Exercise and Fitness: What are they?
Begin with the End in Mind
Many people go to the gym without and move around without a particular end in mind.
This is okay if you're only trying to enjoy yourself or meet people (a common event at gyms).
Toward a Definition of Fitness and Exercise
But, if you want to become fit, then you have to know what fitness is. Lon Kilgore says that to be fit one must have:
Virtue Lists in the New Testament
Virtue Lists?
In the Bible there are several famous virtue lists. A virtue list is exactly what is sounds like, a list of positive traits in sequence as a description of the good life.
As a part of Scripture, the New Testament virtue lists are easy to overlook and if you misunderstand God’s grace, they can seem overly moralistic.
Dialectic: The Second Art of the Trivium
Introduction: What is dialectic? What is logic?
The second liberal art is logic or dialectic. Dialectic typically refers to the practice of precise discussion, using a question and answer format with facts or apparent facts, to explain or get at the truth. It has another, less academic, use I'll explain later. Logic is a more narrow term, referring to the form of correct argument rather than the whole process. In classical school literature, you'll see the two words used interchangeably (I will as well), this has classical precedent. For instance, the stoics tended to use the word logic to refer to argument, monologue, persuasion, theory, and several other domains. The best definition for logic/dialectic is the art of reasoning for the purpose of discovering or demonstrating the truth. And so logic involves the study of the forms of argument as well as specific arguments. But why study dialectic? Isn't it easier to just go with gut feelings or go a long to get along?
Intellectual Weakness
Nobody wants to be weak. Weakness leads to losing.
Weakness leads to resentment.[1]
Intellectual weakness is perhaps the most subtle weakness.
It compounds itself. Physical weakness makes us feel bad.
Intellectual weakness makes us feel smug or leaves us unable to see our weaknesses, intellectual weakness is like a disease with an immune system of its own protecting it from detection.
Grammar: The First Art of the Trivium
Introduction
The first of the liberal arts is grammar.
The Trivium
Trivium is shorthand for three skills: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Together with arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music they make up the liberal arts. In the current year, a liberal arts degree is simply a degree in reading texts and critical theory.
What is Grammar?
Grammar is primarily the study of understandable language.
Grammar goes beyond simple language, though. C.S Lewis reminds us that ancient grammar instruction included syntax, etymology, prose, the explanation of allusions, history, and eventually scholarship in general. Lewis even remarks that "everything we should now call criticism belonged to either grammar or rhetoric" (The Discarded Image 186-187 and 190).
Don't Pray When Tempted?
We all know that prayer is a great tool for spiritual growth and in some ways it is the method and even the goal of the Christian life. But is there ever a time in the Christian life in which prayer is not the go-to tool? In a book on Greek Orthodox spirituality, the author recounted a conversation that was shocked me:
“There is a detail we must keep in mind in reference to the repetition of the Prayer as a method of overcoming the logismoi, [word for spiritually disturbing thought]” Father Maximos said softly as we turned back to where the car was parked. “A person should not resort directly to the Prayer immediately after being assaulted by troublesome logismoi.” “Why not?” I asked puzzled. “I know that what I am about to say may sound paradoxical. But an automatic recourse to the Prayer could have the opposite effects. It may lead a person to extreme psychic turmoil and to a loss of self-mastery. Old Paisios used to tell us that when confronted with a logismos, whoever resorts to repeating the Prayer very rapidly resembles a terrified soldier in the heat of battle. He holds his rifle tight to his chest, paralyzed with fear. To reassure himself that he is not afraid he repeats ’Holy Virgin help me, Holy Virgin help me.’ And he shakes from head to toe, sitting there completely immobilized and unable to fight or even to breathe.” Father Maximos laughed. “That reminds me,” he mused, “of the dentist we had on Mount Athos. The moment he would take a look into our mouths he would sigh, start crossing himself, and begin lamenting. ’Holy Virgin! May you help us. May God place His hand here.’ “Before a person begins to pray, when confronted with a troublesome logismos, a rational mastery over the situation must be developed. Again, if at all possible, the best way is to employ the strategy of complete indifference.”1
When I first read this I was taken aback. But then it hit me, Jesus says to pray for God to protect us from temptations when we go to pray (Matthew 6:9-13). But his instruction to his disciples when it comes to sin is to 'deny yourself.' Not only so, but St. Peter's instruction to disciples is to "be sober-minded for the sake of your prayers" (1 Peter 4:7). Later in the same letter, being sober-minded is connected with resisting Satan's temptations! Sober-minded, rational mastery over temptation is what we do for our prayers.
Why write?
Why write?
One of my favorite writers said this on the why of Christian writing:
John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus and his whole purpose in life was to point people to Jesus. He summed up his calling when he was questioned about his identity and said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord." What strikes me about John is that he was completely ok with everyone's attention shifting to Jesus once he arrived on the scene. Of course, that was the way it was supposed to be, but knowing my own heart, I think I would have begrudged Jesus the attention at least a tad. But I want to be like John. I want to go all out in whatever calling the Lord gives me, all the while saying, Look at him. And we can all raise our voices--voices in this wilderness today--saying, look at Jesus; isn't he great?
The ultimate purpose for Christian action is, of course, to bring attention (mostly your own) to Jesus.
The Goober Atheist: Ineffectual Nerd Edition
Years ago Richard Carrier attempted to destroy the foundation of the Christian faith by publishing his magnum opus proving definitively that Jesus never existed. And like all virgin-nerds, his work was ignored by the world of chad New Testament scholars, which lead him to resentfully hate them all. As an aside, I don’t mind atheists, but I don’t understand why you would devote several years of your life writing a book about something you believe to be pointless. In those years, Carrier could have hit the gym, learned to play an instrument, or developed a network of friends. Larry Hurtado recently received one of Carrier’s limp-wristed rhetorical punches and responded:
What I've Learned from Jordan Peterson
I've come to appreciate Jordan Peterson. It's rare for me to find a recent scholar from whom I learn more than one or two important things. Peterson is an exception.
Edit: Everything I've said below remains true, but as I read Peterson's books and listened to some of his podcasts, I realized that there were things going on with his worldview and poltical aims that were unsavory to say the least. I'll leave the post up in the interests of showing that you can learn from people with whom you radically disagree.
Dallas Willard on Coming to Know Christ
The paragraph below remains one of my favorite from Dallas Willard’s work. The last sentence breaks the flow with its “mainly…Paul” line, but he’s attacking a stream of thought in academia with which he was all too familiar.
If you really want to know Christ now, you have somehow to set aside the cloud of images and impressions that rule the popular as well as the academic mind, Christian and non-Christian alike. You must try to think of him as an actual human being in a peculiar human context who actually has had the real historical effects he did, up to the present. You have to take him out of the category of religious artifacts and holy holograms that dominate presentations of him in the modern world and see him as a man among men, who moved human history as none other. You must not begin with all of the religious paraphernalia that has gathered around him or with the idea that his greatness must be an illusion generated by an overlay from superstitious and ambitious people—mainly that “shyster” Paul—who wanted to achieve power for their own purposes. (Willard. Knowing Christ Today, 67)