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Strong Meat Bible Study 2020-21 Reset

Lesson 1 part 2

First hope, Abraham talks with the Lord-god

Definition of Beauty described in Hedda Gabler

Recently, I had a chance to write some essays on classical literature. On a recent reading of Hedda Gabler, I realized that the character was living her life based on same strange twists of definitions --Beauty being one of them. Thoughts on Henrik Ibsen’s play, Hedda Gabler: Worldviews are framed by how we define ideals. Ideals such as beauty, love, purpose, truth, freedom, and justice provide substance to our daily lives. The literary character Hedda Gabler’s ideals seem to be sliced from the fringe and her distinct definitions provide the catalyst for her character and her actions. Beauty for Hedda Gabler does not have its source in created nature, rather she seems completely indifferent to nature. She complains to her house attendent, Miss Tessman, “Yes, fresh air. That’s what I need with all these flowers all over the place.” (Ibsen 1416) Her strange view of beauty comes up again after she learns of fellow character Eilert’s suicide. Her husband is in shock when she declares, “I’m saying that here, in this—there is beauty.” (Ibsen 1461) Again we see Hedda using self will and self-freedom as her value compass. If something is done from the choice of self will, it is, “something bathed in a bright shaft of sudden beauty.” (Ibsen 1462) Of course you will have to read the play to get the context of this story. Hedda Gabler is similar to Dostoevsyk's Underground Man in that he is living out an extreme example of the rational, scientific, enlightened man, which if removed of virtuous ideals becomes a shell of humanity. Readers, it is important for us to understand what our life definitions are. Do we define our ideals as God would have us? Do we check back with our Creator to see if our definitions are warped and taken from the fringe? Beauty is an element of God -- and therefore is impossible not to be seen and manifested in his Creation. Works Cited: Ibsen, Henrik. "Hedda Gabler." Trans. Rick Davis. Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed. Sarah Lawall. 8th. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. 1407-1466.

From Evernote:

So why is Beauty related to the Glory of God?

Now that we have separated beauty from art; my next task is to explain why beauty is related to the glory of God. First let me explain that the aesthetic experience is an experience of "firstness"-- in other words it is an experience that is not related to moral issues, not related to practical application, not connected even necessarily to a concept other than just being. It is not related to any other relational experience other than you and the object of attention --alone.  For the Christian aesthetic, that would be an aesthetic experience with the Creator, our God.  The most synonymous experience that is described in scripture which mirrors this kind of response is speechless awe.  This type of experience has always been described when a person is met face to face with God.  The Glory of God has always been part of the description of God's presence. So it is the Glory of God that is most often described in a "visual" encounter with his presence.  A visual description of this encounter reflects the "truer" nature of divine presence.  This connection between God's glorified presence and the response of the observer is more closely aligned to an aesthetic experience than any other relational experience.

Think of the description from Eden, "they heard God walking in the Garden" (Ge 3:8), Moses at the bush, Moses' face glowing from the presence of the Lord. Elijah hearing "still small" voice while in cave, the disciples being told to "be still" at the transfiguration. John, Isaiah, Ezekiel falling as a dead man when they saw the Lord at his Heavenly throne.  The description of Heavenly visions, the throne itself -- full of aesthetic details describing the awe of His Glory.  Many adjectives will describe these encounters --awe, fear, crying out (due to Holiness), majesty.  God declaring his name I AM THAT I AM.  This is God. There is no predicate that can contain God. This is "firstness", this is Truth, this is the Amen.  Visit the Lord at his throne. Your holy aesthetic begins right here.  Read about these encounters. Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Genesis 1-3, Exodus 3, Revelation 1-2.  Later I will try to describe attributes of His presence and Throne that we can include in an aesthetic theory for man's art.

Why we must separate Art from Beauty

The need to distinguish Art from Beauty is a painful discovery. Because of the abstract nature of securing definitions and criteria for the aesthetic, it is a long and sometimes painful process of philosophical thinking to realize that you must separate these two terms. Kant had the same revelation when he coined the term “sublime” to indicate a higher level of aesthetic experience that went beyond art. The confusing part of this discovery is not helped by society’s habit of talking about many kinds of Art as being beautiful on such a frequent basis. To say “This ___ is beautiful” can sometimes be thrown into a conversation without much thought. . Beautiful here is used as an adjective clearly describing the object of attention as worthy of being called Beautiful. It is the common usage of the term beautiful that leads to confusion and many times encourages a non-reflective attitude.  I have mentioned this in previous posts and I hope to elaborate a little here.

