A Novel Future for Outlaws of Time

Posted on January 28, 2016 by awtraughber

outlawsof_time_hc_cI inadvertently became a fan of N. D. Wilson a few years ago.  While I had heard he was a great non-fiction writer, it was his 100 Cupboards series (for kids) that really got me reading his work.  It was more like Summerland than Narnia, and yet it still packed a punch to the heart.  It brought the best of a number of worlds together, themes from many other children’s books but with a twist that was hard to get a real hold on.

Wilson’s Ashtown Burials series took a while to grow on me.  The series brought in some interesting historical figures but recast them in a great struggle between the forces of good and evil (and in this series, the evil was almost palpable).  I’m sad that the final book in the series hasn’t found a publisher, because I really want to know how the story ends.

The good news is, though, that Wilson has a new book series dropping in April: Outlaws of Time- The Legend of Sam Miracle. Clicking on the book’s cover will take you to the Entertainment Weekly site that has the exclusive “book trailer” as well as an excerpt from the book’s beginning.

I’ve posted about Wilson and his work before (essays, too): here, here, and here.

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What’s Your Line?

Posted on January 27, 2016 by awtraughber

Yesterday afternoon I shared this video with my colleagues:

I’ve been playing “90-Second Alphabet” for years, mostly with communication skills classes and in homerooms.  After reading Kevin VanHoozer’s Drama of Doctrine, though, I started to see an interesting connection between the game and the biblical story.

Playing off the idea of the biblical-story-as-a-play, VanHoozer suggests that Christians in our part should as one question in particular: how can we play our roles in the story fittingly?  We know what is fitting because of what we see happening in the story before us.

I posed the question of connection between this improv game and the nature of the biblical story, and I was excited to hear all of the answers: things about being in a story where certain things have already been determined, the nature of having to work and speak in community, the fact that there are some “letters” that are difficult and yet necessary to complete the task, the presence of an end-point in both.  All things true about the story that we are in together.

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The Story We are In

Posted on January 26, 2016 by awtraughber

At the beginning of the school year, I showed this quick GEICO commercial to our faculty and staff as a way to introduce being in the biblical story.

I was in no way calling the Bible a horror story.  Instead, I tried to help my co-workers see that it is of vital importance to understand the kind of story we are in.  If the people in the commercial were a little more self-aware, a little more story-aware, they wouldn’t say or do the things they say and do.  It’s the same way with  us.  Knowing the story well helps us play our part in the story more “fittingly” (to use the word of Kevin VanHoozer).

I’m continuing the conversation this afternoon with my co-workers.  We aren’t just in the story . . . we’re in the story together.

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“More Can Be Mended”

Posted on January 25, 2016 by awtraughber

It is all too easy to forget that what is presupposition for me can be something totally foreign and nonsensical to someone else.  Just this past week a student almost incredulously asked me about waiting for Jesus to return, which is so much a given in some circles that to question it revealed a certain amount of cognitive dissonance.  The question was a good reminder for me to be careful of what I take for granted.

I really like the way Francis Spufford articulates some of those necessary “impossibilities” of the Christian faith.  Here he talks with the Centre for Public Christianity about “the unexpected Jesus.”

If you haven’t done so, you really should give Spufford’s Unapologetic a try.

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Singing with a Soul on Fire

Posted on January 23, 2016 by awtraughber

“Soul on Fire” by Andrew Osenga (and recorded for “the Wine Box”).

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The Possibility of Being Wrong: Klosterman Style

Posted on January 21, 2016 by awtraughber

Vulture just announced that Chuck Klosterman will be releasing a new book this June.  The new book, What If We’re Wrong: Thinking about the Present As If It Were the Past, follows an interesting thematic vein (much like his last non-fiction work, I Wear the Black Hat).  This time, though, it’s the idea of our post-modern certainty and klostermanhow it might look in a prospective historical context.  From the Vulture announcement:

“We live in a period of extremely high certitude about what we believe, and we’re completely obsessed with the present tense, as if the present will always be this way,” Klosterman says. But any study of human history will tell you that’s never been the case, and the book is Klosterman’s effort to explore what our current standards of thought might be overlooking. He spoke to Richard Linklater about dreams, once considered the most important window into the human psyche. He spoke to Neil deGrasse Tyson and Brian Greene about the possibility of our basic understanding of gravity being overturned one day, as Aristotle’s was. And he looked at the changing reputations of various authors in an attempt to understand what makes literature get “remembered.” As Klosterman put it to us, “Could the most famous American novelist of this period be completely unknown, in the case of Kafka, or known but not respected, like Melville?” (Or even a blogger at a well-regarded pop-culture site? Hmmm.)

You can read the rest of the Vulture post here.

