Alternative Culture: Made in Italy Theological Review

 

Robert and his son Jack agree to renovate their old Italian house for sale

I rarely watch contemporary drama films as I have an inherent liking for action-based, fantasy or sci-fi films. Nevertheless, I decided to watch Made in Italy on Netflix for a few reasons. One, it starred one of my favourite actors, Liam Neeson, and two, it showcased one of my favourite countries, Italy.

Synopsis
Jack Foster (Micheal Richardson) is released from his job as an art gallery manager in England. The owner is Ruth, Jack's estranged wife. To continue his lifestyle, Jack offers to buy the gallery, by selling an Italian mansion he and his father, Robert (Liam Neeson) inherited.

The problem is that he and his artist father are not on good terms and he needs his father's consent to sell it. To make things worse, the mansion is in poor condition after years of neglect. After some father-son confrontations and advice from a property agent Kate (Lindsay Duncan) and a neighbour (Valeria Bilello), the duo decide to work together to restore the mansion.

Christian themes explored

The reality of suffering
One thing I did like about the film was the exploration of the reality of suffering. Jack's mother's death and the absence of his father during Jack's childhood were traumatic to him.

Similarly, Robert's abandonment of his son and loss of artistic talent was due to the immense guilt that he may have caused his wife's death. In his sharing with Kate (who is pained by her cheating husband),  they could never go back to how things were.

Except, you never really can start again. -- Robert to Kate

However in Christianity there is hope. Jesus is divine, and yet is able to empathise with us.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. - Hebrews 4: 15.

Jack and Robert look proudly at their renovation

Restoration of relationships
Being a simple film, the focus is on the restoration of relationship between Jack and Robert. It only happens after massive arguments, petty disagreements and quality time together. Yet though great desire, they realise that their restored relationship was worth more the monetary value of the mansion.

Similarly, God desires the restoration of relationship with us. The journey towards that restoration may be painful, but it will be worth it.

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. -- Romans 8: 19-21

Conclusion
Despite being a simple film, I was suprirsed by how much I enjoyed it. Adding to the emotion impact was that Liam Neeson and Micheal Richardson are real-life father and son, and this film was seen as a passion project (as Nessons's wife Natasha Richardson died in 2009).

Theology 1.0: How did Martin Luther view science?

 One of the common portrayals of religion is that the adherents are somehow anti-science. This ignores the fact the many landmark scientists from Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal and Asa Gray to Theodosius Dobzhansky, Francis Collins and Simon Conway Morris are Christian. 

In this post, I want to instead examine how a certain theologian of the past viewed the philosophy of science -- Martin Luther.

Is Luther anti-science or anti-reason?
One of the most abused quotes of Martin Luther was the phrase in the book Table Talk, 

"Reason is the enemy of faith".

However, this does not mean Luther saw logic as an enemy because he was arguing against Aristotelian reasoning rather than using reason as a methodology. After all in the same book he said, 

"We are at the dawn of a new era, for we are beginning to recover the knowledge of the external world that was lost through the fall of Adam. We now observe creatures properly .... But by the grace of God we already recognize in the most delicate flower the wonders of divine goodness and omnipotence."

In this way, he recognized that knowledge about nature could be used to support humanity. In essence, he rejected the Roman Catholic policy of scholasticism (Aristotelian logic) and favoured observations in nature.

According to historian Andrew White, Protestant cities influenced by Luther were more likely to accept human anatomical studies over Roman Catholic cities. This was due to the fact that human dissection was seen as taboo by the Roman Catholic Church, and their insistence of following Aristotelian assumptions about the human body.

Being wrong about heliocentrism
Another criticism was that Luther rejected Copernicus's idea of heliocentrism (the idea that the earth revolved around the sun).

However, this was not an unusual attitude at that time because the prevailing view was geocentrism (the idea that the sun revolved around the earth). Furthermore, Copernicus had not proven his hypothesis scientifically. 

It was only in the 1600s that Johanns Kepler proved mathematically that Copernicus was correct. Luther died in 1546.

Conclusion
To say that Luther was anti-science is to misunderstand the reformer's attitude towards logic, natural philosophy and pragmaticism. His attitude towards the natural world was simply this,

It's our Lord God who created all things and they are good.

In other words, nature reveals God's handiwork. While Luther himself was not a scientist, the Reformation he kicked off led to an era of openness and acceptance of new ideas. Such attitudes favored the development of science.

For more information:

Kobe's view

Beggar's view

Theology 1.0: What did Pope Leo I tell Attila the Hun?

 

The Huns, as depicted in the game, Total War: Attila

From the year 430s to 450s, Europe was terrorized by nomadic barbarians known as the Huns. During this period of time, Rome split into two - the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. Rome was at its lowest state. The Eastern Roman Empire was richer and controlled the Mediterranean, but faced the powerful Sassanid Empire from Persia. Western Rome stretched from Spain to Italy and Tunisia, but could barely hold on.

Attila led the Huns to extracted tribute (protection money) from both Roman Empires after raiding and sacking their cities. At Attila's peak, he received 700 kg of gold per year from Eastern Rome.

In 450, Attila renewed his campaign against Western Rome. However in 451, Attila suffered massive losses at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (Northeast France). Undeterred, he launched an invasion of Italy and pushed his way toward Rome, sacking the city of Aquileia in the process. His forces stopped at the River Po in 452.

The meeting with Pope Leo I
With the Western Roman Emperor's blessing, three envoys were sent to negotiate peace with Attila. Gennadius Avienus, Memmius Aemilius Trygetius (both civilian officers), and Pope Leo I. While there are no records of what was discussed, Attila agreed to remove his forces from Italy peacefully. No gold was exchanged and no betrothal was offered.

