John Martindale

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John is Currently Reading

John Martindale is currently reading

Modern Art & Death of a Culture

by Hans R. Rookmaaker

bookshelves: currently-reading, apologetics, christian, art, history, religion, philosophy

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John Martindale said: " A truly interesting read. I do occasionally question his judgments and wonder if he is reading too much into something, and yet, often it does seem Rookmaaker is providing a deep and insightful analysis.
In Western culture, he argues, art initially w A truly interesting read. I do occasionally question his judgments and wonder if he is reading too much into something, and yet, often it does seem Rookmaaker is providing a deep and insightful analysis.
In Western culture, he argues, art initially was full-bodied and wholistic. Never about mere representation, copying nature, or making a pretty picture, but instead, it meant to convey deeper realities, in both form and content. Back before the Enlightenment, when the world was enchanted, meaning, truth, and morals were baked into the fabric of reality, and even non-believers couldn't help but function within the Christian worldview and express it in their art. With the enlightenment, however, during the great disenchantment, there was a move towards scientism. The metaphysical priors that were once certainties were now cast into doubt and eventually considered unknowable or false.
For all the goods that the more scientific framework gave us, it also emptied the world of much that made it meaningful and worth living. Love becomes nothing more than unconscious genes that are driven to replicate themselves, causing zombie-like meat-machines to lust and thus fulfill a determined end--perpetuating the species. Humans have no choice, and there is nothing more to it. The significance, meaning, and sense of choice are all merely delusions and untrue. Anyhow, no wonder the Romantics rejected it and embraced the half that the analytical philosophers claimed was fantasy.
Anyhow, art may express this. For artists committed to the scientific worldview, they wanted to create works without any human subjectivity and also convey what was objectively true. Thus, art was reduced to the basic building blocks and geometry. Stuck within this box, that was what art became. Simply a block of color or a black square. No meaning, no interpretation.
The Romantic tradition and all the movements that flowed from it embraced the wild, exotic passions, fantasy, emotional, childish...but with WWI, it took a dark turn towards nihilism and the absurd. The artist no longer had permission to convey beauty or goodness, only the ugly, repugnant, boring, or politically and sexually subversive.

Rookmaaker, working as the worldview apologist, mentions how doubts in scriptural authority lead to the unraveling. Thus, implying that the right thing for us to return to is the medieval/reformational mentality that began to seem so problematic during the 18th century.
But here is the problem: the lost certainties in the Bible and church tradition were completely justified, as this certainty is not what either church tradition or the Bible can provide. As the previous authorities were neither univocal nor clear, the only way they could function after the reformation was through authoritarianism or subtle cult-like pressure. In both cases, there is a select group of people who rubber-stamp their own opinions with the Bible or Apostolic authority, and then, either with force or cult-like charm, manipulate others to agree with them. As freedom to read the bible had resulted in a flowering of new interpretations, authoritarians had to stamp this out--playing a part in the 12,000,000 people who died in the following (at least in part, religious) wars. Anyhow, at the utter failure of Scripture and catholic church to provide a foundation for certainty and morality, no wonder philosophers (like René Descartes) began to grasp this certainty elsewhere.
We historically assumed Bible/tradition gave us certainty, but that bubble popped. Next, we demanded it come from reason or experience, but both of these failed to bring what enlightenment thinkers hoped for. Honestly, THAT certainty is NOT our portion. It is not. If there is a God, this God did not give it to us. It cannot be had through revelation, and it cannot be had through reason.
We now have 400 years of the brightest minds seeking it, and all have failed--leading texistentialism and post-modernism. Christian fundamentalists react; they just want to find certainty in the Bible. Christians, like me, who grow up in this context, then live out the very thing that happened in history. We are enculturized to think the Bible is our absolute foundation--that it is inerrant, univocal, clear, comprehensive, and God's timeless and immutable Word, but then we grow up and learn that it is instead diverse, ambiguous, ancient, complicated, and in some places, incredibly problematic--which thrusts us to seek a sure foundation elsewhere.
Christian apologists are like, "Modern philosophy failed in her search, so now let's go home. We, like the prodigal son, never should have drifted." But, what apologists fail to mention is that we only went searching for other sources of water, since the Biblical/Apostolic cistern was cracked and dry. Just because ALL the other holes we dug did not lead to springs of life, is not a reason to go back and try to find certainty from the Biblical revelation or the church fathers! That is a mirage. It always was.

