Writing contest discussion thread.

[The Grace Base]

Please use this thread to discuss the Writing Contest as hosted by The Grace Base (that's me) and to discuss the very interesting article as found by rmwilliamsjr and posted here.

Look forward to intriguing dialogue on this serious and fun issue.

The Grace Base

[rmwilliamsjr]

Please use this thread to discuss the Writing Contest as hosted by The Grace Base (that's me) and to discuss the very interesting article as found by rmwilliamsjr and posted here.

Look forward to intriguing dialogue on this serious and fun issue.

The Grace Base

It is interesting what the IM says:
For this excursion I want to define literate Christianity as Christianity primarily made up of readers, and of people who understand truth to be verbal, propositional and accessible in words, sentences and, of course, the printed page.

thus making a distinction between literate and not-literate(maybe TV) Christianity, based on a difference between people, for there are those who are literate and those who are not at some fundamental level. He implies but doesn't make explicit that the literate type is the traditional Christianity for a number of specific reason like in the quote. What are the differences, both between literate and not-literate people, and between literate and not-literate Christianity? is this changing of the guard in our culture the death of Christianity or just a subtype literate Christianity?

I know for my own part that i watched nearly no TV growing up, preferring to read science-fiction. All my kids, despite living in a household dominated by the presence of books, are not book people.

These sociologists note that the rise of the audio-visual age and the rise of youth violence may not be related just to the content of what young people view, but to the actual development and use of the brain itself. In other words, literacy civilizes us, and illiteracy distorts us. The a/v age has produced unethical and immoral humans who cannot think linearly and logically, but think by their feelings and visual perceptions. Thus these new humans are more easily manipulated and agitated, and have less concern for the logical coherence of rational civilization.
i think this is strong, but from my experience selling books for many years perhaps a true observation, that TV kids are different. And this difference is potentially as deep as brain structure determined from early childhood sensation-inputs. Which seems to imply that it is irreversible, we are book people or we are TV people, and there is no changing sides in adulthood.

it is a good article. and a good contest. thanks for initiating both.

[rmwilliamsjr]

outline for my point 1- today's effort for me. i'd appreciate websites to read and link into---

Christians should read because:

I. our Scriptures are written
......A. versus an oral tradition--->preservation
......B. versus a written tradition plus an esoteric alongside the book--> the public character

......C. why are the Scriptures written?
............1. historically, across the globe what other options are there? what other paths have religions or communities taken?
a. Confucian education and its tie to government b. rabbical Judaism c. Buddhist enormous written text body and tie to monasticism d. democracy of ability, elitism of accomplishment e. purpose of writing things down versus the loss of control as texts escape community oversight

............2. the importance of the idea that the Bible is written to a particular people in a particular time and place but is the Word of God addressed to all believers in all times and all other places
a. historical-critical method of exegesis versus love letter to all believers b. attack Sola Scriptura extremis-just me and my bible

............3. the necessity of a tamper-proof, authoritative transmission, of a revealed religions documentation that is from God rather than man's documentation of his interaction with God over the years
1.oral tradition accents what our forefathers have done with the word as it passed through their hands 2.written tradition preserves the image of God reaching down in a particular historical context to instruct His people 3.the character of the difference is impressed upon each new generation as it grows up into the tradition

.....D. what does it mean to be a People of the Book?
1.two elements in the dance: the text and the community's interpretation of it over time=tradition 2.the observer is the current readers who both create the new interpretation as they dance with the old and live out the dance in the real world.

and my 'hook':
when the reader closes the window with this essay in it---what do i want him/her to remember? Christians are by necessity the People of the Book, it is not accidental that the Scriptures are written but rather part of God's intention that His Word is to be preserved, and transmitted to the future reliably, with the primacy of the document itself over all subsequent commentary without deprecating the need for systematic analysis of the Bible at each generation

[The Grace Base]

I have just finished reading Part 1 of the essay by rmwilliamsjr, and I say thank you.

I have to reserve comment until after the contest is over.

The Grace Base

[Ghettochild]

I tried something different...

[rmwilliamsjr]

I tried something different...

after reading camus, i have to agree that the fundamental question is why to get out of bed.
however then i start thinking this way i remember keith green's song:
Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Don’t you care, don’t you care
Are you gonna let them drown

How can you be do numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

Oh bless me lore, bless me lord
You know it’s all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But he cries, he weeps, he bleeds
And he cares for you needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in
Oh can’t you see it’s such a sin

’cause he brings people to you door
And you turn them away
As you smile and say
God bless you, be at peace
And all heaven just weeps
’cause jesus came to you door
You’ve left him out on the streets

Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay

God’s calling and you’re the one
But like jonah you run
He’s told you to speak
But you keep holding it in
Of can’t you see it’s such a sin

The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can’t fight
’cause it’s asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you’ve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can’t even get out of bed

Oh, jesus rose from the dead
Come on get out of your bed

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

Don’t close your eyes
Don’t pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with me my love
Come away, come away, come away with me my love
from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/keith-green/77341.html