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So, maybe I'll manage to get Pass with Distinction on my exams without reading any of the bibliography!




(Bad Kevin!)

An Exercise

So, at one point when I was growing up, my dad taught me a motto that is very popular in the Independent Christian Churches, "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, charity." At first, I thought that was mainly a Restoration Movement slogan, but I have in recent years noticed that all kinds of Christian groups claim that slogan as their own. Some of them seem quite triumphalist about being the ones shrewd enough to use it.

So, as an exercise, I have decided to post here as complete as possible of a list of church groups that use this as a primary or major slogan:

1. Christian Churches/Churches of Christ
2. Disciples of Christ (and, more broadly, other Restoration Movement Churches)
3. Moravian Church
4. Evangelical Presbyterian Church
5. Reformed Church of America
6. Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
7. General Conference Mennonite Church
8. United Brethren in Christ
9. Ecumenical Catholic Communion
10. the Anglican Essentials movement
11. United Methodist Church (though perhaps not officially)
12. Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches (or at least some individual dioceses)
    
13. Lutheran Evangelical Protestant Church
14. The Free Catholic Communion
15. General Association of Six-Principle Baptists
    
16. Unity of the Brethren
17. "Celtic Christians"
    
18. Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets International
    
19. Oasis: A Reformed House Church Network
20. Various "Community Church"es

For lack of space, I shall avoid making a chart of which teachings fall under which of the three columns. Besides, printing it out might cause the page to explode, because of the ironically fierce disputes contained therein. Few issues are (legitimately) more contentious than how to define which issues are unworthy of contention.

P.S. Apparently it was coined by an obscure German theologian Rupertus (AKA Peter) Meldenius, though like any good quote it has recruited an elite group of supposed coiners. Who you attribute it to should probably be left as a matter of liberty...

P.P.S. I expect this list to grow over time.

Darn...

So, we are trying to figure out small ways to save money, and learn various handy old-style tricks for making things last. Since we don't have a backyard, or even a patio, gardening is out for now. Maybe next year. For now, we have decided to start learning how to mend socks. The thread is fairly cheap, and making the socks last longer should save money in the long run.

The planning side of it wasn't too hard. There are some websites that describe the process well. So far, out of the two of us I am the one who is more confident with a needle and thread. It didn't look too hard, like it would require anything greater than patience and practice. We just needed to get the supplies.

And there's the rub.

We quite naively went to Michael's. We quickly found the right kind of needles and what I think is the right kind of thread. Then we looked for a darning egg. And looked. And looked some more. We saw some pretty cool sewing tools. We saw enough knitting and crochet sets that Laura Ingalls Wilder herself could have hoped to find. We even saw a scale model kit of the U.S.S. Missouri. But no egg...

So we finally found an employee and asked. She had no idea and punted it to another employee. He tried to fake it and took us back to the same aisle that we had already subjected to a precision forensic search. No luck. He suggested that we try Jo-Anne's.

So we did. It meant going from Emeryville to Albany (similar to going from Whittier to Brea), but it was still early enough. Besides, I thought. Jo-Anne's is the fabric store, and Michael's is mainly crafts. Why take a craft store to a fabric store fight? Jo-Anne's is the home of the make-your-own-dresses crowd. Certainly they would have have what we need.

Or so we thought. We looked. Searched the sewing and knitting sections twice. The quilting section, even fabrics. Nothing. So we tried again. Nothing. Then we saw one of the older employees, one who looked like she knew everything about everything in the store. She had no idea what I was talking about. But she looked, in all the same places. Had a third the staff on it almost, but nothing turned up. So went bought some light bulbs (a handy substitute, and we needed back-ups), and left for home. Two hours of scrounging, no luck.

Back home, I looked online. Amazon had none. The main place that has them? Ebay. They are all listed as collectables, antiques, or "primitives."

Hardly the first of our interests to be so catalogued.

Rumpelstiltskin...

How nice it would be to spin straw into gold. Except, it is quite inflationary behavior if you think about it. The more you spin, the less value you get. Plus, I suspect that the technique is rather labor-intensive. Besides, showing up in the shop with all that thread-like gold would look a wee bit suspicious. Neither the grocery store, nor the mechanic, nor the landlady are likely to accept gold braids for payment.

Then, well, there is the whole problem of the gold standard, or lack thereof. I mean, we could try to spin the straw into official bullion coins, but I think that would be illegal. Granted, the law probably does not directly address the act of magically transforming base matter into currency-shaped gold, but I don't think that would stop an enterprising U.S. Attorney.

Perhaps we could reorganize our household as a bank holding company, or a struggling automobile maker. But then we might go to jail the first time we use the bailout funds to visit family. And the cable news people would never shut up about it.

So, alas, no straw-spinning for us. Care to recommend any suitable substitute?

The Scandal of "Up!"

I was shocked and scandalized this weekend when I saw Pixar's latest offering, Up! in 3d. Sure, by all appearances it is a squeaky-clean film about a daring, eccentric old man who crosses the sea in a daring and improbable manner. And yes, he journeys into untold realms only to finally arrive back home, seeing it in a new light. Woven into it was the implicit praise of lifelong monogamy and the idea that everyday life is an adventure. So, with so much to praise, from whence comes my outrage? In short, from all of what I mentioned!

Friends, clearly Pixar plagiarized the story from G.K. Chesterton! Sure, that precise story does not appear in any of his extant corpus; that it what worries me. After all, the American Chesterton Society mentions how minor texts of his tend to turn up from odd places. He published so many essays and articles and the like that previously lost works turn up in someone's desk. Given the thoroughly Chestertonian nature of that delightful movie, I must conclude that someone from Disney/Pixar came accross some manuscript of an unpublished Chesterton novel. Instead of publishing it openly, said malefactor edited it into a screenplay!

