Ten numbered items and eleven unnumbered items. If this is an example of “sparse” weekly meanderings, my name is Amelia Galli-Curci and I call plays for the Chicago bears while singing “Un bel di” from Madame Butterfly.

The Abbess LOVES the cartoon

hi Scot McKnight,
I am in love with Mary, thanks to your book! Great book! 2 questions; I do not believe in trinity, I think Jesus is the iamge of God, notGod himself.
2. How can we pray to Mary or ask for her mediation if she is dead?
Kind regards, henk

Random Acts of Linkage #41 : Subversive Influence

[...] I’m going to leave it abbreviated there… given the season, I imagine many folk have as little time to read as I do, but Scot McKnight has some more links if you exhaust these ones. You can show appreciation for this post by buying me a can of soup… New around here? Why not Subscribe? Thanks for dropping by — Gratia vobis et pax. 5 Views (Excluding Feeds) ::: Leave a Comment Post Permalink:  http://www.subversiveinfluence.com/wordpress/?p=1537 [...]

No Mexico this year?

To classify today’s Weekly Meanderings as sparse (thinly spread, or occurring with many spaces in between) is a bit like calling Lake Michigan a backyard pond.
THIS should give all of us – not just David Fitch – plenty to chew on. Yes – there certainly have been spectacles in European Cathedrals, and on occasion still there still are. They can be powerful experiences used by God (who after all can work through most anything). But does such professional theatrical performance really grow the church, or does it encourage couch potato Christianity? The talented and abnormal minority “do” – the rest, the normal majority, watch and grow fat and lazy.
We dare not act if we are not experts (a cultural flaw the church is appropriating – not a creation of the church).
Christianity is a lifestyle commitment – not a spectator sport.

Umm, Scot, that was Beethoven, not Mozart. It is very troubling when a scholar of your reputation cannot keep his composers straight. Oh my.

Scot,
Thanks for the links concerning capital punishment. It is timely, since I just watched Thomas Cahill on Bill Moyers Journal (watch video here), where Cahill talks about his research for a new book on the Texas execution of Dominique Green.
Watching the Moyers’ interview, it got me thinking, especially as I research for my book on the Imago Dei in humanity as the community of witness (an Emmanuel Apologetic), about the “Eikon” in humanity and the command in Genesis 9 that “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” It seems that, in principle, Christians should favor capital punishment. But that it must be in the context of a societal understanding that humanity is created in the image of God as the foundation of this being an “accounting” (Gen 9:5) for our actions, as a matter of justice. This is no longer the case in Western societies like the USA. And, as I assume the book you recommend points out (Living Next Door to the Death House), the death penalty in the United States is not just. Capital Punishment, an action that is meant to be for justice, is not a just act in our cultural context.
I’d be interested in your in-depth understanding of this, especially in light of your concept articulated in Embracing Grace of the Eikon of God in humanity!

scott e. was right… it was beethoven’s moonlight sonata. but really its the same (some dead guy from the past who wrote beautiful music). thanks for the link!

Sorry to say, but there was a horrific Christmas Eve murder spree (in Washington State) that I am hopeful will result in death penalty convictions for aggravated first degree murder…sometimes it is still warranted.