Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • My Personality Type

    Lord's Prayer in biblical languages_2135
    Image by hoyasmeg via Flickr

    I don’t actually get personal on this blog all that often, but what is more personal than a personality type? In any case, you can blame it all on that mastermind Joel, who published his type (INTJ), thus causing me to fall into temptation, and try to remember mine.

    I didn’t remember it until I scored the test, and then I said to myself, “Oh, yes. That was me.” (Or was I, in my more grammatical moments. [Query: Can a moment be grammatical?]) So here it is, drum roll please …

    INTJ

    OK, the rational mastermind. Actually, though I always come up that way on the test, I don’t feel much like a mastermind.

    Now here’s the funny part. The Jung Career Indicator suggests that I might go into natural science, natural science education, IT, or computer programming, with an alternative in social services as a lawyer or a librarian. Well, I do own two businesses, one of which does IT, and I do computer programming as a hobby, but my work day is in publishing, and I end up doing a great deal of sales. My training is in Biblical Languages and I often teach.

    Probably I just missed my path way back when I chose a Biblical Languages major in college.

    Nah! I think I’m OK with what I do. Which is why you see the Lord’s Prayer in biblical languages rather than some personality type image at the beginning of this post.

    (And to demonstrate that salesmanship thing, how about a copy of Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord’s Prayer? [How’s that for connections? (So there! {Oh, and don’t try to tell me you weren’t trying to figure out what that image of the Lord’s Prayer was about!})])

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  • Group Lists Donors to Others

    … but not its own. Be sure to follow the links.

  • Voter Ignorance

    Sen. Bob Bennett, Chairman Dianne Feinstein, U...
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    A Kaiser poll (pdf) finds that 22% of respondents believe the health care reform bill has been repealed, and another 26% don’t know. (HT: Dispatches and The Daily Dish)

    Now I realize that the majority in the poll do realize, correctly, that the health care bill is still law. But consider that even the 22% is more than the gap between those who support and those who oppose the law. The question this raises for me is just how meaningful the rest of the poll responses can be, when answered by people who aren’t at all acquainted with it.

    Elgin Hushbeck, Jr. in his book Preserving Democracy (published by my company Energion Publications) notes another poll:

    A key reason is that while most people know who the President is*, a significant number of voters have no clue about Congress. In a Zogby poll of those who voted for Obama conducted shortly after the election, less than half, 42.6 percent, even knew that Congress was controlled by the Democrats and 36.5 percent actually believed that the Republicans were in control.224 In a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted just after the election, 28 percent of those asked said they had never heard of Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, while Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House was better known, as only eight percent226 had never heard of her (pp. 208-209).

    These are not matters subject to opinion. I often hear people called ignorant because they don’t agree with certain conclusions. Such accusations only reflect badly on the accuser. But whether a law has been passed or which party is in control of congress are not matters of opinion.

    No wonder polls tend to vary wildly and people’s votes often seem to contradict their values.

     

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  • On a Virtual Seminary Education

    Spire of First United Methodist Church
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    Jason Byassee explains why he voted to allow up to 2/3 of seminary credits to be taken online in his United Methodist conference (HT: Joel Watts).

    Readers of this blog will already be aware that I believe it’s inevitable that the majority of education is delivered by virtual means. Not only that, I think this is a good thing. I think it will make it possible to deliver a higher quality education. There is always resistance to new technology, because it takes away from our old standard ways of doing things. But instead of fighting such technology, which is still just a tool, we need to find ways to use it to make things work better.

    I think our current concept of a university, a college, and a seminary are doomed. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing good in those concepts. There are experiences that do need to be carried out together. But those classroom lectures with hundreds of students ignoring the professor can be replaced by more efficient means, and we can spend our money, and the precious time of quality teachers on the most important things.

    For example, I recall preparing lessons for my later classes while occupying a seat in a class on Daniel and Revelation, and then getting a comfortable ‘A’ in the course. I could have learned more by spending those hours online. Could the professor have done better? Absolutely. But he also had to deal with about 50 students, so detailed discussion of all points involving all of us would have been impossible.

