What I Don't Know About Art

I was browsing the Fine Art section of allposters.com today, when I came across an image straight out of my high-school history class.

It is without a doubt the most well-known of Friedrich's works- The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. Upon seeing it, I decided to search a bit more to see if there was anything else of his that I enjoyed, or could relate to.   And then I came across this gem:

With my absolutely nonexistent knowledge of art, I fell deeply in love with this single work. Not because of any method,  or because of the beauty of it all; No, I most admire the story that Friedrich tells in each of his works. There is a reason why I would prefer the life of the author to the life of the illustrator, (besides being terrible with a paintbrush) and that is the desire for story. To me, each of Friedrich's works details a snippet of some grand storyline, in which you can already see that it is just the smaller part of some larger world. There is an emphasis on location, which just gets me excited as a left-brained, literary-type. Friedrich leaves so much possibility for the existence and goings-on of the world around his paintings, and that is why I adore his work. I hope that my more-artistically inclined friends will tell me of my folly, or of how correct I am, but I am definitely a fan of Friedrich and his fellow romantics. Here are a few more that I really love.

Wedding Checklists

So Jessica and I have been engaged for... Sixteen days now, and the days are getting fewer between now and our soon-to-be-announced official wedding date! At first, we started going off half-cocked, doing whatever we felt like when it came to preparations and planning. But alas, one-to-many embarrassing moments and I caved: We got a wedding book. So far, The Bridal Bible has been most helpful, and we have adopted the wedding checklist it suggested. Initial details have been hammered out: We have the style, the date, the venue, and tentatively, the officiant.

God has been really faithful throughout the initial stages of the process, and He has been teaching me a few components of being a Godly man and husband. I have a long way to go before I will know anything about either of the two, but I hope that through seeking the Lord and with some pre-marital counseling, He will teach me what I need to lead Jessica and our family in the years to come. But no matter what, I've been reminded of two things:

1) No matter how many times I fail, He is still faithful, and the Cross is still enough.
2) All glory is His!

So I guess the Blogging Ball is rolling.

The Art of Heresy: The Importance in Maintaining Worldview

Lately I have learned a lot about worldviews. I will start with a basic truth:

For a worldview to be valid it must be true to its own presuppositions.

In my opinion, a worldview is only worth following if those who follow it do not compromise it. Not all worldviews are correct, that is my view since my own worldview denies the plausibility of compatibility. Therefore, the raging of this post is not against other worldviews; Mine is an Unorthodox Christian worldview, which is growing more and more Orthodox as I seek understanding. Other worldviews, to include Atheistic Naturalism and Wahabi (Orthodox) Islam, are to me valid. Notice, I did not call them right, merely valid. As worldviews, they are still to be considered valid because as a whole, each one is not compromised for the sake of unity, or some other silly postmodern notion.

With that being said, we come to the main point of my rant: I have recently been exposed to some hyper-Charismatic thinking, and find it quite heretical. Granted, I am unsure whether to judge my findings as a part of the whole, or federally. It should at least say that in judging what I have seen in part, it is heresy. Reading and watching YouTube videos concerning Benny Hinn, and his new accomplice "The Prophet" Manasseh Jordan, I am sickened by the degree of success they have attained in gathering followers. Looking at Manasseh Jordan's website, I was utterly convinced that he is extremely self-serving and self-promoting. I am forced to accept that this fame and success should be expected: After all, it is easy to gain followers when you tell them what they want to hear, showing them miraculous signs and 'healing' them in front of thousands. I saw with my own eyes as Manasseh Jordan forcibly knocked a man to the ground, 'healing' him as he was slain in the Spirit. Oh, how Alexander III would start the fires if he saw the heresy going on today...

As a part of this rambling rant on worldview, heresy, and hyper-Charismatics, we need to look at how this movement is a self-destroying worldview, and should not be legitimized as a possibility of rightness. It is at best, utter Unorthodoxy, but borders on heresy with it's quick and easy compromises of Christian doctrine and Biblical authority. Returning to Manasseh Jordan, I have read from a reliable source, Christian Research Service, which explores the degree of syncretism practiced by his father, E. Bernard Jordan (who mocks  the title of 'Bishop'). Among his claims is the idea of the Charkas of the human body being independent gateways to God, a crossover from Hindu belief. This is but one of many sycretistic claims made by televangelists and hyper-Charismatics. Another testing-point for my patience is the extreme to which God's omnipresence has been carried. As I understand it, the logic of the hyper-Charismatic is such:

1. God is present in everything.
2. I am a part of everything.
3. God is present in me.

And now for the craziness:
     4.  Since God is present in me, he is me.
     5.  I am God, or can become God.

Say what? This goes against the Christian worldview in it's entirety, whether it be Orthodox or Unorthodox. A part of the Christian worldview is the view of God as prime reality, not of the self as prime reality. This is not the Christian worldview! I'm sorry hyper-Charismatics, but if you believe this, then please cease to consider me as a sharer of your worldview. Better to hold firmly to a wrong worldview than to hold to a compromising one.

Expect more on worldview, it's kind of my thing at the moment.

An update on me: Pipe-smoking sucks, not doing that again.

...And in With theWhole

So it's five months later, and I'm engaged! I proposed to Jessica at Biltmore, changed my minor from Business to Humanities, and started smoking a pipe! :D cool, right? This tiny tidbit will (hopefully) prime the pump for more to follow.