I found this article in the newspaper the other day and found it intriguing and challenging.
Hopefully you will find the choice to provide a link to it in my blog an ironic one.
Adam
At the recent Australian Labor Party conference held in Sydney a change of party policy was introduced to allow Federal members a “conscience vote” if an amendment to the Marriage Act is brought before Parliament to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex relationships. To be honest, I think the change is inevitable. The wave of change is swelling towards the shore and no amount of standing ankle deep screaming at the ocean to “cease and desist” is going to avoid same-sex marriage being legalised in this country. It’s now a matter of when, not if. I have to say, I’m not a “doomsday” Christian on this. I don’t think it’s going to cause society to crumble in a heap of moral decay. I don’t think it will tear at the very fabric of society, nor do I think that it will weaken the institution of marriage.
I love Chopin. I love listening to his music, but I especially love playing his music. His Nocturnes in particular. There's something very satisfying about playing Chopin. He was a pianist, and every piece of music he wrote was for the piano, and so he "gets" what it's like to sit at a piano and wrestle with those 88 keys in front of you. He was a genius who knew how to get the most out of this instrument, and to challenge those who would want to call themselves a pianist (ever tried playing 12 notes at once with 10 fingers?). Perhaps what I like best, though, is the opportunity that playing Chopin gives me to really express myself through the music. It's like nothing else that I know and taps right into the depths of my emotions and indeed my soul. For me, it's very much a kind of prayer to play this music. Anyone who plays a musical instrument well understands (or should understand) that it's so much more than just the notes on the page. In fact, the b...
Arguably Gregory of Nyssa's most famous contribution to Christian theology, next to his involvement with the other Cappadocian Fathers in the solidification of the doctrine of the Trinity, is his famous "fish-hook" theory of the atonement. It goes a little something like this... Humanity is enslaved to sin and the devil by their own free choice to turn away from the Good (i.e. God) and towards evil. God could free humanity arbitrarily, but this would deny his own justice, since it was the free choice of humanity to be enslaved. The slave-master (even if it is the devil) must receive a payment for the slave. What would he accept in exchange for the thing which he held but something... higher and better in the way of ransom. (Gregory of Nyssa, The Great Catechism , NPNF 5, 493) .
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