2009 Albums Worth Your Time
February 9, 2010
DISCLAIMER: I refuse to declare “the best” or even “the notable” albums of 2009. The best I can is offer is a list of music that gripped me last year. So let there be no hateful comments or shoes thrown.
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Thoughts Inspired by Michael Pollan, Prophet
February 8, 2010
This is a part of my loose series about food which started with this introduction, and continued with this
Never heard of Michael Pollan? Read this, and this, and this.
1. We spend an enormous amount treating chronic illnesses caused by our diet choices. Conservative estimates are in the 500 Billion range. The food industry in a symbiotic relationship with the health industry–our food makes us sick, our healthcare system treats us and sends us home with a bill. Why isn’t this a more prominent part of the health care debate?
2. For various complicated reasons having to do with the cold war (see Larry Norman’s Great American Novel), food prices rose exponentially in the ’70s causing that political-social genius known as Richard Nixon to restructure our agriculture system, setting up the modern subsidy system, which pays farmers to a) develop a monoculture of either soy or corn, and b) dump that soy and corn into a bad market causing food prices to plummet. The problem being that monoculture goes against 10,000 years of agricultural wisdom and has devastated our environment.
3. As a result of #2 above, food corporations must process food to give it value in order to maximize profits. Processed food is at best less healthy and at worst very, very unhealthy, which explains why we have the healthcare problem stated in #1, and why diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity have skyrocketed since the ’70s.
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2. It takes 10 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. This is unethical for two reasons: 1) In consuming it 1lb of beef we are stealing 9 lbs of grain from someone who needs it more than us. 2) The greenhouse gas emissions from the process is killing our planet. Cows that eat grass do not compete with humans for crops that we can eat, and are less harmful on the environment, and may actually reverse the effects of greenhouse gasses (carbon fixing). Looks like my beef stew recipe needs amending.
3. Swine flu is not caused by eating pork. However, swine flu came into existence in a pork processing plant as a result of the way that we process pork (think back to the first outbreak of H1N1, there were multiple report of how UN health officials traced the origin of the flu to a pork processing factory in Mexico).
4. Holy Shit! The Bible was right! Which animals were the Israelites allowed to eat? The ones that chewed the cud i.e. ATE GRASS. Which animals weren’t the Israelites allowed to eat? The one’s whose production and processing is harmful to the well-being of humans and the planet.
Cooking with Beer: The More Perfect Way (of cooking)
February 6, 2010
This is part of a loose series of mine entitled: Toward a Theology of Food
Proof of Beer’s Overall Culinary & Nutritional Superiority above all other Food & Beverage
Brewing Up a Civilization – Spiegel Online
General Guidelines for Cooking with Beer
1. Good beer makes good food. Conversely, bad beer makes bad food.
2. Never use all your beer for cooking. Save some for more traditional purposes.
3. Ne Quid Nemis. Balance and Counterpoint is key (see the note about prunes in the recipe below).
4. The darker the malt the fuller the flavor imparted to the dish (this is a general rule of thumb, sure to have exceptions).
Guinness Beef Stew
I can’t take full credit for this recipe, it is merely my adaptation of about seven of the dozens of recipes for this delectable dish that you can find on the internet.
2 lb. lean stew beef (I’ll bet lamb or mutton would be good as well, but they would make the whole thing a lot greasier and fattier).
1/2 cup (or so) flour
3 tablespoons (give or take) of olive oil. The use of canola oil will doom the whole project to failure, so don’t.
1 bullion cube- chicken or beef (I actually like chicken bullion in this recipe. Go figure.) Alternatively, you can make your own broth or stock.
4 carrots
1 white onion
2 1/2 cups water
1 12 oz. bottle of Guinness Extra Stout- do not use the draft cans or bottles.
1/2 cup of pitted prunes. This is seriously the key to the whole thing. The first time I made this stew I was like, “Prunes are for old people! That’s stupid!” And I didn’t put them in. The resulting stew was nasty. It tasted like pieces of meat floating in three day old stale beer. You couldn’t eat it. This is a part of the recipe that one should definitely experiment with, however; less prunes will give you more bitterness, more prunes make it sweeter. I feel like 1/2 cup or so provides a balance: the flavors of the beer, including its bitterness, can be fully tasted and enjoyed, but are not overpowering. You could also try raisins or dried apricots, or dried cranberries. Just don’t forget to add some sort of dried fruit.