Anyhow, this certainty, this is what Ecclesiastes would call "Profit", it is not our portion, there is no profit under the sun. Reality is too vast and complicated. Perhaps, our portion is ENOUGH. Messy, but enough. We can argue and debate and pursue truth through the fog. We can embrace the perhaps, the maybe, and the qualifiers. ...more "

Mar 17, 2026 04:40PM · see review

John Martindale is currently reading

A Guide to American Christian Education for the Home and School: The Principle Approach

by James Rose

bookshelves: currently-reading, christian, education

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John Martindale said: " Interestingly, God’s telos of everything, in James Rose's philosophy of history, is liberty. It seems that in a similar manner as the New Testament writers claimed their people’s story was leading to Christ, so Rose, so enamored with Old School prote Interestingly, God’s telos of everything, in James Rose's philosophy of history, is liberty. It seems that in a similar manner as the New Testament writers claimed their people’s story was leading to Christ, so Rose, so enamored with Old School protestant America, sees the entirety of history (with Jesus as simply a datum point) leading up to the Liberty found at America’s founding. Just as early Christians paid little mind to the historical and literary context of Hebrew scriptures and cared nothing for the likely intended meaning, but instead read in Christ everywhere, so Rose, having made Christian American Liberty the END of all history, can view the bible with this lens and “find evidence” for it everywhere. I must say it feels icky, the way the Telos of Christ is replaced by America. It feels idolatrous. As Christians, if we are going to engage in the hugely speculative and subjective venture of making a philosophy of history, we ought to stick to Jesus as THE END. That said, using liberty as A (in contrast to THE) frame for viewing history, it can be a valuable approach. In a philosophy of history, it provides a narrative by which we can select what to include (and exclude), and evaluate the good and bad. It is interesting to consider historical events and reflect on whether it led to liberty. Liberty, as they define it (people having good character and being self-governed), is a good, and it is interesting to consider history from this perspective. As long as it is recognized as a single lens.

I think we need to maintain humility and maintain a level of skepticism towards any absolute and all-embracing meta-narrative, especially if it is claimed to be drawn from the Bible. The antiquity, ambiguity, and diversity of the scriptural canon mean that confirmation bias can have an absolute heyday for those who are overconfident in things they presume true prior to investigation. Passages that contradict his stated end can simply be ignored, and then ambiguous passages detached from their ancient context can be interpreted as presenting timeless and absolute truth supporting their philosophy of history. In some cases, I think that Rose's approach and use of the bible could make literally ANYTHING “biblical”. Finding some proof text that seems to vaguely relate is the way to rubber-stamp his beliefs—making every political and religious opinion inerrant Biblical TRUTH. Disagree with them, and you disagree with the bible. His opinions are “biblical,” and all opinions that he disagrees with are unbiblical, pagan, and secular.

Providential history not only applies this approach to the Bible, but also to history in general, or as they would say His-story. But here they must select what is to be focused on; they must assume and assert that God is doing and his purposes, and they must ignore all the contrary data and create unrealistic heroic pictures of their “good guys”, and they justify the evil means to the ends that they like.

Calvinistically, they assume God not only predetermined the end but also the means. Though not in the book, I wouldn’t be surprised if some would see it as God’s glorious providence that the Europeans brought disease that decimated the native population. America was the end of all history, and the indigenous peoples were in the way--oh the glories of God's providence! One thing I know is that some Principle Approach proponents spin Christopher Columbus as a pinnacle of virtue. They focus on early passages in his journals where he expressed his desire to win the natives to the Lord, instead of later sections where he casually states how he had a native woman tortured after she resisted his raping her and how this torture was effective, turning her into a submissive whore. Anyhow, once they decide Columbus is a HERO, a part of the chain of Christianity leading up to liberty in America, he must become a beautiful part of providential history, to show how God was working out his purposes and his plans (largely ignoring how this was at the indigenous peoples' expense).

