What is Good Art? Dominionist Aesthetics versus the Detachment-Discernment Ethos of New Testament Pilgrim Christianity (II)

Rather than reduce art to the Hellenistic categories of the good, true, and beautiful our understanding needs to be both wide and nuanced.

What is Good Art? Dominionist Aesthetics versus the Detachment-Discernment Ethos of New Testament Pilgrim Christianity (I)

https://g3min.org/art-that-accords-with-sound-doctrine/

This G3 article represents yet another attempt to formulate a Christian theology of art. It's clear enough that since the Scriptures don't speak to this - and verses have to be grasped at, the exercise is not one of doctrinal elaboration but philosophy cast in theological terms.

A Thanksgiving Model that Must be Rejected

https://churchandfamilylife.com/podcasts/6540dea48035f112bf38cdf8

Modern Thanksgiving was born out of the US Civil War – In 1863, Lincoln wanted the country to be thankful for the turning of the tide post-Gettysburg and following his lead the government issued proclamations in the 1870's.  

In 1939 FDR moved the date up a week wishing to extend the Christmas shopping season – and this remains the practice today.

In other words it's a familiar theme to us even today – it's about the troops and the consumerist economy.

Macron and the New Edict of Fontainebleau

In October 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron proposed new education legislation that was meant to counter the influence of subcultures within France – particularly those of a religious nature.

The Testimony of IC Herendeen and World War I

Irwin C Herendeen (1883-1982) is a name few remember today. Those who are familiar with the name usually connect it to Arthur Pink. A Christian book and tract publisher, Herendeen laboured in Central Pennsylvania and published many of Pink's works among others.

Mammon and the Accommodationist Triad of Feminism, Psychology, and Divorce

We can speak of a Social Accommodationist Triad or SAT. There are many aspects of social life that could be plugged into this equation but in particular it could be argued that three powerful socially transformative forces have been at work in the post-WWII period – and these forces have worked symbiotically to shape and affect the culture.

The First Reformation and the Present Ecclesiastical Crisis

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XV)

The time is now. Dominionism and the reactionary re-casting of Sacralism in the wake of 19^th and 20^th century secularism is on the verge of swallowing up the remaining (if paltry) testimony of the First Reformation, its lifeline to the Early Church and New Testament Christianity.

New Testament Christianity, Homeschooling and the Collapse of French Pluralism

https://evangelicalfocus.com/europe/8340/evangelicals-react-to-frances-plans-to-fight-islamist-separatism

I am certain that attitudes have changed in Europe since I spent considerable time there in the 1990's. At that time homeschooling was novel and while it was becoming popular in the United States, such expressions of individualism and counter-culture were not popular in Europe – even among Christians.

The RICO Dragnet and its Dangers

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/what-we-need-to-know-about-rico

RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was developed in the early 1970's and was used to take down large sections of the Mafia and other criminal organisations.

Inbox: Daniel and the Beastly Magistrate

I was asked a question regarding Daniel serving in government. Clearly Daniel was willing to serve (as a slave) in the governments of Babylon and Persia and yet stood his ground regarding overt idolatry. If he refused to worship idols, why didn't he refuse to work for the Beast power? If (as I argue) working for the state was and is truly the wrong thing for a believer to do, why didn't Daniel refuse service altogether just as he and his friends refused to bow down to the king?

And obviously by implication the question suggests that my Christians should not participate in government argument may be flawed.

Petr Chelčický: A Medieval Biblicist and Rustic Philosopher (Part 2)

Chelčický finds himself occupying an almost unique place in pre-Reformation Church History, representing views that would all but disappear by the 17^th century swallowed up by the profound political and cultural changes which reshaped the European map. And while we know that many works of reformers and critics of the Catholic social order were doomed to perish and be lost to time, Chelčický's works survived though many were not translated from Czech until modern times.

Petr Chelčický: A Medieval Biblicist and Rustic Philosopher (Part 1)

Petr Chelčický was born sometime around 1380 in Southern Bohemia, today's Czech Republic.* Associated with the village of Chelčice, he was probably from Vodňany or some other nearby village. There are debates as to his identity, some identifying him with one Peter of Zahorči, but this is not conclusive. Regardless of his background (of which there are many theories) it seems a yeoman farmer is the most likely which would have placed him above the serfs and peasants but a member of neither the gentry nor the emergent bourgeoisie. Apparently a self-educated man he wrote in Czech and though he had some Latin, he wasn't fluent.