The terms Art and Beauty have become blurred. Art itself has criteria that objects would first need to qualify as Art and then they may also qualify as Beautiful -- if they share elements with God’s Glory. Not everything that man creates is Art, though everything that God creates is beautiful. Even Christians have misused these terms and turned them around incorrectly. I have seen church signs that read, “Art is man’s creation, Creation is God’s Art.” This sounds like a lovely saying and may sound very true to the untrained aesthetic mind; however, I will show that this phrase implies the predication of Art to Creation, implying that the logical extension of Art is equal or greater than Creation - which clearly shares God’s quality of Beauty. But art never has greater logical extension than beauty.

Art has also traditionally been limited to man-made objects. Here is the wall that most philosophers eventually run into when trying to describe art and beauty in a related context. The problem with confusing beauty and art is that if beauty is limited to art, what do you do about the awesomeness of Creation and how can you include those elements in an aesthetic criterion? This is a huge puzzle and German Philosopher Immanuel Kant “solved” the stumbling block by using the term “sublime” to identify the kind of aesthetic response that went beyond man’s creation. You’ll even hear people use the term sublime -- It was a sublime experience and chances are they do not even know what it means…You see both art and beauty involve aesthetic responses. In fact, they cry out for an aesthetic response and are a necessary component to each! So when you are trying to study aesthetics it is easy to confuse art and beauty. The stumbling block in the academic study of Aesthetics usually happens when you encounter God’s creation and it is difficult to define the difference between these two aesthetic responses in logical terms.

Therefore beauty cannot be limited within the extension of art. Art might share in beauty, but beauty is not confined within art. That is the difference. The puzzle is not such a difficult one, if you are a Christian. Here is my point and here is where we will avoid the stumbling block of misused terms. The truth of the matter is that beauty, not art, is a quality of God - and it is this declaration that you will not hear from secular philosophers, nor will children learn this from a public institution.

Why is this important? When you study the development of thought and how we learn, the mental acts involved in an aesthetic response will be developed before ethical thought.  If a child is not exposed to nature or God's poetry in scripture, he will need to develop his aesthetic response in a different way.  Usually this can happen when exposed to man-made art including music and literature.  The aesthetic response is not as developed, but it is still important that it develops in some fashion.  Now do you begin to understand my concern when the secular world tries to remove art and literature from your child?.  A poor mental development which begins with a lack of aesthetic experience and snowballs to incompetent ethical judgments will result in the development of our young people.

Start delighting!

ice and snow - http://pinterest.com/pin/340232946818912333/

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Color palette

The palette of the Lord is beyond compare.  An inherent quality of art (man-made) must reflect an ele... - http://pinterest.com/pin/340232946818917068/

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Keeping Santa Claus fun and Truth preserved

So how do we keep the magic in Christmas if we don’t tell our children that Santa is real? I like to keep a low, what I call freak out level, when handling most things where the child wants to view or read something and the parent is trying to say “no.” Well, there are families that really freak out and don’t allow family or friends to even mention Santa Claus. There is a way to enjoy the jolly old elf without worrying that you are breaking your child’s trust. The key is to allow your child to enter the story with you! The season of Christmas is magical because you are celebrating the birth of Christ, a beautiful miracle and gift from our loving Father.  If you allow your child to join you in the play of storytelling and having fun with the story of Santa, it doesn’t break the magic....

Santa Claus, Boundaries of Play -- Christmas fantasy woes

Play is not play at all if one child is left outside of the box, confused, and hurt. He has no idea where his reality ends and where the “play” is supposed to start. ...

Now in this post I want to explore what happens when the parent is breaking the rules of play. Every year around Christmas time the debate over Santa Claus comes up. Psychologists have written articles on it, parenting experts get asked about it, and I have been asked about it.  Is it healthy to let your child believe in Santa?  The rules of play and the philosophical points I'm mentioning in this blog thread surprisingly never come up in discussions of Santa Claus. 

Imagination for Children, Boundaries of Play -- Rules Broken

Boundaries of Play -- Discussion With Elementary Children: What do you say to your friends right before you start to play? (continued...)

