Archive for the ‘Creed’ Category
Secular Worship Services, Part Two: The Superbowl
Sorry to all the Denver Broncos fans out there – that was pretty rough. The Seahawks out executed in every phase of the game. Hats off to a humble, classy, and non-flashy Russell Wilson for his quiet leadership and on-field play.
There are two very distinct kinds of liturgies at work in the Superbowl: The Superbowl the Game (and half-time show), and The Superbowl the Commercials. The game and the commercials overlap at points and in many ways are inextricably linked but also diverge at points as well. This post will cover the topic of the Superbowl the game and the next post will analyze the Superbowl the commercials. After analyzing a number of various forms of secular worship we will then discuss what these secular liturgies mean on a cultural level, a religious level, and an individual level.
The Superbowl the Game
In many ways sports provides for men (and women also) a pressure relief valve on their bottled up, suppressed, repressed, or unexpressed emotions. Sports can function as a kind of surrogate intimacy to other failed or stunted intimacies – this is why some men who are entirely dispassionate in other spheres (marriage, vocation, parenthood…) all of a sudden come alive in the arena or in front of the flatscreen.
Liturgies follow formats and rhythms of expected time, space, color, and aesthetics. In many ways, most sports liturgies follow the same liturgy:
The Pregame (Welcome, Greeting, and Sacrament)
The pregame is filled several elements that invite the sports worshiper into the liturgy to follow. Elements of the pregame involve storylines of the forthcoming game, analysis of the players and teams involved, and perhaps also preliminary indulgence into the sacramental table of the expected food and drink (tailgating, BBQ… etc.).
The Grove at Ole Miss
There are obvious corollaries between the tailgate and the Lord’s Supper (or eucharist); both are inviting the worshiper deeper into the liturgy (game and camaraderie) to follow as well as serve to unite the participants into community with one another.
National Anthem (Call to Worship)
This is a moment of civil religiosity where we find unity in our commonality as residents (or citizens) of the United States of America. This can also function as a kind of call to worship for the events that are about to happen on field. It provides a very least common denominator unity to all in attendance regardless of their team allegiance.
The Game Itself (Worship in Song, Creed Recitation, Iconography, Benediction)
The game itself is participatory in many ways. Most teams have some sort of team song(s) – this is common also among other sports – particularly college football, soccer, and rugby. The songs serve to unite, provide camaraderie, and a sense of belonging. Most teams also have at least one, often more than one creed, chant, or rally cry. It could be as simple as an idea – Seattle Seahawk’s (aka. TAMU) Twelfth Man or longer form chants or cheers like University of Florida’s We are the Boys from Old Florida, Alabama’s Rammer Jammer Cheer, or Ole Miss’ Hotty Toddy. Many of these serve to make great the dynasty of one’s own tribe to the detriment of the rivals. There is also highly developed iconography associated with sport. The icons serve far more than to merely brand but serve to identify allegiance to the particular tribe. Most teams will also have some form of a victory cheer or chant as well. These chants function in many ways similar to a benediction to a worship service (provided your team wins).
Sports can provide great elation and crushing agony (just ask Peyton Manning). These ranges of emotions are natural because we worship with the heart – hence, success is met with great joy and defeat brings frustration, anger, and a whole host of other emotions. We cheer when our team scores a touchdown or wins the big game and we get ticked and want a new coach when our team goes 4-8 (#Muschamp).
Sports as Evangelism (Mission)
Sports fans want other people to be a part of their tribe. Sports is inherently evangelistic. It is by nature evangelistic because it is human nature to want other people to enjoy the things that we enjoy. Hence, there is a significant missional component that is hard wired into sports, particularly the Superbowl in America.
This post is the second in a series of post on Secular Worship Services, the first analyzed The Grammys. Up next, we will take a look at The Superbowl with respect to the commercials.
Best Links of the Week
I think some PAC published this video… worth watching
How to use Zotero to organize your personal library. Zotero has personally saved me literally dozens of hours on a single project I worked on recently. Any person in graduate school writing papers should use this tool. The simple firefox/Office plugin will format your footnotes and create your Bibliography and/or Works Cited for you. Hours saved. I can’t believe more people don’t use this already.
