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October 19, 2006
Mandarin Bildungburgers
Did you know that the modern university was established after Napolean creamed the Prussians? The leader of Prussia decided his state needed to make up in intellectual resources that which they had lost physical resources. Anyway, pretty soon Germany caught on.
The Mandarin Bildungburgers were a group of academicians in Germany who thought the pursuit of knowledge, when combined with moral training, would bring Germany together. The Bildungburgers ideas were soon brought to the extreme by Hitler, and well, we know the rest of that story.
The following is my response paper in class to these ideals and how it made me think of what Tim taught on Sunday morning. I apologize if some are unfamiliar with the context of some of the terms. Feel free to post about that. And of course, enjoy.
When I read Chapter 7 in Leahey’s book, many of the German ideals resonated with me. I loved the idea of using education to work towards “true community.” The description of a German warrior included many words that I hope will someday be attributed to my own life—sacrifice, faithfulness, openness, respect, courage, religiosity, charity, and willingness to obey. When the class started to talk about how they felt these ideas primed the empire for Hitler, I felt confused. Why is it so often that these ideas end up destroying people rather than building them up? Strangely enough, I think I may have heard at least part of the answer in church this morning.
This morning one of our pastors shared on God’s love, not an entirely uncommon topic for a Sunday morning sermon. He referenced one verse in particular in 1 Corinthians 13. Verse thirteen in this chapter says “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The pastor shared that he had been struggling through the premium that God puts on love in this verse. He shared that he thought for many years that faith was in fact the thing that God valued the most and that would bring the most good to the lives of people around him.
My guess is that it is this mentality that drove the German scholarly leaders and many other leaders throughout history. I am sure that the Mandarin Bildungburgers had much faith in their academic pursuits and ideas. They fully believed that they had the answers that would keep Germans from the effects of commercialization that they saw in the West. The believed they had the ideas that would bring about true, organic community. However, I don’t think that ideas alone ever better the world around us. Another verse in 1 Corinthians 8 says “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (v.1). I think that Germany began to see its decline when it lost track of the love it takes to thrive in gemeinschaft. This, not their radical ideals, primed the country for Hitler.
And I believe that if we are honest with ourselves, we have all struggled with this balance. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we are willing to do things that are inconsistent with the way we thought things ought to be in order to love another person. However, sometimes we fail. We choose to love our ideas, our preconceived notions over the people we were trying to build up with these notions. The result is always the same—we become ineffective, clanging gongs.
I often times find myself distracted in my attempt to balance the ideals of two worlds: the university and the church. I struggle to determine what my convictions even are, let alone whether or not they fit well with my philosophy of science and faith. I find myself looking for the right answers, sometimes even going so far as to argue with those around me. The Eastern ideals of community and paradox are appealing to me, but are often times swept over by the strong current of Western thought that have shaped my upbringing.
As I have pondered these elusive ideas, I am comforted by my belief that Christ himself may have been caught up in the middle just as the Germans were and as I am today. When I think about the ancient world that Christ would have known, I recognize it as one that was caught between two civilizations and traditions: that of the modernizing Roman Empire and the traditional system of Judaism. Surely these societal forces shaped Christ’s ministry and words as much as German and Chinese influences shaped the Bildungburgers.
And yet, unlike many around him, Christ was not concerned with his philosophies being fully understood or agreed with. He often acknowledged that people around him were missing the point. The infinite amount of knowledge that was at his fingertips, that he could have shared endlessly, was all trumped by his love for people. Maybe he simply didn’t put his hope in knowledge like I do, like the Germans did. Perhaps he was confident enough in something greater that he let knowledge have its place, but knew that we all needed more. Am I willing to do the same?
Posted by Autumn at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)
how about some more?
so, i appreciated the varying reviews i got on the last book, how about another?
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama.
do you guys know anything about this guy? well, if you don't, you can find out at http://obama.senate.gov/about/
seems like he's done some pretty good things. and his excerpts on family and values from the book sound very different than what i would expect to hear from a politician.
man, i can't wait for thanksgiving break. i just want to sit around and read and read. whether or not that will happen, i don't know. but it sounds nice :)
Posted by Autumn at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2006
crazy, huh?
so, i already went off on tribal colleges and all that jazz in my comments on poor dustin's blog (poor = he's nice enough to put up with my mental spewing), so i won't go off on that any more right now.
this one is actually a shorty.
