Micah enjoys some time in the rocking chair

Micah baffled by the hanging toy (note the reflected foot in the mirror--is that artistic photography or what?)

Which theologian am I?

You scored as Karl Barth. The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology. Karl Barth 93% Anselm 80% John Calvin 80% J�rgen Moltmann 67% Martin Luther 47% Friedrich Schleiermacher 47% Augustine 40% Jonathan Edwards 33% Charles Finney 33% Paul Tillich 27% Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Micah's Sunday nap (Dad's thinking of one as well!)

Micah's well-deserved break from taking care of the parents

He can only take so much excitement...

Mom loves Micah! (Micah's perplexed by the camera.)

Dante is it

I'm ten cantos into Paradise, and once again Dante amazes me. This will be my fourth read through all three canticles, and the poetic power of the man never wanes. Like Milton (my other poetic/theological master), Dante manages to dramatize convincingly some of the theological controversies that just don't work out in proposition-lists. His treatment of prayer in Purgatorio is simply inspired. And his imperialism (in the Roman sense), though it's a blemish in his theology, still comes across as entirely sensible (even if wrongheaded).

One day, when I'm teaching college, if the school will give me some wiggle-room, I'm almost certain I'll teach a Dante and Milton class--yes, the syllabus is forming in my head even now.

Woo-ee!

Micah's best three-month-old tough guy face

Micah's latest nose-scratch doesn't bother him a bit!

He just loves mornings!

Micah doing one-arm pushups (he's already tough!)

Micah practicing sitting up

One of those diaper pics that'll be handy for embarrassing the teenage Micah one day

Micah giving me one of his best gummy grins

Syllabus Quote

I think I'll lead off my ENGL 1101 syllabus with the following quote:

On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, and do not talk a great deal amongst uneducated people about philosophical principles, but do what follows from those principles. For example, at a banquet do not talk about how people ought to eat, but eat as someone should... And if a discussion about philosophical principles should arise in uneducated people, keep silent for the most part, for there is great danger that you will immediately vomit up what you have not yet digested. And when someone says to you that you know nothing, and you are not offended, then know that you have begun your work. For sheep do not present their fodder to the shepherd to show how much they have eaten, but they digest their food within to produce wool and milk on the outside. So do not display your philosophical principles to uneducated people, but show them the actions that result from the principles when you digest them.

Dr. Kenneson led off his ancient philosophy syllabus with this gem, and I think about it often when I hear about how snotty college kids are, coming home on breaks with all their new ideas. I'm not sure from where in Epictetus these lines come, but I'll find them soon enough.

He's getting so big!

Micah and Bethany having a few laughs before she takes off for Sumatra Monday (we'll all miss you, Bethany!)

Hey! Put that camera down! I'm in the tub, Mom!

This stands to be one of Micah's classic poses

Micah's impression of Sean Penn greeting the paparazzi

They dropped another one? Why in the world do you have me watching these bozos?

Even his EYES are red and black!

Take a look over at our new Stone-Campbell blog, EICO, if you please.

Another Run through Dante

I'm nearly 30 cantos into my most recent reading of the Comedy, and once again I find myself wishing I'd learned Italian instead of Spanish. Ah, well. Mark Musa's translation is more than adequate to keep my Dante addiction sated.

Beyond that, house-settling keeps getting delayed. We've put in a few hours, and it already looks better, but I can only hope that next week (before Thursday, when Mary has curriculum meetings) yields some more productive hours.

Micah questioning things

One of Micah's many inquisitive looks

Emerging Grump

It occurred to me that, being on the Emergent Blog Roll, I probably ought to say something about the whole Emergent movement. Like many others on the list, I've been influenced by philosophical and theological trends of the last fifty years, and like many others, I've come to be an educated critic of the tradition into which I was converted. So to those extents, I'm a kindred spirit with folks like Noetic Penguin and Seraphim.

Yet every Sunday, round about 11:00 AM (it's variable when one has a three-month-old son), the folks at Bogart Christian Church see me walk through the doors for a time of singing and prayer and hearing our pastor Ben Parker preach from the Scriptures. Moreover, we enjoy being there. Moreover, although we've had to move away from one church we've loved and left another that didn't love us so much, we don't plan on abandoning that little small-town Georgia church for a new church plant, a house church, or any of the other alternative modes of worship that Emergent-types tend to prefer.

So what gives?

First, my examples are a bit deceiving--because I know NP and Seraphim, I used their names, but even a quick look at NP's blog or Seraphim's blog will reveal at least love for even if not conformity with established churches. Neither necessarily devotes much time to attacking "The IC." (That's "The Institutional Church" for those not versed in Emergent-talk.)

