|
|
Daniel Silliman
|
|
|
| 20.7.02 |
I Believe...
Christian Creedalism
A nice introductory article to Creedalism published on Calcedon by Greg Uttinger.
He makes a few excellent points in combating the arguments of those Christians who do not hold creeds as valuable, both from scripture and from the tradition of those non-Creedalists making the point.
My Christianity has grown Creedal in my last few years, culminating (I think) in my recent move to the Anglican Church, thus I enjoyed this introduction.
I rejoice in a weekly recitation of the Creeds that set out the truth of Christianity and the tradition of the Faith, separating Christianity from heresy.
I say—deeply, feeling the weight of the fullness of Christianity and the unity of the whole universal Christian Church—with the others celebrants of Christ's sacrifice and of the other hearers of the Word of God:
"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God, begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
"And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Live,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son;
who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
"And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. AMEN."
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Agreeing with the Postmodern Critique of Autonomous Rationalism, without Relativism
Goldstein writes a nice short piece on postmodernism. It is good to see someone educated enough to know and understand the division between denying the rationalists universal independent standard and mere rationalism.
Being a Christian Presuppositionalist I agree with the Postmodernist that the Rationalist/Evidentialists attempt to construct a universal independent standard was a failure.
What one does from that point is a good question. Relativism is not the only possible deduction from this reasoning, nor is it a particularly good one.
As Aquinas knew when he attempted to rectify Aristotle to Christ and set forth the importance, for the Christian worldview, of a posteriori knowledge; as Descartes knew when he introduced doubt into rationalism: we must really have the world our senses tell us exists, we must have a cosmos of reason and order.
What they didn’t know and what Postmodernism discovered was that autonomous reason couldn’t give us an independent universal standard by which to deduce those things.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
| 19.7.02 |
The Panoply of the Crippled Shrubbery of Literature
I amble through new fiction in a Seattle bookstore, reading a sentence, a few lines, an opening paragraph, realizing that I am as good of a writer as any of the “up-and-coming,” “rising stars,” “next great writer” novelists filling the shelves. At first
I feel inspired. I feel a mixture of hope and determination, a hard place in my gut.
"I am going to begin a novel."
And then I realize what a ridiculous sight this modern panoply of trash that some poor desperate bloke read and judged great. I cannot be inspired by this shrubbery of literature and become depressed.
What a crippled bunch of writers, being outstripped by me!
So I went home and took a tonic of T. S. Eliot and Tom Wolfe, slept soundly until the next morning and felt better.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Typography in The Sun and in the History of City Newspapers
A long and detailed technical piece sure to be interesting to those in the newspaper industry, Andy Crewdson writes of typography in The New York Sun and their traditional type and layout.
He takes a few fascinating meanderings into the tradition of typography and the relationship of newspapers and their print that I found particularly enlightening.
Newspapers, he finds, used to be a product of their city. They once reflected their city in content but also in layout and fonts. Typography, he finds, was a unique part of the paper, a flavor, a cologne, a touch, which made the paper unique.
Crewdson believes this ended when papers began to think of themselves and sell themselves not to a city but to a type of person. So a paper is being written not for the Chicago man or the Seattle man but for the Young Urban Professional or some such adverting identified classification of person. Because the same classification of people read newspapers in every city (“newspaper readers”) even though the cities are different, newspapers now look the same in every major city.
I think this analysis is good seeing a similar development in a cities columnist—think Herb Cane—and a cities cartoonist.
Crewdson includes links to typographic examples and font styles. Following them is almost enough to make one an expert on the subject.
Considering I will be involved in my first paper redesign this fall on the Collegian, I think this has added depth to my considerations and, eventually, to my paper design and preference in typography.
Update: Consider this website devoted to typography for further study.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Before the Blogging Revolution
Will Matt Drudge one day be remembered as the preblogger?
Regardless, blogging seems to have made him (at least to me) terribly irrelevant and sensationalist. With the increase of blogging and my awareness of that world, I can replace Drudge by reading this blog or that blog—and do it pretty easily—avoiding his yellow style.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Like a Tiger through a Flaming Hoop:
Political Maneuvering at the Circus
Animal rights activists—either unorganized or of an unknown organization—attempted to decrease turn out to a Shriners’ circus in out little town of the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca by slapping bright yellow canceled signs on posters advertising the circus coming this weekend.
It was a nice move, politically, and potentially more effective than PETA’s picket line in front of the circus will be. But it proved to be futile in the face of the political genius of the Shriners and their circus.