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of rosemary (maybe wrapped in cheesecloth)
1/2 cup of chopped parsley (for garnish)
Salt and pepper to taste (don’t be too stingy with it)
1.Mix the flour in with the little cubes of beef. If the beef is really fatty, you may want to cut some of the fat off before you do this. In a fry-pan, brown the beef on all sides using about two tablespoons of oil or so. In your big stew pot, boil the water and add the bullion cube. My feeling is that a copper pot would be ideal for this stew, but if you haven’t robbed a Williams & Sonoma lately, or if you’re not rich, you’ll probably have to use stainless steel like me.
2. Chop carrots and onions. When the beef is done throw the beef and carrots in with the water. Add the beer, slowly, reverently pouring it down the side of the pot. As it flows out of the bottle, sing the Gloria in your best angelic voice. This is essential for continued success. May I suggest you use the setting arranged by William Byrd? Of course, my dream kitchen would be outfitted with a choir loft and a full-time, three voice choir, but, believe it or not, that hasn’t happened for me…yet. Alternatively, one may want to always have among one’s dinner guests someone with a fine voice.
3. In the same pan that the beef was in, put some more oil, and fry the chopped onions for a few minutes (not too long), making sure to shake them around plenty. Then throw them in your pot as well. Go ahead and throw your bay leaf and rosemary in there, too. Salt and pepper. Bring it all back to a boil, then turn the heat down to low.
4. Pit your prunes and cut them up into little pieces. Add these last, once everything else is comfortably simmering and you’ve turned the heat down.
5. Simmer covered for an hour or so, until the meat is tender; also, you shouldn’t have any little bits of prunes left, they should have all melted.
5 1/2. I almost forgot: Before serving, take out the bay leaf and rosemary. If you don’t, I’m not liable if someone chokes and dies.
6. Serve it up on top of potato pancakes or mashed potatoes, and sprinkle with chopped parsley. With the meal, either finish off the six-pack of Extra Stout (if you haven’t already) or have the draft cans available, according to your preference. Make sure you pour them into the appropriate glassware, if you don’t the food will taste awful. Don’t touch the draft bottles, either, they will ruin everything.
Serves 4-8 depending on a) how hungry you are; b) how many potatoes you eat with it; c) how many Guinnesses you drank while cooking.
Let me know what you think.
Sheep Art
February 4, 2010
One of my student’s parents gave me a couple of books for Christmas (I could spend a thousand words just praising such blessed people. Ah, “book-givers” how I love thee!). One of them was Sheed’s “Theology for Beginners” and the other was “Another Sort of Learning” by James V. Schall, S.J. (PhD, Georgetown). I would like to review Sheed’s book, but that will have to wait for later. In the mean time, I think that Schall’s work warrants a chapter by chapter discussion – Oprah book club style. So, allow me to say this, I am not often impressed enough with a book to demand that people read it. However, you need to buy this book and read it, because you may not be likely to stumble across it on your own. There seems to be a mythical quality about his work that causes it to slip through the grasp of most academics (probably because nobody wants to cite it, as its full title is, Another Sort of Learning: Selected Essays on How Finally to Acquire an Education While Still in College or Anywhere Else: Containing Some Belated Advice about How to Employ Your Leisure Time When Ultimate Questions Remain Perplexing in Spite of Your Highest Earned Academic Degree, Together with Sundry Book Lists Nowhere Else in Captivity to Be Found). In other words, it’s a great collection of essays about being a student and an educator, right up our alleys. So, go buy it, NOW! (and don’t complain about your school reading load Hunt, we are taking this one chapter by 7 page, chapter AND don’t complain that it doesn’t have any hippy agricultural crap in it Stambaugh, because there is plenty of material on social justice and political theory) 
Chapter One: “Another Sort of Learning”
“One day a student of mine, Mr. Thomas Smith, came up to me after class to show me a present he had just bought for his brother’s birthday. At the time, his brother was a graduate student at Catholic University. On seeing the book Mr. Smith had bought, I could hardly believe my eyes, for Mr. Smith had somehow found, in a used book store in Washington, a well-preserved first volume of an 1850 edition of Boswell’s Life of Johnson, the cover of which I damaged in my enthusiasm over it. There is just nothing better than Boswell’s Life of Johnson, so I could participate in Mr. Smith’s pleasure at finding such a gem to give to his own brother on his birthday.”
As such, Schall launches into a wonderful reverie on the joys and benefits of trolling used book stores. The point being, of course, that if you think finishing a degree is what makes you “educated,” then you are delusional in the worst way – one who thinks himself (herself) educated, but in reality is quite ignorant.