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN
by Brian D. McLaren
i saw this title on amazon.com and thought, huh. i wish i could fit in at least that many descriptors when i am trying to explain my faith--or any aspect of my beliefs for that matter!
the customer reviews said it was actually a really challenging book for those in the evangelical circle. i don't know whether it would be worth the read or not. but being the bibliophile that i am, i might check it out someday...
ps don't read into that statement that i agree and/or disagree with all the descriptors in the title.
feedback?
Posted by Autumn at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
October 09, 2006
my psychology heritage...
so, i'm working on this academic genealogy project. it requires me to find out about my advisor, her advisor, her advisor's advisor and so on...
guys, in terms of family trees, mine's gotta be a red oak :) well, in my little branch of psychology, i come from some giants. and i'm pretty proud of these folks, so i'm going to tell you about them...
so, my academic great-grandfather is bob zajonc (pronounced sci-ance). he came from poland during world war II and finished his education in the united states. social psychology was just beginning to flourish in the u.s. at this time because of the crazy conflicts that the world was facing at that time.
anyway, this guy came up with all these foundational concepts like the mere exposure effect (the more you are exposed to something, the more you like it). he's also studied all these relationships between birth order and scores on tests like the SAT. he found oldest kids do better because they benefit from tutoring the younger kids throughout the years.
he's done a ton of other work as well.
my academic grandmother is hazel markus. this is one cool lady! originally from london, she did her undergrad in california and then came to michigan (oh, bob's schooling was at michigan as well). balancing academia and family, she did a ton of work on the self. but, of course, i love her and know best her work on cultural constructions of the self. she was the co-author on one of the foundational papers in that area.
and as cool as these guys are, you guys know that i can't say enough good things about my advisor, susan cross. she originally went to school for horticulture, then got her masters in higher education and worked for intervarsity ministries. after that, she heard about social psych and felt like that's what God had for her. she wasn't sure where to go so she emailed david myers (any of you taken an intro level psych course? look at your book. he probably wrote it. and he's a Christian.). he said michigan's the best, so off she went.
she did a lot of work on the self as well and through a lot of it, came into the realm of cultural psychology. i honestly don't know how this woman does it all! she and her husband are both professors and yet they manage to raise their two little boys, be REALLY involved in service to the academic community, and stay actively involved in ministry.
anyway, i know most of you will skip this post, but i don't get to tell many of you about what goes on in my school world, but it is so sweet and i'm excited about what these people have accomplished. haha, i'm not usually a "where did i come from?" person, but this project has been fun.
i'm excited to know that such quality students, researchers, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers have helped shape my academic career.
okay, that's all :)
Posted by Autumn at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2006
thoughts on the differences...
wow, you guys wrote some really long comments on my post on war. very cool.
something else i had been thinking about and realizing with jensen and i relates...i think.
you all mentioned that there is a different longing in men to go to war.
i definitely see that in jensen and i's heritage.
my dad--military police officer turned paramedic.
jensen's dad--helicopter police officer.
jensen's uncles--coast guard, chicago pd, etc
my uncles--navy, army, air force, etc
what do these have in common? a desire to save people from harm. no matter whether the individual in danger is at fault or not.
now look at the women in our families.
my mom--military nurse turned civilian nurse and EMT.
jensen's mom--ob-gyn doctor
jensen's aunts--teachers, stay-at-home moms
my aunts--teachers, stay-at-home moms
what do these have in common? a desire to help people, even to rescue them, but for the purposes of nurturing them. there is a sense of long-term commitment in these occupations.
so what does jensen want to do? rescue people from immediate danger. or at least be a part of the process.
so what does autumn want to do? help people through long-term nurturing relationships. or at least be a part.
so what does God want jensen and autumn to do? well, we're not totally sure yet. but we know he wants us to reflect his love for his body.
for as messed up as our legacy is in so many other ways, it seems like God really set us up to see what it looks like to occupationally reflect different aspects of his character.
i really hope to grow in an appreciation of this. i hope that i can come to understand and appreciate why jensen will ALWAYS love war movies and will teach our little boys to play rough and tumble games of strategic battle in the backyard. i hope that he will be able to understand why i dive so deeply into relationships and will want to bandage up our little boys after they rumble in the yard.
and i hope that if God ever leads him to military service, i will see the heart of God in his decision.
so, do you all have similar trends in your families? or is this another case of the hare-cartagena weirdness?