If you bring in a sign with a canceled slapped on then your admission is free. So now the animal rights activists inadvertently helped more people attend the circus they protest.
Ahhhhhhhhhh. A glorious and hilarious political move.
It is a simple, elegant and dramatic political move on the part of the circus worthy of Tigers leaping through flaming hoops.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Words I didn’t know yesterday:
Kerygma: The Apostolic proclamation of salvation through Jesus Christ. I found this word reading Horton Davies’ Worship and Theology in England: From Cranmer to Baxter and Fox, 1534-1690.
Raconteur: A person who is skilled in telling anecdotes. I found this word reading The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Seraphim writes of the great Homer, Odysseus and his trip, ancient civilization and non civilization, bread-eaters, guys who can’t see and all things Greek.
Go, read and be educated.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
| 18.7.02 |
The Cinematography of the Past and the Future
John Podhoretz argues, in a review of Road to Perdition, that The Godfather gave us our cinematic view of the past and Blade Runner gave us the cinematic view of the future.
I see The Godfather, the sobriety of the color and the scenes work with our darkened and faded past. I’m not that familiar with Blade Runner, but I doubt it holds the title for forming our vision of the future. There are a lot of science fiction movies competing for this and I don’t think Blade Runner was that big. It could just be my limited knowledge and reaction to the film however.
I’m thinking about an alternative for the image of our cinematic future, but haven’t worked out an alternative just yet. Perhaps the problem is my basic indifference to science fiction.
Podhorets adds to his review a nice bit about the cinemagraphic glory days of the 1970s and early 1980s, before special effects destroyed it all.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Newspapers Industry Could Learn to use Blog Technology
Poynter and the media discover weblogs and explore ways to use them.
UPDATE: In other Poynter/blogging news I have just discovered this journalism industry blog, apparently a long running thing, and already find it invaluable for keeping up with this beloved/damned industry.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
The Ancient Metaphysical Problem of the Many [Books] and My Antibibliotaxonomy
Perhaps I’m the only one but I find a list of my 10 favorite books so complicated an affair as to be impossible. There are too many kinds of books to put in the same category, to classify by a single standard. I can do with fiction, perhaps, or history or theology or philosophy or science or a host of particular types of books. I cannot universalize the standard to include all books.
The diversity is just too great and too glorious for the simple top ten lists. I have the same type of reaction to the “If you were on a desert island…” book question.
I have no trouble, interestingly, doing this with films.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
Americans Lose Tust in the Church
Claybourn reports that trust in religious institutions at its lowest in years, linking to an article by Agape Press. Only 45 percent say they trust religious institutions, the lowest percentage since the televangelist scandals in 1989 where 52 percent said the same thing.
Catholic trust has fallen more than Protestant, understandable so, to 42 percent. Protestant trust has remained at 59 percent.
I’m asking, why aren’t Protestants shaken by the Catholic scandals? What makes us feel immune to that sort of scandal and that sort of betrayal? Are out feelings accurate?
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
| 17.7.02 |
Overheard:
Woman 1: “No, that’s a myth. Garlic doesn’t keep away vampires.”
Woman 2: “It probably attracts Italian Vampires.”
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
| 15.7.02 |
Biased Both Ways
Not to defend the New York Times--certainly taboo in conservative circles and getting that way among many bloggers--this piece has a point about their bias.
As a Journalism Prof. told me: To be a journalist is to court controversy.
As I've told more than one angry source, If both sides are mad at you, the story is probably about right.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
The Short Dictionary
Why don’t dictionaries give nuances?
Maybe I’m just using the wrong dictionaries, but when someone asks me what a word means I try to tell what it is like—give an identity based on a synonym—but then explain why they would use the word and not the synonym.
Take chic. To be chic is to be fashionable or stylish. That’s what the dictionary said and that’s where I started but why would you use the word instead of another word? Why did Tom Wolfe write of Radical Chic instead of Radical Style/Fashion.
The word is nuanced, it has other particular meanings and shades and connotations. To be chic is to be of high fashion, a little pretensions. It is an arrogant fashion that separates from the common people. The Emperor’s clothes were chic.
Thus the word is used often with a bit of irony and, in Wolfe’s case, was used as a paradox.
But the dictionary tells us none of this. The reader may know the word is not pronounced “chick” but he will still go out in ignorance. Not knowing the purpose of the word, thinking the synonym is identical.
by Daniel Silliman @
: Comments 0
|
|
Get blog templates like this one from BlogSkins.com |