    On the other hand I would not want to exchange my time studying Greek exegesis with Dr. Sakae Kubo for anything else. There we had half a dozen serious students, and we made that time with an expert count.

    Dr. Byassee comments on hands-on education, such as learning how to take the hand of a dying person. There’s where I think even seminary fails. I have talked to many seminary graduates who are uncomfortable praying with a member of their congregation when they graduate. They have to become comfortable as they pastor. Here the local church needs to be involved. I wonder why a young person, especially one contemplating full-time ministry, would be allowed to get through their youth in church without learning how to pray with one another.

    I’d think strong local church involvement plus a good online program with additional time spent in person at a seminary (weekends, weeks, months, sabbatical years) would be a good formula. All of those elements should be lifelong, and not just during a time of preparation.

    In my view, social media and virtual education will only hurt us if we don’t learn how to make the best of the resources available.

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  • Proper and Rightful Role for Iowa Caucuses?

    Source: http://www.legis.state.ia.us/Pubinfo/S...
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    According to CNN, Iowa Republican Chairman Matt Strawn commented on those states that are trying to move their primaries earlier in the process:

    “I don’t think its any secret that Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina have historically worked together, and we are in communication, and we will do what is necessary to maintain our proper and rightful role in the process,” he said.

    I have no idea what makes it either proper or rightful for the Iowa caucuses to be first in the nation, or the New Hampshire primary to be the first primary. In fact, I think the idea is ridiculous, and the parties should give up on this.

    Since party conventions have become a waste of time, except as a PR event, the timing of primaries has become ridiculous. There’s no reason these particular states should have the first say in choosing party candidates.

    But what annoys me even more is the extent to which state legislatures are involved in setting up party events. I see this whole fight (and the one we had in 2008, as even more reason to de-institutionalize the two major parties. Let the parties pay for and organize whatever events they want in order to select the props for their media events, mislabeled conventions.

     

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  • February Biblical Studies Carnival Posted

    … at A Fistful of Farthings. It’s definitely a comprehensive one!

  • New Biblioblog: The Good Book

    A group of 30 professors at the Talbot School of Theology have created a new blog, The Good Book Blog. Their about page describes it this way:

    The Good Book Blog is the faculty blog of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. Representing the diverse areas of specialty within the seminary, but bound by a common commitment to biblical authority, the blog seeks to engage with important topics in biblical studies, theology, philosophy, spiritual formation and Christian education. The Good Book Blog is a resource for anyone seeking solid biblical scholarship that engages contemporary ideas from a decidedly evangelical perspective.

    I think it will be worth following their “decidedly evangelical” perspective.

     

  • Dave Black on Philippians

    Matt Capps has collected links to Dave Black’s online writings on Philippians. As one of Dave’s publishers, I’m glad to see the list.

  • Biblioblog Top 50 for February

    … posted. I’ve climbed to #20.

  • Note: Naked Heat

    I read this book, and the previous Nikki Heat volume, Heat Wave, because I found the concept of a book by a ghost writer, writing for a fictional author interesting. (OK, that sentence is too convoluted, but I’m not going to fix it.) I find the ABC show Castle entertaining in a non-intellectual sort of way. It’s good relaxation.

    As for Heat Wave, it took me half the book to get interesting. It almost fell into a rating of 1 on my scale, by virtue of my failing to finish reading it. But about half way through it managed to become mildly interesting and ended up OK. Because I decided to check out the next volume, it makes it, just barely, to a 3.

    Naked Heat was better. I was interesting throughout. It’s not a book I couldn’t put down. In fact, I put it down in the middle of quite a number of scenes, including one with Nikki Heat in the middle of a fight. I also had a fair idea what was going on too early in the book, though the evidence was not always presented all that clearly. Some authors keep you guessing by having a complex case. Others do it through some obscure presentation of the evidence. This one uses the latter a bit.

    It’s still a decent book, and the concept is fun. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. I also give Heat Wave 3 out of five stars, but Heat Wave barely made it, while Naked Heat is a solid 3.