So, Disney, come clean! Release the purloined manuscript, no doubt pilfered from some ravaged ruin in Battersea, and be open about it! We demand only the truth!

Finally, I challenge Disney to for once not be afraid to portray their source material without redaction or bowlderization. Until Disney/Pixar releases the purloined manuscript from their infamous "vault", we shall never know the text of Carl Fredrickson's jaunty, clever, paradox-laced monologues. We will be denied the description of the heraldric crest that he and Ellie painted on their house. And, indeed, it may vindicate my theory that the dog, through his allegorical foolery, was to be the true philosopher of the lot!

Until the day of justice arrives, I shall have to content myself with greatly enjoying the film.

Happenings -- Other

Yeah, today's post divided itself in two. That is how much has been going on!

My wife's grandmother made me an apron. It was part of a package that she sent us this week. It seems like she has been slowly building up a set of combined belated wedding/Christmas gifts for us that all arrived without warning.

I developed a crazy scheme somewhere between last fall semester and this January. It involves proposing my comprehensive exams somewhere between a semester and a year early. That means the exams themselves would be finished equally early. At the same time, I would keep developing my dissertation topic with the goal of submitting that proposal in the following semester, doing in one semester what the standard time frame gives me a up to a year to accomplish. I would then try and write my dissertation over the course of the following year. That would mean proposing my comps by the end of my second year (instead of by the end of the third), taking the exams in Fall of year 3, proposing my dissertation topic Spring of year 3, and finishing my dissertation somewhere in year 4. This is a fairly crazy scheme, especially since I was not at all certain that I could pass the German exam in January. It is all with the goal of having Sarah start her PhD program ASAP. This is my second year; she would apply next school year, and if the scheme works I would be ABD before we have to move. I would write the dissertation wherever it is that she goes to for her program.

In other news, Kevin's crazy scheme is officially right on schedule. I somehow passed my last language test in February, assembled a committee, defined my major and minor field, and assembled bibliographies, and wrote up the proposal. The committee revised it and gave me permission to go forward. I put it before the History faculty yesterday, and they approved it. Quite happily, at that.

I am now set to take my exams in the Fall. This will be the Summer of Books. I have a 3 hour, closed-book, written exam in my major field, and I have to revise and expand a paper for my minor field. Plus, I have a surprisingly realistic fear that I am about to exceed my checkout limit at the library.

Happenings -- Church

This has been an eventful month, to be sure. And most of those events came to a head this week.

We have been going through the membership process at Christ Church Berkeley. Some aspects of it have been unexpectedly drawn out, as they have just redesigned much of the process. Keep in mind, they just celebrated their third Easter; the church is barely old enough to be leaving the "making it up as you go along" phase. I must say, the pastors are doing a great job, and it has been exciting seeing a congregation develop and mature before my eyes. We had the official one-on-one (or really, two-on-one) meeting with an associate pastor this week. All that remains is the formal pledge before the congregation. We don't know how long we will be living in Berkeley, but I am glad that we are setting down roots in this church for the duration.

There was a short reception after church last Sunday, what with it being Easter. Everyone was supposed to bring something. While trying to grab some deals at Costco, we discovered that they were selling flats of Mexican Coke! (Because of differences in tariff policy, Mexican Coke does not use corn syrup. Also, they still use the classic glass bottles.) I couldn't resist. So we arrived at church carrying a big old case of Mexican Coke-bottles. It was a hit.

Finally, as the church is developing and taking the first steps out of mission status, it has a few sticky questions to answer. Quite interesting, quite innocent, and ones which I nevertheless should not post on the open Internet. The pastors decided to solve it in the traditional Presbyterian manner--they had one of the lay members start a commission. Due to our status as church history scholars(-in-training), Sarah and I have been asked to participate. Equal parts exciting and scary--we are both sitting on our first church committee...

An Interesting Palm Sunday Note

It is not surprising that Palm Sunday sparked some discussion of donkeys with Sarah. In part because she is a mild donkey enthusiast, and in part because of the role that a lowly ass played in the events commemorated today. Discussion led to googling, which led us to discover the miniature donkey. (We even decided that we might like to keep a pair if we are ever able to live in a suitable house.)

In the midst of all of this spontaneous donkey research, I found out that donkeys normally have a cross on their backs. It is formed by a stripe that runs down their spine, and a stripe across the shoulders. This is harder to spot on darker-haired breeds, and some of the larger breeds lack that feature. This donkey cross is a very curious feature.

(source)

Medieval Europeans, always fans of a good animal allegory, apparently had a field day with that one. Legends developed that the donkey was given its cross as a reward for carrying Jesus during the Triumphal Entry. A variant of one of the legends was versified in fairly modern times, and seems to be quite popular among many donkey breeders. While I am usually not into pious legends in more than a purely antiquarian sense, I thought this version was too cool not to pass on:

"Bring me the colt of a donkey,"
was the Master's request.

A young donkey was brought to Jesus
to carry Him into Jerusalem.

A week later Jesus was ordered
to be crucified.

The little donkey so loved the Lord
that he wanted to help Him carry the cross.

But, alas, he was pushed away.

The sad little donkey waited to say
goodbye until nearly all had left.

As he turned to leave, the shadow of
the cross fell upon the
back and shoulders of
the little donkey.

And there it has remained,
a tribute to the loyalty
and love of the humblest of
Gods creatures.

(By Mary Singer, h/t Short ASSets Ranch)

Is it true? Probably not. But it is cool.