The whole chapter brings to mind an experience that I had at used book store in Springfield, MO – but, sadly, with a much different outcome. I was trolling through the shelves of the local Christian, used bookstore (as you know the “bible belt” has “Christian” everything – it was enough to make one crazy) when I came to a set of Calvin’s “Institutes.” They were hard bound and in excellent condition. I opened the cover to volume one and read the inscription with utter horror. It read, “Dear Ignorant Ingrate (my name for him), I am so pleased with your progress. Please, accept this addition to your library from me – With Warmest Regards, Vernon Purdy”
Dr. Purdy was my mentor, he was one of the only people I felt loved me in the middle of Bible College, and he had never deigned to buy a set of books for me. He also passed away at the age of 48 after he had a brain aneurism in his home. I drove 14 hours to attend the funeral and cried like I was one of the children he left behind. I still get emotional thinking about the contribution he made to my life, and I still get pissed thinking about the student that sold off a personal gift from a man I admired.
Oh, I didn’t buy the books.
But I will buy this book written by Dr. Purdy, and published posthumously.
Is This “Real” Community
February 2, 2010
The following post was first written on July 19, 2009 by Jeremy who no longer writes for the blog. I found his post buried in the “Pages” section of wordpress and realized that no one has read it since we have no links there. It has a bit of our old flavor from before we became Anglophiles.
One of the topics most discussed in churches today is that of community. In fact, so prevalent is this topic in Christian circles that even the esteemed theophiliacs have broached the subject a time or two. Unfortunately, the topic of community rarely gets past elevated rhetoric or semantical digression. All too often the pragmatics of “real” Christian community get lost in the haze of koom by ya music and all to competative game nights. (or as in the case of theophiliacs disagreements on the etimological, epistomological, and theological understandings of community). So when I came across some people who were living out radical community in a very pragmatic way it caught my attention. So I submit for your scrutiny Maharishi Vedic City in, of all places, Iowa.
This community has embraced modern living while still structuring their city around the most ancient of religious doctrines. For instance they have their own modern hospital, elementary and secondary schools, government institutions, even hotels. Yet they also meditate twice a day as a community, only consume locally grown organic food, and have a local group of devotees who practice yogic flying for sake of cultivating world peace. In every way, both ancient and modern, they have incoporated vedic principles into the very fabric of life. So as someone who belongs to a religious tradition that is currently obsessed with communality, I ask if this is a model that could prove useful for further endeavors into “real” Christian communal living?
extra ecclesiam nulla salus?
January 29, 2010
As one reads and thinks one begins to get interested in particular rabbit holes in theology. Feeling called to Ecumenism, Ecclesiology is one such rabbit hole of mine.
I wish to propose some brief propositions that have swum around in my mind. I realize that they are not positions that the Church has traditionally agreed with but I’m trying to follow out some logic that stems from good Catholic theology. Mostly, I want to locate the Church. If one cannot do such, even if in a provisional way, it seems difficult to speak at all about it. Tell me what you think.
- I am, along with at least the RCC, a religious inclusivist. That is to say I trust that there will be many from different faiths who “find salvation.”
- Karl Rahner called these people “anonymous Christians”
- Catholicism is concerned with the locatability of the Church as opposed to Protestant spiritualizing and volunteer’izing of the Church.
- A “Christian” is someone who in faith is baptized into the Church and prayed over to receive the Holy Spirit
- A so-called “anonymous Christian” has not been baptized nor prayed over to receive the Spirit and even if their ‘faith’ is truly toward God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit it is not shaped in this way.
- If such a person can be “saved,” and if “there is no salvation outside of the Church,” then by this logic A) People can be “saved” without the Sacraments B) People can be part of the church without knowing it…
- There seems to be a tension to me. Now, if the Sacraments are necessary to become part of the Church (as I would argue), AND “there is no salvation outside of the church,” THEN “anonymous Christians” (or their souls?!) must be baptized post-mortem.
- This is just plain silly to me.
- Would it not make more sense to use the old dictum (was it Luther?): ”There is no salvation outside of Christ?”
- This would allow us to locate the Church, which is absolutely necessary for witness, fellowship, worship, evangelism, discipline, etc…
- AND it would allow us to remain religious inclusivists who acknowledge, no, Rejoice!, that God is at work in the whole world?
- This also makes sense of some otherwise puzzling passages in the New Testament
So how ’bout it? There is no salvation outside of Christ but there is outside of the Church?
reed
adhunt
jstambaugh
Shawn Wamsley
