gideonstrauss.com

An exciting new challenge

Gideon Strauss — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:39:44 +0000

As of October 1 I’ll be working with the Center for Public Justice as its new president. I shall be blogging the transition, starting today.

Another problem with excellence

Gideon Strauss — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:19:59 +0000

“If, as [Hannah Arendt] wrote, ‘it is the desire to excel which makes men love the world,’ then our love for the world actually makes it harder for us to love the people who inhabit it.”

Adam Kirsch, “Beware of Pity: Hannah Arendt and the power of the impersonal” (The New Yorker, January 12, 2009)

Art work as event

Gideon Strauss — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:12:48 +0000

I am intrigued by a phrase in “Over the River with Christo & Jeanne-Claude,” by Steven C. Munson: “The focus is on what the artists have done, not on what they have made.” Mr. Munson contrasts the ephemeral character of work by Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the relatively enduring nature of most of the art work hosted in museums. The work of Andy Goldsworthy is similar to that of Christo and Jeanne-Claude in the sense that the documentation thereof in drawings, notes, photographs and film in many cases outlasts the work itself. Or is that perhaps a misreading … ?

“Nature”

Gideon Strauss — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:24:34 +0000

phl-248-2009-aesthetics-session-one-handout

In the first session of my aesthetics course at Redeemer University College, last night, we watched a documentary on Andy Goldsworthy, and talked about the possible meanings of the words “nature” and “culture.” Something I noticed for the first time in this viewing of the movie was this claim from Mr. Goldsworthy: “I feel the land — the earth — does not need me. But I need it.” I think this is revealing of his deeper beliefs regarding what it means to be human in relation to the rest of what is. And I think it is a mistaken feeling.

The ships of Tarshish

Gideon Strauss — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Later this week I am speaking at the Living at the Crossroads conference on the topic “Reading Isaiah 60 in the modern marketplace.” In my preparation for that talk I have become fascinated by “the ships of Tarshish.” My copy of the Anchor Bible Dictionary talks about the ambiguities around “Tarshish,” and suggests that the word can refer to a kind of place (rather than one particular city), namely, a place where there is a metal refinery. Here are excerpts from two paragraphs in the ABD:

“Albright suggested a different approach to the name Tarshish, associating it with the Akkadian rasasu, ‘to heat, melt, smelt.” In this case the form tarsisu might be a refinery. This would then lead to an understanding of the ships as ore boats, providing transport of the raw material to the refinery, or as carriers of the purified metal from the refinery. In support of this interpretation is the association of Tarshish-ships (Isaiah 60:9), and Tarshish itself (Ezekiel 27: 12), with metal. Also supportive is the great size of the ships (Isaiah 2:16), necessitated by their heavy cargo (Ezekiel 27:25). This type of vessel would be expected wherever there was bulk trade in metal …”

“Part of the ambiguity of identification of Tarshish could well be the descriptive rather than definitive role of the name. It is used not to clearly identify one discrete geographical site, but rather to indicate what activity — smelting or refining — went on in that location.”

So, I am thinking that Tarshish-ships are something like “metal refinery cargo-carrying ships,” and that in the context of Isaiah 60 these ships serve as a synecdoche for the mechanisms of trade, which in our time would include, for example, multi- or trans-national corporations. And with this possibility in mind one of the theses I want to explore this year as I continue reading Isaiah 60 is that: The mechanisms of the modern market, like the ships of Tarshish, (a) are sometimes lifted up as idols and trusted as a means of salvation, (b) are sometimes used by those who wish to flee the presence of God, (c) will in the day of the Lord be brought low, and (d) nonetheless will help bear the wealth of the nations, and the children of Zion, into the City of God. I wonder to what extent and in what ways this thesis will hold up and fall down over the course of this year, in light of the world and the Word?

Bewildered householders of the world, rejoice!

Gideon Strauss — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:50:01 +0000

As someone who aspires to competence and dilligence when it comes to the financial management of the affairs of a household, while lacking the natural flair for this kind of work with which some folks seem gifted, and while having failed to give money matters the close attention they deserve during my twenties and much of my thirties, I am grateful for every little bit of help I can find, especially when that help makes something complex more simple and something difficult easier. This year’s big discovery: PearBudget. It comes in the form of either an Excel spreadsheet or an internet-based appliance, and it is a delight. The spreadsheet is available for free, but I cheerfully put down the $30 annual subscription for the internet-based version.

(Also interesting: the designers and hosts of PearBudget, Charlie and Sarah Park, had something to do with an early incarnation of Andy Crouch’s Culture Making website.)

The New Critique of Theoretical Thought

Gideon Strauss — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:44:06 +0000

My philosophical thought has been thoroughly shaped by the tradition of Herman Dooyeweerd and Dirk Vollenhoven, and in particular by the interpretation of that tradition by Calvin Seerveld. The magnum opus of Dooyeweerd exists in two quite distinct versions, both of which are now available online: the Dutch-language De wijsbegeerte der wetsidee, and the English-language New Critique of Theoretical Thought (I-II, III-IV).

(Hat tip to Gregory Baus.)

Blogging agenda 2009, maybe …

Gideon Strauss — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:50:27 +0000

Blogging here has been light for the duration of 2008, for work related reasons. In 2009 I plan to blog a little more frequently. A little more frequently. Having abandoned such a readership as I once had, I do not presume that many people will be reading this with interest, and my intentions with this blog during 2009 are modest. I hope to annotate here some of my thoughts around three of my objectives for the year:

1. In the Winter term of the 2008-2009 school year I am teaching Aesthetics for the philosophy department at Redeemer University College (2009 Aesthetics syllabus). My objective is to “Bring imagination to life with my aesthetics students.”

2. I hope to finish work on the text of a book I am hoping to make of the lectures I gave in 2007 for Wheaton College’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics.

3. I hope to align my 2009 public speaking and workshop teaching to the intersection of Isaiah 60, Andy Crouch’s emphasis on cultivation, Malcolm Gladwell’s emphasis on the 10,000 hours of practice required for expertise, and the authenticity of work rooted in our deepest loves.

The blog genre allows for straying from one’s stated purposes every once in a while with an observation on the passing scene or domestic events, and I shall probably succumb to such temptations now and then, but given that making blog entries will require planning and discipline at the best of times, my ability to resists such temptations is likely to be bolstered by the other demands in my life.

Jesus and Africa

Gideon Strauss — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:52:06 +0000

In support of the 500-year project:

“Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

“And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete. ”

Matthew Parris, “As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God,” The Times, December 27, 2008

(Hat tip: Rod Dreher)

Weather links for today’s supposed snowmageddon in our part of the world

Gideon Strauss — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:25:09 +0000

Environment Canada, Weather Office

National Post liveblogging