Egregious Reader

From Prayers by Michel Quoist XIV Jesus is Laid In The Tomb ... Men tread in relays the Way of the Cross. The resurrection will only be completed when they have reached the end of the Way. I am on the road; I have a small share of your suffering and the others have theirs. Together we help you to carry the burden that you have as- sumed and made divine. There lies my hope, Lord, and my invincible trust. There is not a fraction of my little suffering that you have not already lived and transformed into infinite redemption. When the road is hard and monotonous, When it leads to the grave, I know that beyond the grave you are waiting for me in your glory. Lord, help me faithfully to travel along my road, at my proper place in the vastness of humanity. Help me above all to recognize you and to help you in all my pilgrim brothers. For it would be a lie to weep before your lifeless image if I did not follow you, living, on the road that ...

"In fact it seems to me (in moments of enthusiasm) that they [primary assumptions in this book] reintroduce common sense into the science of psychology." This is the last sentence of the book and resonates with how I felt about the whole work. Psychology predates the word as it seems to be an attempt to understand and explain the human person. I have always liked the way that Walker Percy points out the fact that psychology and sociology are very much soft sciences ... we are still working on fundamental assumptions and there is no unifying theories (but hundreds of schools of psychology). This is certainly the most technical psychology book I have ever read, but interestingly it is a technical explanation of love as the foundation of human life. Suttie, in opposition to Freud mainly, as well as Adler, argues for the existence of love, of the need for sociology and psychology to come together, for a definition of love does not have to be sexualized, toward an underst...

The "temporary" head of the German church announced in April 1938 that all pastors were to make an oath to Hitler for his birthday: Anyone who is called to a spiritual office is to affirm his loyal duty with the following oath: "I swear that I will be faithful and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer  of the German Reich and people, that I will be conscientiously observe the laws and carry out the duties of my office, so help me God" ... Anyone who was called before this decree came into force ... is to take the oath of allegiance retroactively ... Anyone who refuses to take the oath of allegiance is to be dismissed.    20 April 1938. Dr. Werner. Here again, the confessing church compromised and consented to the oath. Karl Barth writes in response: I am most deeply shocked by that decision and the arguments used to support it ... No one who beseeches you not to jeopardize the future credibility of the Confessing church in this dreadful way? "Bonhoeffer w...

I am not sure all the reasons, but I hate this band. I have tried to listen to them at different times and just tried out their new album on the First Listen show on NPR, but I don't like them. I think its that too-cool-for-school feel they have coupled with their over-the-top sentimental ballads. I don't know anything about playing guitar (don't know how) but I find their pretty sound irritating. On one of the songs, he croons some sweet line and follows it by some bright harmonics and it makes me want to puke. Ok, so I am being a little dramatic. I have friends who like this band, whom I have a lot of respect for their musical selection. I just can't find my way to liking this one, at least not yet. The other song from an older album that really bugs me is "Brooklyn, Brooklyn Take Me In". Its such a lazy little story that simply repeats the age-old I HEART NY cosmopolitan world-weary traveler, blah, blah. Its just awful.

Alexandra drew her shawl closer about her and stood leaning against the frame of the mill, looking at the stars which glittered so keenly through the frosty autumn air. She always loved to watch them, to think of their vastness and distance, and of their ordered march. It fortified her to reflect upon the great operations of nature, and when she thought of the law that lay behind them, she felt a sense of personal security. That night she had a new consciousness of the country, felt almost a new relation to it. Even her talk with the boys had not taken away the feeling that had overwhelmed her when she drove back to the Divide that afternoon. She had never known before how much the country meant to her. The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt t...

In December 1935 a new law called "Fifth Decree for the Implementation of the Law for the Protection of the German Evangelical Church" was introduced which made it illegal for any "raising of funds" outside the official German church. It explicitly made training and examinations for pastors illegal. So now, Finkenwalde was confirmed illegal by the state and the future graduates were to go on and hold offices without being able to raise any funds to fulfill those offices. However, for a little while longer, they continued as they had. Bonhoeffer's thoughts on why this was allowed were: "(1) because of the Winter Olympics and (2) because it [the state] does not wish to disturb the Confessing church's self-disintegration." The second statement was not without personal feeling. While most of the Finkenwalde students stayed on even with their future being uncertain, there were those who quietly left the cause for an easier path with the official G...