Second, even those Emergent-types who prefer not when it comes to traditional Sunday gatherings things to teach those of us who prefer to live as young gadflies within, I know that our ministries to the current power structures are similar. As I grow older, I hope sincerely that more gadflies will find our little gathering worth some stings as I become more a part of that assembly's establishment (as one tends to do if one sticks around long enough--an establishment with a different ideology is no less establishment). I know that some of those stings will come from "outside" the organizational paradigm to which I've become accustomed, and I'd be a better theologian if I took them seriously, so why not start now?

But to take "them" seriously in the future (I haven't the first clue what "they" will look like when I'm fifty) means taking our own critiques seriously enough to present them as true correctives while maintaining the discipline of idol-smashing when our own ideologies become more precious than our own ideas ought to be. And when we fail in this discipline (as establishments always do), we'll have to be ready to let the young smash them for us.

All of this bad prose is to say that our relationship to the current establishment, mine as a gadfly and the "true" emergents' as outsiders, can only minister to the Gospel as long as we remember that we're serving the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah. As cliche as that sounds at times, our situation always must be relative to the grand mission and the grand story that makes us and to which we, when we're faithful, contribute. Our idol-smashing hammers must not themselves become holy relics lest we become the monsters we've set out to slay.

Of course, I've said nothing new here; any Emergent worth her or his salt would say likewise. All the same, I figured I ought to justify my presence on the Emerging blogroll with a bit of commentary.

Hooray for Micah!

Micah gettin' down during play time

Micah's getting tired of pictures faster than I am

Two More Movie Reviews

Mary and I cancelled our Blockbuster online membership recently (we'll be busy enough in the coming weeks), so here are two of my final movie reviews:

• Sideways. Good storytelling about two pathetic, sometimes reprehensible middle-aged men. Although the on-screen sex does little for the movie (it hardly ever does), Sideways gives us a pretty tight narrative about one of the arbitrary relationships that we value beyond what we should (the two main characters were freshman roommates in college--no offense to Paul Helphinstine if he's reading) that doesn't quite manage to redeem either of the parties involved. The bits of farcical comedy come just at the right moments to keep the viewer from "going dark side," and the wine-as-life metaphor, though overworked in some of the "deeper" scenes, works notably well when it's not being overworked. Overall quite a good movie.
• Spanglish. Keeping Adam Sandler on the margins of this movie was quite a good decision (no, I'm not a fan). Framing the story within the story of a young woman's Princeton admissions essay was even a better idea. Subverting the standard chick flick story line was brilliant. Adam Sandler does not run off with the housekeeper with a heart of gold, and his almost-too-stereotypical quasi-liberal yuppie wife (played by Tea Leoni) does not lose out in the end. Instead, the movie lets the main characters in a chick flick choose their children (who are real characters) over their own impulses and live for something other than the abstract punchline that Hollywood calls "romantic love."

I realize as I wrap up our little Blockbuster experiment that my reviews are more insider musings than newspaper-style movie reviews, but I suppose folks can pick up a newspaper to get those. I think they serve more to clarify my own thinking than for anything else, but this whole blog thing is supposed to be egocentric, isn't it?

A day in the life of a baby can be exhausting...

Micah and Grandma Gilmour right before she had to fly back to Indiana

Our new house in Statham, Georgia

Micah with Mom at our new house

Okay, the redeye makes him look less than angelic--we still love the little dude!

More Movie Reviews

The title introduces well enough. So here goes:

• Ray. This movie was phenomenal, and if I watch Million Dollar Baby and am not utterly blown away, I'm going to call foul on its not winning Best Picture. Jamie Foxx steps out of the way and lets Ray's story carry the movie, and for that alone he deserves Best Actor (this is no slam against Jamie Foxx; I don't think many actors could have let Ray come through the way he did). The music, of course, was wonderful, and the sex and drugs were present in the story without dominating the screen. Neither making Ray an idealized racial justice crusader nor an utter jerk, the movie brings across a humanity that only adds to a great musician. It was so good, I can even forgive the sometimes heavy-handed psychoanalytic stuff that creeps into some scenes (I'll let you readers either watch and see or figure it out).
• Closer. Y'know how I liked Ray so much because the sex wasn't all over the screen? Yeah, that's why I didn't much like this one. This movie, from early in the game, dares the viewer to object to the mostly pointless, completely un-erotic sex that is typed into computers, discussed as one might discuss baseball or politics (except with more dirty words), and splayed all over the movie screen for two hours. Alright, I'll take your dare. Most on-screen sex does nothing to enhance a movie's story, and this movie was different only in that it had no story to accompany the on-screen sex. All four major actors are talented folks, but they were straitjacketed by the writers' obsessions with discussing, alluding to, and performing sex. Yeah, I took the dare. Now what?

So there's my movie reviews for today. Mary and I just got Citizen Kane and Sideways in the mail from Blockbuster; if we have a chance to watch them between getting ready for Mom's visit and closing on the house, I might just comment here later.

Micah sleeps well knowing the Colts drafted some defensive help this year

Micah making merry in his bassinet (he's nearly too big for it)

Got milk?