During this initial part of the dialogue, Isaac said, “Make believe is like real life and then it gets confusing.” This really was an awesome observation and I told him that I was very impressed. It is exactly this blurring or confusion between make believe and real life that causes Academic Philosophers to continue to struggle with these questions in Philosophy of Literature and Aesthetics. He was so excited that I took his thought seriously that he told me during break, “I think it is (neat) that a grown-up can learn from my thoughts!!” This is the excitement in a good Philosophy for Children program.  This journal entry is a continuation on an important topic, Boundaries of Play: 
Discussion Thoughts for Blog Audience!
Boundaries of play… what are the rules?

Aesthetics and Ethics of Play

In this post, I am reprinting a journal log of a class that I taught with elementary children.  This class discussed philosophical questions that are important when creating fiction or the pretend world.  There are rules or boundaries for play and this was a fantastic topic to get children to consider manners and ethics in playtime.  These notes came from actual feedback from a group of about 6 children.

How do we know when we have entered the world of fantasy or play? To illustrate the topic, I used a white board and created 2 stick children to represent two girls who were starting to play.  "Here, Tiffany and Olivia wanted to play pirates"

Rescuing the Metaphor for Children

I was able to meet and talk to a wonderful mom about her son who has Asperger's Syndrome. What a wonderful little face! I have an opportunity to work with him weekly to develop thinking skills through poetry and literature. I'm hoping that other Christians will help raise the alert on this growing trend with our children. After reading from a different mom's testimony that her AS son declared through tears, "I'm the stupidest thing God ever created on this planet!" The mother and son broke down and she brought her son home for his schooling. I'm hoping that a I might help this child to never feel this dispair. God loves these children, and loves how they think.  As Christians, we will need to help them develop their thinking skills (whether as teachers, counselors, tutors or just loving parents and grandparents) so God's Word may be read and His Will be done.  A primary characteristic of Asperger's is the inability to understand metaphorical language.

Falsity in Folklore? Metaphors and Iconic folk characters

I was just reading a popular series for children when I noticed that in the introduction, the portal of magic for this particular book was owned by Morgan Le Fay, a “magical librarian from the time of Arthur.”  Now, you may have already guessed from my previous posts that I’m a great lover of fantasy, fairy tales, folklore, and science fiction.  I believe they are extremely important in the ethical and literary development in children.  (Our Lord is not afraid of your child’s imagination.)  Too often, censoring these types of materials is done from fear that God will not triumph in your child’s life.  With that defense of imaginative literature having been said, I will make my next point.  When you read a reference in a story that has its roots in Biblical metaphors or literary lore, you should be aware of the character it’s pointing to...

Extreme Tattooing -- body beautiful?

As a librarian, a lot of material comes across my attention.  One that I had to look at more closely was a title on extreme tattooing.  I quickly learned that the tattoo artists and those who are receiving the tattoos view the human body as a canvas or a sort of diary, where their personal history is etched into their skin forever.  What is even more amazing is the vast number of people who are covered by the feet so to speak in tattoos.  One girl was quoted as saying she didn't understand those who did not tattoo their skin, "it's so blank, what's the point?"  Clearly, the human body is seen as something that is their own personal and private property.  You might at first not think that odd.

Delight Needs to be Taught

As part of my definition for aesthetic you will see the term delight as part of a required response  So if you are observing a painting or reading a book, for the experience to be considered an "aesthetic experience", it needs to invoke delight in the observer.  Now, some philosophers say that the observer must have acquired a sense of "taste."  Indeed much has been written about developing an artistic taste.  I think there is some merit to the idea.  So this post is about developing the Christian's Aesthetic taste.   If the Christian Aesthetic is rooted in the Beautiful (part of the nature of God himself), then to develop the Christian Aesthetic means we need to recognize Beauty when we see it.  Plus, we need to practice delighting in those things that are beautiful.   A child imitates their parent...

What's all this have to do with raising my children?

