ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso omnia

Is it just me or are other people missing something? Why are there no mass protests about the wests military action against Libya? if you remember a few years back there was a man named George W. Bush and a situation in a country called Iraq. As far as I can tell the situation is not that much different. One could even argue that Saddam Hussein was much worse than Gadaffi.

Yes, it’s still early days. And maybe things are different. But somehow I have the sneaking suspicion that all the anti-war protesters who vehemently opposed the Iraqi invasion are asleep at the wheel. Back then reasons were given for opposing the war, that should be just as applicable to the situation now. But the moralists and pacifists don’t seem to have the Libyan situation on their radar.

A few explanations come to mind. Maybe the situation is different. Maybe there are vital U.S. interests at stake. But what? Maybe things are moving to quickly and the protesters need time to organize. Maybe the mood of the country has shifted. Or perhaps Obama has been more clever. Bush tried to get the public behind him before committing to military action. Obama just went ahead and did it without asking anyone. Perhaps he couldn’t be bothered it might take away from his time watching a Basketball tournament.

tell me people what is the difference between the situation then and now and tell me why Bush’s handling of Iraq was so bad and why Obama’s handling of this is OK. I’d really like to know.

Part 1

Many theologically minded people dream of a theological system which is free of contradictions. In fact much effort in systematic theology and apologetics is made in explaining, resolving and circumventing contradictory theological statements. If one could only achieve a system that had no contradiction one would have the truth.

For many years, this too was my hope. My continuing theological studies in the area of theological hermeneutics have caused me to rethink this position. I’ve not relegated this aspect of theological interpretation to meaninglessness but for me it has to a degree been reduced in importance. Two reasons come to mind, which have shaped my opinion. Both are related to modernistic thinking and propositionalism^[1].

• In my understanding propositionalism reduces theology to a set of assertions. A true theology is one which contains only true statements. In recent years I have come to appreciate the view that theology and Christian living encompasses more than a simple reiteration of truthful propositions. There are other aspects to our existence and especially our relationship to God, which go beyond the proposition: Prayer, aesthetics, love and mystery just to name a few.^[2] Surely we understand the biblical message that a truly Godly person is not one who knows things about God but one who has integrated faith in God into his/her life. Obedience, selflessness, thought life and wisdom are a few keywords indicating that there is more the Christianity than a set of propositions. Yet even this example shows my position. Propositions are not unnecessary. We need need them. How else would we understand the teaching I just mentioned in part “be doers and not hearers of the Word”^[3], if not via propositions. Yet at the same time the very propositions that inform us also point to a realm of existence which goes beyond the proposition. Thus, I believe that the realm of the proposition is only a part of the theological enterprise not its entirety.

• As can be seen in other posts on this blog^[4], I hold that theological systems can be viewed as being comprised of two categories of statements. Those which which say something about theological reality in general and those which guide us in the interpretation of these statements. In my view the principle of non-contradiction belongs to the latter category. It is not necessarily a indisputable theological truth but a principle of interpretation. Thus, it should be open to question. Think for a moment about the doctrines of free will vs. the sovereignty of God and the trinity. From our human perspective both of these doctrines hint at contradiction. Yet, many theologies hold these seemingly contradictory statements to be true. How can this be if non-contradiction is to be a hermeneutical key guiding us toward the truth. I’m not advocating a eastern type of thinking, which in my understanding has little problem with contradiction, rather I suggest that some aspects of God’s revelation to us goes beyond the categories from which we are able to rationally grasp things. Some of these contradictions must simply be allowed to exist. Someday we may become enlightened and understand them more clearly but perhaps not. Thus, non-contradiction can play a role but we should be aware that this is an interpretive principle that we employ and not an absolute truth.

Part 2

So, how does this relate to the Orthotomeo Project? I anticipate that many theologians, who like myself practice a theology beyond propositionalism and rigid non-contradictionalsim, may shudder at the concept behind the Orthotomeo Project. They may fear that it is simply an attempt at creating a contradiction free system of propositions, which violates some of their primary theological convictions. If you share these concerns, I can say to you DO NOT FEAR! This is not the goal of the Orthotomeo Project.
In fact I would suggest that the Orthotomeo Project is neutral in this regard.^[5] The premise behind the Orthotomeo Project is that theological systems are reasoned systems. That is, there are reasons for interpreting statements one way or another. If one chooses to employ the interpretive principle of non-contradiction, one is free to do so. The Orthotomeo Project will be an excellent tool for determining the feasibility of such an attempt. However, if one does not rigidly hold to this principle, one is also free to document their interpretations this way. All that is required is that one give a reason for an interpretation. Once submitted to the public domain these interpretations are then open to debate and questions of plausibility. And this is what we desire is it not, a public dialog about theological interpretation?