A Philosophy of history necessarily suppresses evidence. It presumes X is true, and if 97% of the data is like “No, X is not true,” they will find the 3% that is like “Yes, it is. The actual evidence for many of the claims is so scanty that data is replaced with bold assertion after bold assertion. Those who teach the Principle approach must appeal to the author's impeccable authority.

Now, Rose presents the American Christian method of Biblical reasoning, which places the truths of God's word at the center of every subject. When done poorly, this makes every class Sunday school. I know students in principle approach schools can resent it, just like kids in secular schools can get tired of every subject centered around the intersection of sex, gender, race, power, and systemic oppression. Some people actually want to learn math, or history--must every teacher have an axe to grind? But I know the Principle Approach is not necessarily at the cost of the subject matter, while it can work like a virus, overtaking the host and making it produce the one ideology, it can instead enrich and build up.

I am curious, though, how Biblical reasoning is understood. On one hand, the very concept of it being a Principle Approach is appealing. If by biblical reasoning, they mean taking a principle like "every individual has value and dignity and should be treated accordingly", it is then incumbent upon us to wrestle, in the present, with what it means to love someone and uphold their value. By engaging in this process, we are being "biblical" and engaging in biblical reasoning, even if we conclude that what is loving in a certain situation is at odds with the letter of scripture. If that is what is meant, then I am fine with it. However, if it is finding a verse, making it a categorical statement, and then reasoning from it now (with no mind for the situation), then I am not okay with it. That would be like finding the verse that commands the rapist to marry the woman he raped, pay the bride price to the father, and never divorce her. If that is considered Biblical truth, then it means today, if a man rapes a woman, we should expect him to marry her. That is simply biblical reasoning from the truth of God's word.

I get the impression some proponents of the Principle Approach seem to imbibe biblicism, which assumes the bible is the divine answer book and encyclopedia, full of timeless truth on every topic. As Christian Smith argues in the Bible Made Impossible, that is not the type of book the bible is, to assume this is the case is to completely misuse scripture.

I do like some of the principles, especially the first few. Though I take issue with the sectarian and tribal manner in which they are expressed. This fundamentalist attitude sees things in stark black and white, good and bad, and only American Christianity, as understood by James Rose, is good, and its goodness is to be demonstrated by contrasting it with the other--the pagan, heathen, secular. Amy-Jill Levin has pointed out how for 1000s of Years, Christians couldn't mention any positive element of Christianity without contrasting it with the Jews. The Jews were the example of all that is bad, and Christianity of all that is good. She points out how many of the good elements are also found in Judaism. While it is okay to celebrate some positives in Christianity, it needn't always be at the Jews' expense. So I would say the same with some of these principles, take self-government, for example. It talks as if only Christians can be self-governed, and if "pagans" are, it is this ugly and distorted parody. Uh... no... I believe that if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we are living in harmony with God (even if we have never even heard of Jesus), whereas if we fail to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are out of harmony with God, even if we are a Christian. Non-Christians can, at times, genuinely pursue the good and express pure love, and this fact should not be threatening to us! We may actually be able to better learn how to love others by paying attention to wise and decent people who are outside of our tribe. Evangelicals who want to remain exclusivists should at least realize that while they can assume they exclusively have the WHOLE picture, they can at least grant that those outside of their little group might at least have PART of the picture.
Failure to recognize this much can lead people to act in non-loving ways, as it leads to cynicism; believing the worst about the other; always interpreting every good, sincere, and loving action of non-Christians as being nefarious, and rooted in evil motives. We do not love our (non-Christian) neighbor by demonizing them and pretending they are totally depraved ...more "

Jul 29, 2025 04:30PM · see review

John Martindale is currently reading

The Placebo Effect: An Interdisciplinary Exploration

by Anne Harrington

bookshelves: currently-reading

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May 09, 2016 09:12PM

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John’s Quotes

“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”
― Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain

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“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return. ”
― Annie Dillard

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“Propositions are to stories (and to reality) as powdered milk is to what comes from the udder. Propositions are dried-out stories with much of the vitality removed. They may say something technically true, just as powdered milk is still technically a form of milk, but they do not win our hearts and are not enough on which to nourish a life.”
― Daniel Tayler

tags: story, the-skeptical-believer

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“Doubt as sin. — Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature — is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality

“Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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