What's On My Mind

I like to be thinking several topics ahead of what I'm writing; or, more accurately I suppose, I like to let what I'm thinking come together in a sort of cohesive way before I throw it out for public consumption. But I'm breaking my rule, because I had a thought today that I think I like but that I think some other folks won't like at all. So I'm curious about your reaction to the following statement:

The purpose of witness is to make the church intelligible to the world. The purpose of worship is to make the church intelligible to itself.

So Westminster Confession aside - hey, I'm not Reformed, so it's all good - how does this work as a definition of worship? I know it has to raise a few eyebrows somewhere out there. But the more I think about it, the more I like it.

Random Musical Goodness

I picked up the new Jimmy Eat World single Big Casino last week and it is fraught with awesome. There's something about it that reminds me of Clarity, which is (imho) their best album. Can't wait for the full album release in Oct.

Technorati Tags: jimmy eat world

Semi-Random Linkage

I'm actually working on a real, live post - oh frabjous day, callou, callay! Or something like that. Anyway - I think perhaps something has shaken loose and the brain juices are flowing. More on that later. In the meantime, two must-reads that I stumbled upon lately:

• Michael Kruse has a truly excellent post on Emergent and the new religious left. The challenge that he offers: "I will know we have a truly emerging leader when he or she gives a press conference and neither Jim Edgar nor Jim Dobson are thrilled to be standing behind him or her." And be sure to read the comments.
• Andrew Jones has a fantastic post on the use of language among emerging folks. Great, great discussion about how the boundaries for language have shifted, and he makes a point that I've often thought needs to be emphasized - what is happening in western culture, broadly speaking, is a shift in sensibilities so that new norms are being created. It's not that any language is now considered appropriate - it's rather that language that is used to exclude and marginalize is being rejected instead of the more traditional taboos.

I don't do this very often, but these two posts in particular caught my attention and deserve a bit of reflection.

Pirate Talk and Speech-Acts

I've been thinking about a more or less random topic of late, and I'm hoping you'll indulge me with some musings about it. The topic? Cussing. It started with this bit about John Piper talking about how God "kicks our ass". (ht: Steve) Now, reflections on said theology aside, the fact that Piper felt the need to apologize for the whole thing has me thinking about cussing. (As an aside, read Scott's post as well, which is only marginally related but hysterical.) So here's my random question - what exactly is cussing, and why is it offensive?

I'm thinking about this in terms of speech-act theory. Now, I don't claim to have done any more than the smallest bit of reading on this, but what I've read thus far breaks down roughly this way. A speech act is more or less what a particular statement accomplishes. In other words, when we say something, we also do something. Wikipedia describes it this way:

Greeting (in saying "Hi John!", for instance), apologizing ("Sorry for that!"), describing something ("It is snowing"), asking a question ("Is it snowing?"), making a request and giving an order ("Could you pass the salt?", "Drop your weapon or I'll shoot you!"), or making a promise ("I promise I'll give it back") are typical examples of "speech acts" or "illocutionary acts".

Clear as mud? Great. In other words, a particular speech act is composed of several things:

• Locutionary acts: What is actually said. For example, the phrase, "It is raining," can simply be a statement of the weather.
• Illocutionary acts: What is intended by what is said. "It is raining" might, for example, have the intention of telling someone to dress appropriately, even if the sentence doesn't contain any such reference to a person's dress. This is fascinating if you really think about it - what we say and what we mean can be nearly completely unrelated at a strictly word-for-word level, and yet we do this sort of communication all the time without giving it any conscious thought. Wives, in particular, excel at this. ;)
• Perlocutionary acts: What is accomplished by what is said. In the previous example, the perlocutionary act of "It is raining" might be persuading the other person to carry an umbrella.

As I said before, I'm summarizing the barest of explorations into this subject, so it's quite possible that I'm not describing these with real precision. Still, I think that it's helpful to give a framework for thinking about cussing.

So here's my question - where does the act of cussing happen? In other words, what is it that makes a particular statement "cussing"? At its most basic level, I think the gut reaction for many folks is to list a series of words that are offensive, and from there state that any time those words are used, a person is cussing. In the context of this post, I think it's fair to say that such a definition defines it as a locutionary act: You've said a naughty word. But, on further reflection, does this really stand up to scrutiny? "Hell", for instance, might be construed as cussing, or it might not - depending on the context. Further, thinking about a statement like, "What the hell?" raises a new set of questions - I think it's quite possible that there isn't a locutionary act in saying it. In other words, on its own, "What the hell?" is a completely meaningless utterance. It doesn't actually refer to anything, and you'd be hard pressed to define it in terms of its individual words.

So what kind of an act is cussing? I think it's fair to say that it's either illocutionary or perlocutionary - in other words, it's either about intent to cuss, or about the hearer receiving it as cussing. But I'm not sure which of these is true. If it's about intent, then anything can potentially be cussing - which is sort of what you have happening with the use of words like "Darnit" (again, something that simply has no inherent meaning). If it's about the effect on the hearer, then we can define cussing at its most basic level simply as offensive speech. And, again, pretty much anything could then be construed as cussing, so long as someone is offended - but it leaves one in an awkward position of possibly cussing without intending to do so, and I'm not sure that's what is commonly intended by the word "cussing".

So at the end of the day, I'm not really sure. In truth, I think it's actually something more along the lines of breaking social norms for "acceptable speech", and cussing is simply defined by context. I suppose that would place my definition more in keeping with a perlocutionary act. But something about that isn't really satisfying to me.