Posted by Autumn at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2006
thoughts on military service and war...
hey all, many things, including the death of scott nisely, have caused me to reflect on my thoughts about war, christians serving in the military, etc.
i feel like i should preface this blog with some information many of you may or may not already know about me (being that i'm a very self-disclosing individual, i'm going to assume that many of you do).
i am a military kid. my parents shipped out for basic training the day after they were legally married (yeah, probably not the wisest thing to do). my mom went in as a nurse. her main job was search and rescue missions. my dad received training as a military police officer. i'm sure you can guess what that entailed. lots of security while he was stateside. after a couple of years, i was born in an army hospital on veteran's day to these individuals.
my mom was discharged from the military after she was diagnosed with skin cancer and had to have surgery to remove a good chunk of cancerous tissue. my father remained in the military. enter the first desert storm conflict. next thing my family knows, we are at camp dodge at this big party. i think my sister (although she's younger) understood the loss that would follow this celebration much more than i did.
i don't even know how long our dad was gone for. all i remember was watching cnn, trying to figure out if the place that just got bombed was where he was at or not, and receiving letters in the mail with bits and pieces of arabic memorabilia.
unlike many, my dad made it home. but he returned to us tormented by what he has seen at war. though they didn't understand for many years until after his homecoming, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. this would affect the rest of his and my family's lives.
in addition to my parents, almost every single one of my aunts and uncles have served their country in a branch of the military. it was never really questioned. it was just something their families valued and they pursued.
so, that's my personal tidbit...
somewhere in another part of my brain, i'm still trying to reconcile what this means for me. i never had the inclination to join the military, even before i was a christian. as far as i know, my sister hasn't either. maybe we're just undisciplined sissies. i don't know.
but of course in liberal academia, i am bombarded with messages about how wrong war is. and even in the christian realm, there are arguments against war (i found a website today entirely dedicated to helping christians discharge from the military as conscientious objectors. i had never even HEARD of that). one of the arguments is that Jesus himself didn't use violence to save his own life, why should other christians?
now, i'm really going out on a limb here (correct me if i'm wrong--i'm really trying to come to some peace about all this) but i was thinking about the centurion (matthew 8). Jesus didn't seem too concerned that he was serving the roman empire in a military capacity. i can't find where he says "leave your life of sin and military service and i shall grant your request!" in fact, he says to the man "i tell you the truth, i have not found anyone in israel with such great faith."
granted, it says nothing of whether or not this centurion was married. in fact, i was reading that centurions had to have permission to marry and even then, their family had to live in the garrison (all i can say is eww). but, this brings me to my next pondering. what about having a family and serving in the military (like my parents, like so many around the world)? what does it look like to serve God in that capacity?
i hope that i have not led anyone to believe that i am against military service. that would be a slap in the face to many family members, many friends, all the individuals who have made it possible that i can have the freedom to ponder these things in a public forum.
i'm simply trying to figure out what this all means for my life. to be honest, it TERRIFIES me to think of losing someone (emotionally, physically, or both) to a war. but the truth is that none of this is in my hands. if it's not war, it could be any other number of traumas.
i must rely on the goodness and soveignty of my God. i must believe that he does not desire such travesties, but that he is willing to use them and use those who serve him in such hellish conditions. and i must allow my heart to swell with admiration for those who have had the courage to risk such service rather than allowing it to shrink into a shriveled admirer of comfort and personal control.
clearly, i haven't one bit of this figured out. but if the dilemma resonnated with any of you, or if any of you have made peace, do share...
Posted by Autumn at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)