1. ^[1] see Propositions and Statements ↩
2. ^[2] For example, what is happening in Romans 8:26? In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words ↩
3. ^[3] James 1:22 ↩
4. ^[4] Among others: The Black Box, Propositions and Statements, Terminology and Structural Guidelines for Nodal Relations ↩
5. ^[5] I realize that nothing is truly neutral. One of my ongoing efforts concerning the structure of the Orthotomeo DB will be at reducing assumptions which favor particular theologies. This goal will probably never be achieved but I do think that it can become a useful tool for practitioners of a wide variety of theological perspectives. ↩

Hats off to the protesters. They have been by and large peaceful. They have withstood attempts from looters and pro-Mubarak crowds to generate chaos. Christians and Muslims have worked together.

Hats off to the military. They have been restrained and for the most part neutral. They have kept things from escalating. And now it seems they are stepping in giving guarantees that reform processes toward full democracy will go forward.

Hats NOT off to Mubarak. He seems to have completely misread the voice of the people and the seriousness of the situation. He has tried one trick after another to try and placate the protesters and has failed. His speech was just confusing. Is he stepping down or not? He could have been more forthright and clear.

but still …

Hats off to Mubarak. I believe he does want to keep Egypt from degenerating into chaos. I believe he does want to prevent Egypt from developing into a radical Muslim state in which the people would be worse off than they are now.

And now …

But what happens now? Interesting days and months are ahead.

Will the reforms really go through?

Will the Military take over? They certainly must be considering the fact that a democratic Egypt could move in a direction which would cause the U.S. and others to reduce their subventions of the Egyptian military.

What will become of the Arab-Israeli peace accords? Egypt has been a cornerstone of the fragile peach which has prevailed over the last 30 years. If a future Egypt scraps this, what will transpire? This is especially probably if the Muslim Brother has a strong voice. But is this true? I’ve read reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular and then other reports which deny this. The times they are a changin’.

And lastly …

How shall we judge the effects of Bush’s invasion of Iraq to the mood in the Arab world? One of Bush’s justifications for the war, number 5 – I believe , was that he wanted to bring democracy to the region. Things certainly didn’t go as he planned. Off course there are a many factors causing the protests in the Arab world but I think it would be dishonest to discount the influence the the Iraqi-Invasion has had on the region.

I have begun a project which deals with theology, hermeneutics and issues of interpretation. In 2011 a website for viewing and querying theological argumentation will be created. Currently it is in development, however, I have a related blog for presenting and discussion the concepts involved.

Here are a few excerpts from the website …

… The Orthotomeo Project is the culmination of several years of contemplation on my part about theological hermeneutics and theology in general. I believe the orthotomeo project can revolutionize the way that theology is practiced. I envision a website which, in its field of application, will rival informational websites such as Wikipedia. The revolution, however, does not lie in vast internet exposure, rather in its approach to theological and biblical interpretation. In short, I believe the orthotomeo project will facilitate dialog within all facets of theological argumentation in a way which has never been done before …

… The Orthotomeo Project endeavors to portray theological systems in a graphical manner (please see the examples.) and subsequently enable a variety of queries and analysis, which would otherwise not be possible …

I have just transitioned into the next round of browser ping pong. I am an openSUSE Linux user. For years, I had been an avid Firefox user. Even as people were ranting and raving about Google-Chrome I remained true to Firefox for quite some time.

But then out of curiosity in the summer of 2010 I gave Google-Chrome a try and to my surprise was greatly impressed. My Firefox had become slow (perhaps because to many add-ons were installed). Google-Chrome was fast, very fast. Also, the installation of add-ons was very nice. Searching for add-ons and installing them can’t get much better than in Google-Chrome. Firefox still persists in forcing a restart after the installation of add-ons. It is reminiscent of the Windows OS, which seems to believe that the ultimate purpose of an OS is to reboot. As a Linux user I am accustomed to making major changes to the installation and using them immediately without the need of an interim reboot.

Anyway, back to the Browser tale. Google-Chrome was impressive on many fronts. A few things had been bugging me but I was willing to live with them. One thing I missed was the quick ability to switch search engines that one has in Firefox. Another was the lack of a sidebar. Normally, that is not a big deal but the Delicious add-on for Firefox is very nice and makes good use of the sidebar. Another thing that is bothersome with Google-Chrome is that it crashes whenever I try to upload an Image from disk. This is a well documented bug. The routine of watching Google-Chrome disappear, switching to Firefox to upload a file and then return to Google-Crome, becomes old very quickly.

Another thing that happened just today is that Google-Chrome decided to start displaying links with a red background. This is not a bug in WordPress. It happens an many different websites and I cannot figure out why.

So I then upgraded Chrome from version 7.x to 8.0 hoping that this would solve those two problems. Well, it didn’t. So that was the last straw. Looks like I’ll be Firefox user for a while until Google comes out with another release. It’s nice that the two of them keep fighting it out. It improves the product. In this process I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that xMarks is back in business. So syncing my browser bookmarks is once again simplified.