I guess one could argue that I just think about this sort of thing too much. ;)

Technorati Tags: cussing, speech-acts

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Cup holders do not count as contextual theology. Discussing their addition to a new $24 million building erected by Eagle Brook Church in Minneapolis:

"Our little coffee shop is humming on Sunday mornings," Anderson said. "It's a huge hit."

But church leaders figured it was difficult to stand, sit or praise the Lord with your hands in the air while worrying about dumping a hot latte onto fellow Christians. So they decided to add cup holders - anything to boost their reputation for putting people at ease.

"You can't underestimate the value of energy and buzz," Anderson said. "Those things bring people through the door."

You can't make this stuff up. Unfortunately. This one earns the tag "pathetic".

ht: blind beggar

Technorati Tags: megachurch, coffee, cup holders, pathetic

The Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen....

...is here.

FYI...

For any readers of ICTHUS out there, the url has changed, and Vaughn has asked for some help to let folks know. The new url is http://www.vaughnthompson.com/icthus.

The Cynic's Glossary of Business Terminology

A bit of lighthearted musing designed to keep me sane on the job, in no particular order.

Negotiation - The art of distributing dissatisfaction equitably among interested parties
Win-Win Outcome - A successful negotiation in which each party believes itself to be the least dissatisfied
Information Technology - Two good things that go worse together
Project Team - Group created for the purpose of blame centralization
Teamwork - Common oxymoron used in the process of blame allocation
Networking - Process of establishing contact with future blame recipients
Business Metrics - Statistics used for blame identification and redirection
Pessimist - One with a negative outlook. More commonly referred to as "experienced".

Don't Feed the Fanboy

I got my tix for the midnight showing of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith! WOO-HOO! Unfortunately, I'll only get to see it twice on opening day - can't make myself skip the quiz in class that night. I must be losing my edge.

Tidbits

I feel like I got hit with a truck. I think it's because I have to go back to work tomorrow. Nothing like looming deadlines and competing priorities to make a man want to get up in the morning. Although I really want to write tonight - the family is asleep and I have about two hours before I usually crash - I don't have it in me to be either witty or thoughtful. (You may be thinking, "That's never stopped him before...") However, I did want to post a few random thoughts (random in connectedness, not significance).

• Thanks for the great thoughts on my post on sovereignty. There are comments in there that deserve posts of their own - a very deep thank you to those helping me think through it. No question this is something that I've been pondering for a while, ever since a good friend took the plunge into Calvinism. My most recent ministry experience was in part with someone who makes Calvin look like Benny Hinn. At least part of why I now wrestle with this issue is because of what it does to one's theology of leadership / ecclesiology, which I personally think can be really ugly. More on this at a future date as yet to be determined.
• What is it about the body of Christ that we can't have a decent discussion without questioning someone's participation in the body? As a few of us Biblical students were commenting after attending a recent ETS session (John Franke was presenting - great paper on biblical authority), "Why does unity have to equal unanimity?" It's pathetic when we can't disagree constructively. (As an aside, I'm done visiting a certain site with "no" prominently featured in the name. If you know what I'm talking about, you know why I say that. If not, I'm not gracing them with a link, and you're probably better off, simply because of the quality of the "discussion".)
• Must read post of the week: the_blacke on a wild olive shoot. Phenomenal piece about the Kingdom and God's work within history. Go read. I'll wait.
• I picked up McLaren's new book, The Last Word and the Word After That. I am really, really enjoying it thus far. I'll post a full review when I'm done. It's not as far out as I thought it might be.
• Last, but certainly not least, my wife and I are expecting our third child, due in December. If the baby is anything like his or her brothers, things are going to get interesting around here...

Opening at Biblical

For you fellow Biblical Seminary folks (I know there are a few of you out there), I saw this job description over at less travelled. Sounds like Nick Perrin's position. Too bad that he's moving on; I was really impressed with him in the Gospels class that cohort 6 just had. I do like the way the opening and the school are described though. Too bad I don't have my PhD yet ;). "Gets 'high' on Wright and Brueggemann" pretty much describes me perfectly.

The Word Became Plastic

Move over, Ken - Talking Jesus dolls are scheduled to hit the shelves in May. Moses and Mary are also on their way. Apparently, they're about a foot tall and programmed with a number of scripture verses.

My big question is why does Jesus look more like a surfer than a first-century Jewish rabbi? He looks like he needs to finish every sentence with "dude".

Cooking Heavy

Any other amateur chefs out there? Cooking is one of my passions, when I get a chance to do so. Tonight I had a bit of time so I threw together some pork loin with savory rosemary apples (or something like that). I think I ate about half a stick of butter (not joking). Before I started eating, I dialed 9-1- and then just held my finger over the 1 in case I needed an emergency bypass or something.

I love the improvisation of cooking. I'd do a food blog if I could ever re-create anything I make. Anyone know of any good cooking blogs?

Linky Goodness

Normally I don't do this, but I've read some excellent bits this week:

A fellow student at Biblical writing on the Kingdom
Chris - Struggling and Surrendering
Stephanie - Make Me A Prayer - Invite Me to Dance
Jeff - As Vast As He Is
Bill - several posts on biblical authority - some fun discussion on these
A youth pastor who gave his team a sabbath for the month of May

Alternative Discipline

My wife and I have been experimenting with alternative forms of discipline, hoping to find something that works with our kids. We've found one in particular that seems to work, and I thought I'd share. It's better shown than described - see it here.

The book will be out soon. You heard it here first.

Must Have

As bizarre as this sounds, I'd imagine Darth Tater will be taking a prominent place on my desk this spring.