View From The Basement

So who should be the new Scotland manager?

So with Alex McLeish leaving the Scotland job who should take over? The experts are all coming up with their lists and the bookies have their odds. The front runners would appear to be Garry McAllister, Billy Davies, Tommy Burns and John Collins.

McAllister was a great player, but what management experience does he have? Collins has done well as Hib's but how long would he stay in the Scotland job before going back to club football? Davies...hmm can he cut it at this level + how long before he'd get an offer that "he could not refuse?"

That leaves Tommy Burns, who has past experience with the Scotland set up, or does it? What about Kenny Dalglish with Joe Jordan and Burns as his key backroom men? Dalglish is unlikely to be tempted back into club football which means stability. Jordan has done well at Portsmouth but if Redknapp get's the England job (which I think he should) then Jordan could be looking for a job. Burns would bring in his experience of the Scotland set up in recent times, and despite his association with the Volts era he did a good job under Smith.

So that's who I'd like to see in the job, who do you want?

Hope and Progress

I handed an essay in on Monday and now have three others to work on, hence the lack of blogging! That said I had to edit my essay down and was left with the following (rather preliminary thoughts ) and thought I'd post it here.

There is a danger which I believe we must avoid when talking of Christian hope in that we must avoid the temptation to collapse a theology of Christian hope into modernity’s idea of the unlimited progress of humanity. In other words a Christian theology of hope must not simply be a sanctified version of the modernist fallacy of progress. To collapse Christian hope into modernity’s idea of progress would be to build a new tower of Babel, believing we were doing God’s will, or it would be to yield to the temptation that Jesus did not and with the kingdoms of this world on offer before us bow to Satan. This latter Biblical link may seem extreem and needs some explanation. As Zymunt Bauman points out in nineteenth century Britain, and indeed thought Europe progress was exemplified by the watchword 'Forward' and the Latin maxim, ‘Labor omnia vincit’. In short progress and the process of industrialisation, which is primarily responsible both historically and in the present for the environmental crisis we are now in, went hand in hand.

The death of Modernity has been greatly exaggerated by the post-modernist movement, indeed post modernity is a movement within the modernity project from ‘heavy’ modernity to ‘light’or ‘liquid’ modernity. Even given this change, the ethos of modernity whereby humankind rules, conquers and uses nature for it’s own end - progress in history, is still predominant. Postmodernity may have disabused us of political utopian ideals and yet we run ever faster after our dream, our own vision of utopia. It would seem that all that has changed is the meta Utopia of the past have been exchange for individualist conceptions of Utopia. Thus the modernist concept of progress is alive and well in post-industrial Europe in the from of globalization. If the industrial revolution was the seedbed of our present environmental crisis then late-Capitalism is, to continue with the metaphor, the fertiliser which sustains and feeds the structures which continue to pollute, extract and destroy the world in which we live.

Volunteer

I was sent an email asking if I would post about this organization. They are  based in the USA, so this is more relevant if you live that side of the pond!

ChristianVolunteering.org is linked to many well known urban ministries and seeks to fit volunteers with opportunities for service. They are particularly keen that as we approach the holiday season, and thus people have time they would not otherwise have, that people sign up for some of the projects they have listed.

So if you live in the States go and have a look and think about volunteering in an urban ministry this Christmas.

On my desk

My desk is overflowing with books and paper at the moment as I read for essay's that are due all too soon.

I have four essay's due over the next few weeks.

23rd Nov I have an essay due where I'm exploring the relationship between Evangelicals, Environmentalism and Eschatology. In particular I am looking at evangelical non-involvement in environmentalism steming from the view of "why bother if God's going to destroy it all anyway, or fix it all up". I'm reading a lot of Moltmann for this essay and will use his theology of hope as a way of answering the above question.

I've two essay's due on the 7th Dec. In one I'm looking at Cyril of Alexandria's and Nestorius's view of salvation. Many of the books I wanted to use for this were out in Edinburgh but I managed to pick them up from ICC. The joys of beelining to two libraries!

In the second essay due on the 7th I'm looking at von Balthasar's propositions in Principles of Christian Morality, especially his opening line, "The Christian who lives by faith has the right to justify his moral actions on the basis of his faith". As this is a radical departure in Roman Catholic moral theology I'm looking at this in the context of the Natural Law tradition and basically asking the question of the relation between revelation (or faith) and the Natural Law. My main text on the Natural Law is Jean Porter's "Nature as Reason".

My last essay is a book report and is due on the 10th. Given I'm working a lot with Porter for the other essay I'm going to review her book for this one. It will be a bit of a challenge given "Nature as Reason" is 400pp and I've only 2000 words for this one.

Ah well, break over...back to reading Conscience in Barth's Ethics which we will be discussing in class on Friday.

Is Rob Bell really Mr Bennet?

Is it just me or does Mr Bennet from Hero's look spookily like Rob Bell? Judge for yourself (although more recent images of Bell in the most recent Nooma's give a more striking resemblance).

Dechristianized or Post-Christian?

I've been reading Veritatis Splendor by the late John-Paul II. There is much that could be said about this interesting document, but one of the many things that caught my eye was his use of the word "dechristianized".

What does he mean by this an is it the same as fashionable talk of being Post-Christian? I don't think it is. I would hazard a guess that we might say that 'France is dechristianized, but the UK is post-Christian'. For a society to be post-Christian means that something of it's Christian heritage remains active, albeit perhaps at the margins. Thus the ethos of the UK is still significantly shaped by Christian presuppositions. This I think is in contrast with what the late Pope means by dechristianized. I think this term speaks not of a "moving on" from Christianity that is implicit in the term post-Christian, but a catharsis of what is Christian from a society. Dechristianized does not push Christianity to the margins of society from where it can still speak, it negates Christianity and expunges it from public life.

So will the UK move from being post-Christian to being dechristianized? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Had a bad day?

I left the house at 6:30am to get to Edinburgh for a class I have at 9am. I got in at 10:30am!

The day started with the alarm not working again! Note to self...buy a new alarm. Given this Alison said I could take the car and that way I should still get to Edinburgh in time for class. Things were going well until I joined the A8 just as the road was closed due to an accident a couple of miles ahead. The traffic moved about 100 yards in 3/4 and hour when we were directed off the road by the police. I had no idea where I was but found the M73 and thought I'd try and go to Edinburgh via Falkirk. I did not get far before I hit stationary traffic again, at which point I made the decision that there was no way that I would make it to Edinburgh on time.

I turned back to Glasgow making it back in time to spot Alison and Robert standing at the bus stop. So at lease I got to give them a lift to pre-school. I then took the train into town and then a train across to Edinburgh. When I got to the barrier to leave I could not find my ticket. Despite my pleading with the guard I had to go and buy another ticket so I could get out.

Thankfully the day improved and the journey home was "normal".