The French are funny. They are rioting because their version of Social Security got moved from age 60 to age 62. I remember them getting all fussy when Sarkozy changed the work week from 35 hours to 40 hours.
WSJ on the status of the mortgage mess in the U.S.
Spot on TIME Magazine piece on why young Italian professionals are leaving Italy in droves. For once, an American journalistic enterprise hits a home run on understanding the many layers of Italian culture and economics. Here is a bonus piece on the trash crisis in Naples, Italy. I remember the citizens of Avellino getting so upset at their trash crisis that they started dumping trash on the city courthouse steps and lighting it on fire. Awesome.
An interesting opinion piece on UGA’s new engineering school and the state of education in the state of Georgia.
3 Month Introspective
Introspective
So, I’ve been blogging consistently for three months. This is the week of Christmas and I’ll be all over the place. I thought I would briefly summarize the 3 months of blog series on here:
Blaise Pascal: We took a look at Blaise Pascal’s thinking, its use of aphorism and its relationship to both tri-perspectivalism and presuppositionalism. We also looked at his use of aphorism and his warnings against deism and atheism.
Thoughts on Evangelicalism Past, Present, and Future, Parts 1-7: We defined the term evangelical. We looked at its historical roots in the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and its ties to celebrity culture, democritization of knowledge, and modernism. Then we looked at the roots of liberalism, the Protestant split and suburbanization, and defined and outlined evangelical populism and their game plan for reaching America. Finally we assessed the current status of American evangelicalism and then made some predictions of future trends.
Introduction to Apologetics, Parts 1-7: We looked in broad strokes at the various schools of apologetics. We then took a more in-depth look at: Classical Apologetics, Evidentialist Apologetics, Presuppositional Apologetics, and the specific apologetics of Blaise Pascal and Alvin Plantinga. Finally, we employed the three phases football as an analogy for the different apologetic schools and I likened Tim Tebow to the presuppositionalists.
Thoughts on Evangelicalism Moving Forward, Parts 1-10: We looked at some analysis of some shifts evangelicalism will need to make moving forward: Doctrine, Worldview, Urbanization, Globality/Mobility, “Post-Modernism,” American Culture(s), Contextualization, Balance, and Final Analysis.
Top ~10 Books by Topic:
Top 10 Systematic Theology Texts
Top 10 Books on Science and Christianity
Top 10 Books on Christian Biography
Top 15 Books on Status of American Evangelicalism
Top 10 Books on Church History
Top 40 Books to Read While in College
Top 10 Books on Missions, Discipleship, and Evangelism
The 25 Most Destructive Books Ever Written…
Top 10 Books on Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility
Best Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms of the Christian Church
A Comprehensive List of Top 10 Book Lists of 2009
Up Next: We will be looking at some thoughts on the economy and investment and then delve into the mind of Friedrich Nietzsche…
Best Creeds, Confessions and Catechisms of the Christian Church
Trinity Shield from Athanasian Creed
Our faith is 2000 years old. We have a long obedience in the same direction, affirming the same truths. We are wise to be familiar with the many wonderful orthodox creeds, confessions, and catechisms of the Christian church.
Apostles Creed (~2nd century)
Nicene Creed (325)
Athanasian Creed (5th century)
Definition of the Council of Chalcedon (451)
The Canons of the Council of Orange (529)
London Baptist Confession (1689)
Westminster Standards: Westminster Confession of Faith, Westminster Shorter Catechism, and Westminster Larger Catechism (1646)
Heidelberg Catechism (1563) – Note: Kevin DeYoung has a book coming out on the HC next year entitled The Good News We Almost Forgot. I would be surprised if it was not excellent. CJ Mahaney says, “Doubtless this will be the finest book I will have ever read on the Heidelberg Catechism. It will certainly be the first.”
Belgic Confession (1618)
Canons of Dordt (1618)
Second Helvetic Confession (1536)
Genevan Catechism (1536)
The Thirty Nine Articles (Anglican, 1572) and Augsburg Confession (Lutheran) are not bad and worth familiarizing oneself.
Also of note is the Westminster Shorter Catechism for kids – the entire list of questions and answers can be found here for free.
Modern Pensées 