Tensegrities

One of my all time favorite authors — Lois McMaster Bujold — was profiled in the Star Tribune today. I read her books over and over, and devour them as soon as they arrive. She’s one of the most interesting theologians I’ve encountered, although I doubt she would consider herself to be one (and needless to say, neither would the academy).

Thomas Reese has an excellent essay in Commonweal making some useful points about what the Vatican could learn from other organizations, in terms of helpful organizational reforms.

“God can take what humans do for evil, and make something good of it,” says Joseph in Genesis. And Rev. Jeremiah Wright quotes him in the context of noting that even with the nefarious things people sought to do by quoting his sermons in sound bites out of context, something good has already come (the speech Sen. Obama gave in Philadelphia).

Take the time and watch the whole interview that Bill Moyers did with Rev. Wright. I can’t think of a more eloquent defense of Christian faith on public television in a very, very long time. I realize that there will still be people out and about who will condemn Rev. Wright, but that simply shows how differing are the realities we live within. I was deeply moved by the interview, and am profoundly hopeful — and hope-filled — that God is doing something good amongst us.

This definitely looks to be worth following!

I like Eric’s subject line “FFR” — which means “for future reference.” So here’s one I want to return to: research from AERA on digital identities.

Gary Wills has a fascinating piece in the New York Review of Books on parallels between Wright’s relationship with Obama, and John Brown’s relationship with Lincoln, as reflected in their speeches.

One of the interesting things I discovered when I got to Luther, was that while a number of my friends and colleagues at BC read science fiction, most of my colleagues at Luther preferred mysteries. For a while I tried to figure out if there was anything substantial about this difference, but I finally concluded it was simply coincidence. Still, this blog post, which notes that “the astonishing thing is that science fiction and fantasy are absolutely awash in theological speculation…” reminds me of that early conjecture. I wonder what the writer would think is at the heart of mysteries?

For myself, I tend to think that sci fi thrives on raising questions, on speculation, while mystery thrives on puzzles with discernible answers. You may not figure out the answer until the end, but the conceit of the mystery is that it WILL be revealed. Maybe there’s a thread there, something distinctive about the analogical imagination of Catholicism, and the dialectical imagination of Lutheranism?

Transcript and video here.

Here’s a really interesting way of representing graphically whether a voter is more likely to choose Obama or Clinton. I can’t help wishing we had equally graphic representations for church-goers…

Seabury-Western has announced the termination of ALL of its faculty contracts. But somehow that doesn’t mean it’s closing? AKMA & co. retrieve the Monty Python dead parrot sketch to keep us laughing…