Micah in the bouncy seat (or at least the top half of Micah--it's hard to aim and to amuse a baby)

Micah in his shorts (before an untimely spit-up put an end to that)

Some Movie Reviews

Mary and I, tired of watching the same game show reruns while we fed and napped with Micah, decided to sign up for Blockbuster's online program, and we've enjoyed it so far. The movies get here on time (in general), and we've caught up on some titles we were meaning to see (at some point) but never got to. So here's my uneducated take on a few that we've seen since joining:

• Finding Neverland. Not a bad film--I particularly liked the (relatively) understated blurring between the author's imagination and reality as everyone else sees it. Even better were the blurrings that happened while he was playing with chlidren. The end was pretty standard tear-jerking fare, but the visual and plotline statements about imagination and adulthood make this one worth seeing.
• The Manchurian Candidate. When I see an action movie, I don't want to feel this violated. Instead of the clean-cut international intrigue story I'd hoped for, this movie spent most of its time plumbing the depths of war's scarring of the human mind, the machinations of biotech, and a mother's drive to see her son rule the world that shades (for a scene or two) into the incestuous. Yechh. On the plus side, Denzel just can't seem to do a role halfway, so his portrayal of a psychologically-scarred career soldier is wonderful even as it disturbs.
• Friday Night Lights. Don't try to remake Hoosiers. Coach Carter did somewhat, but the strong pro-education, pro-black overtones made it a movie worth watching beyond the feel-good sports appeal. This one didn't have any such focus. The games that received significant screen time in the first half of the movie were so devastatingly one-sided against Team Mojo (the protagonists of the film) that their meteoric rise to the state championship game (which lasts all of four minutes for five rounds) and subsequent nail-biter championship game with the invincible Dallas high school team (the game's ups and downs seem nothing short of deus ex machina) lack any plausibility. On the other hand, I have to hand it to any script writer who puts this couplet into a movie script: "You want to win? Put Boobie in!"
• I Heart Huckabees. I don't know what I want to think of this one yet. On the one hand, it's a feature-length joke at the expense of philosophy majors. On another, it's a lovely look at intersecting thought-worlds and their inability to reconcile unless the people who think hard also learn to love one another. If you live in any two of the worlds staged in this film (environmentalists, nihilists, idealists, evangelicals, capitalists, and many others) and wonder what would happen if too many of those worlds collided in one room, this is one that will at least give you one possibility of what it might look like.
• The Notebook. Never being one to begrudge my wife a good chick flick, this gem led off our Blockbuster trial period. It was too chick-flicky even for her.
• Garden State This one was genuinely good. J.D. from Scrubs (can't think of the actor's name) tells his story with fairly convincing (though obscenity-laced) dialogue, cinematography that reflects the scene-POV's mental state, an archetypal journey into the underworld set in suburban New Jersey, and a sound track that I've been told is quite hip (I'm a poor judge of that). The ending scene was a hair over-the-top (reminded me of the Friends finale), but that doesn't diminish a really good movie.

My in-laws also purchased Rudy on DVD for me for my birthday--not bad stuff. I can see why Sean Astin got cast as another emotional favorite in the LOTR trilogy.

So there's the movies I've seen since Micah was born. I think Mary and I are going to watch Ray here in the next couple nights--I'm looking forward to seeing Jamie Foxx's continuing emergence as a serious actor. I was impressed enough by Collateral that I go into Ray expecting great things, not waiting for Foxx to redeem himself for Booty Call.

Latest Book Updates

Well, I've been posting pictures so much lately that I haven't put much into writing here. Newborn baby, I say, newborn baby!

But here are a couple reading updates. I finished, not too long ago, N.T. Wright's The New Testament and the People of God, and I feel like I could write a syllabus for and teach a New Testament Introduction course now. Wright carefully set up a framework that takes into acocunt the historical and the literary and the theological, the Jewish and the Greek and the Roman, the preacher and the scholar and the skeptic. And he held it together for four hundred-plus pages.

I've also received a couple books as birthday gifts (I turn 28 tomorrow): The Barbarian Way by Edwin McManus and Overhearing the Gospel by Fred Craddock. I'm probably going to use McManus as a brief break from Wright's dense prose, then read the rest of Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God (just dying to put in a joke about 'rithmetic here), then take on Craddock. All these are books I want to tackle before the summer's out.

In the fall, I'm taking two Shakespeare classes and hopefully working on a "Hebrew Bible and/as Literature" syllabus to present to the English department. Part of my motivation is to get another "classes taught" line on my CV (that list grew this semester at Emmanuel), but I'd also like to teach some Bible, and this seems like a challenging context in which to try it. So I'm off to UGA on Wednesday (probably) to get some paperwork and start writing! Woo hoo!

Micah's livin' large and lovin' it

Micah playing in his bassinet after church

Micah's first bottle (He ate somewhere around three and a half ounces--no wonder he's such a hoss!)