Add this to my list of things to look forward to in 2016.

(image from amazon.com)

(and yes, the cover just might look like that)

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Peterson on the Specific and the Accessible

Posted on January 20, 2016 by awtraughber

ap-inside4-305x305Andrew Peterson (who just played a concert in Hawaii) was recently interviewed by CCM Magazine.  At one point, he is asked about the assertion that the more specific a song’s content, the more accessible it can be to listeners (which, of course, sounds counter-intuitive).  His response:

There’s this assumption that you have to broaden your focus if you really want to reach a lot of people, but there’s a long list of huge songs that are actually very specific and vulnerable. A few months back I was a part of an adoption fundraising concert my church put on, and they asked a bunch of songwriters to do cover songs. I chose “The Heart of the Matter” by Don Henley. Chances are, if you’re anywhere near my age or have ever listened to the radio, you have heard that song.

When I started learning the lyrics I was astonished by how vulnerable and confessional it was. I mean, I knew the song was deep, with a chorus like, “I’ve been trying to get down to the heart of the matter … and I think it’s about forgiveness … even if you don’t love me anymore.” But Henley lets us into his selfishness, his regret, the fact that he let work come between him and the one he loves. It’s what I love about Rich Mullins’ best songs.

On the other hand, writing from a sharp focus might limit the breadth of your reach when it comes to radio or whatever, but it also might deepen the reach into the heart of that one person who was really ambushed by the song. If I had to choose between reaching a ton of people with a shallow song, or reaching deep into the heart of just a few people with a song that’s about a very specific kind of heartache, there’s no doubt which I would choose. I’m one of those people whose life was literally changed because of a song.

I like the idea of there being two kinds of “reach,” with one being radio and the other being the heart of the listener.  It’s also nice to see a nod to Rich Mullins.  It was a cool moment when Peterson segued into Mullins’s “I See You” during last week’s concert.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

(image from andrew-peterson.com)

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The Good Sadness of the Hungry Ones

Posted on January 19, 2016 by awtraughber

Last week, Moment ran an interview with David Brooks, whose “evolution” has been an object of interest for many.  Brooks’s The Road to Character was one of the better reads of 2015.  The interview included some candid tidbits worthy of reflection.

For instance, when asked about his quest for meaning, balance, and generosity of spirit, Brooks replied:

It’s going okay. Every day, I try to read something of some meaning. This morning, I read a book about how we find our callings. I always try to keep a book like that open. The question is: Am I a better person? I hope so. My mornings are sadder.

I had a student come up to me at the end of this class I taught at Yale, and he said, “Since I’ve been taking the class, I’m much sadder than I used to be.” And I took that as a win. Sadness is not quite the right word. Hunger and longing is what I mean. There’s a biblical verse, “Blessed are the hungry ones.” So I’m hungry for this sort of knowledge. I have this vision that if I do this long enough, I’ll be the sort of person who, when people come to you for advice, I’ll have answers, I’ll have wisdom. I’m not sure it will really work that way, but the one measurable thing I’ve noticed in my life is that people never used to confide in me, and now, they do. I don’t always know what to say, but I’m getting there.

These days I’m finding the “quest for wisdom” compelling because too much advice seems too short-sighted.

Most pertinent to me today, though, is his view on the individual versus the communal.  Today we talk ethical systems in class, which has become more boring the more students can’t articulate anything beyond a kind of moral subjectivism.  When asked about our inability to talk big picture:

Universities and a lot of institutions became very amoral because they didn’t know what to say. We became such a diverse society that it became hard to know what to say without insulting somebody. And then we became a very individualistic society. If there’s something I’ve been frustrated with, it’s our excessively individualistic society. That’s led to a belief that everyone should come up with their own values and no one should judge each other. That destroys moral conversation and becomes just a question of feelings. That, to me, was the big wrong turn.

You can read the rest of the interview here.  It’s worth your time.

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The Lake District, Three Months Later

Posted on January 17, 2016 by awtraughber

Three months ago, I was hiking through the Lake District with a group of students and teachers.  Even though it was autumn, there was much green to be seen (and some wild blackberries to eat).  It’s definitely not verdant or autumnal there now, as this video from The Guardian shows.  Such a beautiful place!

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Sunday’s Best: What Karl Marx Hadn’t Seen

Posted on January 17, 2016 by awtraughber

This week’s decades-old Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strip by Bill Watterson captures a number of things well . . .

clv11c

I think it was David Foster Wallace who helped me understand the concept of “watching TV.”  On Tuesday nights, I watch The Flash.  Other times, when I flip through channels with no real or specific intent, I am “watching TV.”  Enjoy the former; beware the latter.

Makes you wonder what Hobbes thinks of the internet.

(comic from gocomics.com)

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