Art and Beauty

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  “But the voice of our age seems by no means favorable to art, at all events to that kind of art to which my inquiry is directed. The course of events has given a direction to the genius of the time that threatens to remove it continually further from the ideal of art. For art has to leave reality, it has to raise itself bodily above necessity and neediness; for art is the daughter of freedom, and it requires its prescriptions and rules to be furnished by the necessity of spirits and not by that of matter. But in our day it is necessity, neediness, that prevails, and bends a degraded humanity under its iron yoke.” —J. C. Friedrich von Schiller. “Letters upon the Æsthetic Education of Man.” (1795)

Rob Bell, Yoga Masters and Jesus?

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Slipping In The Youth Door

I have been studying Rob Bell, author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (VE), for quite some time now. Unless you have been on another planet you’ve probably heard of this fast rising cultural icon and leader within the Emergent Church by the name of Rob Bell. In fact, Bell is virtually becoming the Elvis of Emergent.

Literally I have spent months reading much of his work, in VE as well as studying other sources, listening to Bell’s sermons and also watching his Nooma videos. So I can tell you that Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs was quite correct when he said recently that “Bell’s message is completely and radically different from anything you would hear in a seeker-sensitive context.”

Read the rest here.

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