student, as he raised his hand, looked around in wonderment and disbelief as he realized he was the only one familiar Stevens.

Thus 1/4% of today's college students have heard of Sufjan Stevens.

Where Is This?

The first person to guess what this is a picture of wins a Finger of God dvd. To be picked up on Sun. morning. I took it in Monroe.

The Deep Rational Beauty of the Universe

Flowers on our back porch

I finished Hawking's The Grand Design over the weekend.

Bill Craig suggests I read his chapter on Hawking in Reasonable Faith. So I kindled this one and read it last evening.

I just read physicist John Polkinghorne's beautiful essay "God and Physics" in God is Great, God is Good. Here's a few Polkinghorne quotes.

• "In Western thinking bout the nature of reality there have been two particularly influential traditions: materialism and theism." (65) Yup. These are the two worldviews I am interested in. My interest in something like pantheism is socio-cultural only. I don't study pantheism or Deepak Chopra in my quest for a coherent worldview.
• "The universe that science explores has proved to be profoundly rationally transparent to our inquiry and endowed with a deep rational beauty." (Ib.) I love that sentence, and the idea behind it! My many theistic scientist friends would love it, too.
• Polkinghorne asks: "Why is it the case that some of the most beautiful patterns that the mathematicians can dream up in their minds are found actually to occur in the structure of the physical world around us?" Note that this is Polkinghorne the particle physicist of Cambridge University who "worked on theories about elementary particles, played a role in the discovery of the quark,^[1] and researched the analytic and high-energy properties of Feynman integrals and the foundations of S-Matrix theory.^[5] While employed by Cambridge, he also spent time at Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, and at CERN in Geneva."
• "The feeling of wonder at the marvelous order of the world is a fundamental experience in physics and a fitting reward for all the labor involved in research. In a word, one could say that physics explores a universe that is shot through with signs of mind. Thus the laws of physics seem to point beyond themselves, calling for an explanation of why they have this rational character. It is intellectually unsatisfying simply to treat them as brute fact." (67)
• (One more P-thought for now) "The deep intelligibility of the cosmos can itself be made intelligible if behind its marvelous order is indeed the mind of its Creator. The theist can say that science is possible precisely because the universe is a creation and scientists are creatures made in the image of their Creator, the God whose role is not simply to initiate the big bang but continuously to hold in being a world endowed with rational structure. Materialism just does not explain enough." (Ib.)