You may be wondering what all these posts about metaphors have to do with raising Godly Children.  Well, it is a key element in my theory of discernment, especially in literature.  My purpose is to try to help you shift your focus away from the cover of the book, the title, the setting, and even the fairy tale elements, which is what most people look at when standing at the library counter sifting through material.  [Attitude is another element of discernment for the school-story style of fiction, but I will save characterization for later].  Metaphors allow you to look beyond the setting or even fairy tale elements of a book and discern its value against Biblical symbols and images.  The prophet Isaiah gives us a perfect criteria for judging and I will be applying this verse in my aesthetic theory. "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."  Isaiah 5:20 NIV
So you ready??... Here it goes:   Does the author or artist flip the metaphors upside down? In other words, are they using a symbol that God has designated as bad  (as in the bad guy) and instead made it to be the good (as in the good guy)?  Now, I'm not talking about the imaginative elements that are the vehicle for telling the story like magic in most fantasy fiction -- I'm talking specifics to the character or storyline.  That means you will have to read the full story to find out!  You will not know until you actually read the book.  Too many Christians allow their pastors to "pre-read" for them.  There's nothing wrong with pastors giving recommendations to you; but it's when they have a "Don't Read List" and you aren't checking for yourself that I worry!  You should never make yourself vulnerable to a pastor instead of the Holy Spirit.   As an adult, you don't appreciate having your approved list of books dictated to you, do you?  So, why then do we turn around and wonder why our children are resisting?  I'm especially talking about preteen and teen children here.  Let your child make an aesthetic judgment with you.  If a child is interested in a particular story, read it together and then use this new concept as your plumb line and discover as a family if the literary work is found wanting.   If it does not satisfy  the criteria for a good Christian Aesthetic; we will say it is a poor choice or even poor art, but maintain freedom.  This is a much better approach than censoring and tryng to keep others from NOT choosing. There are so many ways God helps us in our judgment in regards to art and beauty, that I hope you'll stay with me as we continue in our walk.  The Lord is my portion,

Metaphors Part III -- Religion of the Daisy-Petals

I wanted to finish this initial series on the importance of metaphors.  Some metaphors might be more accurately described as archetypes, when they have their origin in a reality of first types such as most of the Biblical metaphors.  An archetype is the original persona, image, icon etc that has been repeated and copied throughout cultures and generations and are deeply ingrained in our language and cultural understanding. The Biblical archetypes have their origin with God as well.   But I will stick to the term metaphor for my purposes on this blog because I want to focus on the connection of images with their given meanings.    To understand the power of metaphors and why it is ESSENTIAL that we know them, I am going to illustrate an absurd example, but one I hope will get my point across and be memorable.  Once upon a modern time, there was a house of worship called the Worship House of the Daisy-Petals.....  Steve is a young man of the village or small community in the country, he describes himself as average, seeking a church that is a good place for worship and that will be inviting.  He is not looking for any kind of power, prestige, or riches, just a good place to worship.  A friend tells him about this new place that has just recently  been established called the Worship House of the Daisy Petals.....

Metaphors - Part II

Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Serpent, Forbidden fruit, Garden,  Four rivers flowing out, Clothing of Skin, Cherubim with flaming swords.  This is a small list of images that appear in just the first few chapters of Genesis.  Who associates these images to their meanings?  Are they random?   If you believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, then God is the author of these meanings.  He is the one who has connected the trees with their meanings and if the Bible is His story, then He is the one who told us the story of the garden, Adam and Eve, the snake, its connection and the interpretation of all that transpired.......

Start looking for metaphors!

This post is all about metaphors :)  What in the world is a metaphor?  A metaphor is an image that represents an idea.  Now the dictionary will tell you that it is a figure of speech that brings two ideas together in comparison and that is correct, but a metaphor is much much more than a figure of speech.  It will become so important that it will be your primary point of discernment for literature and very possibly all the arts.   So to help us recognize metaphors, let's start with the beginning.....  

As Fear of the Lord increases, our fear decreases

As we begin to take notice of God's Beauty and actively seek to delight in Him, our joy increases, our Fear of the Lord in his Majesty increases while our fear of  the things of this earth decreases.  When we consciously take time to build our awareness of the Christian Aesthetic, our awareness of the Holy Spirit increases.   So many times in our prayer life, we pray in our rooms or cars, heads bowed, eyes closed.  This is a description of our prayer life.  Sometimes, prayer and supplication is found on our knees, face to the feet of our Savior and rests in His Grace.   However, our Aesthetic walk with God might best be described as .....