The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila by Raphael. Painting was done between 1513 and 1514.

So why did Attila retreat?
While Attila was rumored to have shown deference and mercy to Christian bishops like Lupus of Troyes, this meeting with Pope Leo I was well-recorded to have happen. Yet there are different ideas of Attila's sudden withdrawal.

Prosper of Aquitaine, a Christian historian mentioned that Attila was so impressed by the pope that he withdrew.

Priscus, an Eastern Roman diplomat wrote that Attila was superstitious and learned that another barbarian leader, Alaric of the Visigoths died one year after sacking Rome in 410.

Hydatius, a Western Roman chronicler was a bit more pragmatic in his interpretation. He remarked that the Huns was worn down by plague and starvation (there was a famine in Italy at that time). Thus Attila knew he had little reward in taking Rome. This seems to be the current favored theory as it has been reasoned that Attila was not a Christian and previously respected strength and gold.

What does this mean for a Christian?
No doubt there was probably some level of fear for Pope Leo I and his companions. After all, Priscus wrote (of Attila),

He was a man born into the world to shake the nations, the scourge of all lands, who in a way frightened all mankind by the terrible rumours that were spread about him.

In the Christian view, there are two types of fear. One is the fear of God which is to have reverence and respect for Gods nature and power. This fear is beneficial.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

    all those who practice it have a good understanding.

    His praise endures forever! - Psalms 111:10

Yet we know that there is a type of fear that hinders us Christians from doing God's work.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. - 2 Timothy 1:6-7

While many of us will never be called to negotiate with a foreign aggressor or terrorist, we have experienced this type of fear before. Now I do not know if Pope Leo was thinking the same thing, but I do know that my worst and most fearful days are never as bad because I trust God.

In God, whose word I praise,

    in the Lord, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.

    What can man do to me? - Psalms 56:10 -11

Scary our problems are, ultimately God is with us as long as we trust and love Him. 

For more reading:

The Roman Catholic view of the incident

Alternative Culture: The Localization Controversy

Comparison of text between the Japanese (original) and American versions of the game Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The issue with localization in anime and video games
Japan is known for producing high-quality animation (anime) and video games. As such, it is little wonder that there is a demand for subtitling (subbing) and dubbing into different languages. 

However, one of the challengers of translation is that sometimes the Japanese phrases do not translate well outside Japan. For instance, our Japanese friends tend to use the words like "senpai", and honorifics like "-san" and "-chan" that are uniquely Japanese. Thus there is a need to do localization, which is to translate the Japanese words to suit the audience's culture. For instance in the game Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,  the shopping district in is translated from "shoppu moru" to "bazaar" as it does resemble a street market in most countries.

One of the localization choices from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Localization controversy
Recently, Japanese-to-English localizers has come under fire for refusing to translate according to the original author's intention. 

The controversy first gained traction when the American audience noted the difference between the subtitles (which were more literal to the Japanese text) and the dubs in the anime Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. 

The change from the text in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

In another example, the person in charge of dubbing the anime Lovely Complex took pride that his localization deliberately took liberties with the text against the author's intent, with the statement,  "We made it good. This show SUCKED!".

Such liberties usually seem to conform to a typical California left-wing politics, rather than an international audience, or even the general American audience. These include and not limited to uncalled criticism of capitalism, unhinged hatred of males, sudden claims of patriarchy and insertion of LGBT ideology or pronouns when the original Japanese did not even allude to it. I attached a video below to show how inappropriate the localization can be in video games.

What this means for Christians?
Be wary of inserting our own desires into the Bible

Now whether we Christians should think such localizations are right and wrong is not the point I want to discuss for part of the post.

What I want to discuss for this post is like whether we tend to localize Scripture to our interest, rather than allowing the God's intent to be read.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. - 2 Timothy 2: 15

By rightly handling, this means doing the research, and not inserting our own politics, interpreting things to our favor  and detouring from the original text and intent. I have seen happen (whether intentionally or unintentionally) many times.

After all, no one seriously interprets God's instruction to the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman as a command to all Christian to do so. Similarly, we should not take verses like the one below:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29: 11

as a prediction that God always prosper us as it was a specific instruction for Jeremiah.

Dangers with translation of the Bible
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. - Revelations 22: 18-19

Another lesson we can take from the localization controversy is the lesson to localize or translate the Bible seriously. I appreciate the translators of the Bible for making the text available to everybody as learning the original Greek and Hebrew (in addition to the context) would not be accessible. 

Nevertheless, I think even for the Message translation (by Eugene Peterson) which takes great liberties with the text, I never got the sense that Peterson hated the original material unlike some of the anime and video game localizers.

Conclusion
The localization controversy should encourage Christians also to closely examine on how they interpret the Bible.

For more information:

Niche Gamer

Desiring God

Ministry Magazine

My confession: Comparing the requests of Moses and Solomon and the Presence of God

 

Due to recent departures in my department and changes in my family, I can see a rapid increased in workload before me. As I prayed, I wondered what I should ask from God. 

Should I asked for strength to meet the challenges, or a reduced commitments?

At first I referred to what King Solomon asked for:

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” - 1 Kings 3: 5-14, ESV

Ordinarily, I would have asked for wisdom and discernment to prioritize what is right and important. However, in a recent sermon on the presence of God by Pastor Francis Chan, I changed my perspective.

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” - Exodus 33: 12 -17, ESV

Moses had simply asked for God to accompany him through the journey to the Promised Land. He stated in "if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here." (Exodus 33:15).

And I realised I want the same thing. Even if I relied on renewed intelligence and wisdom, I am prone to folly and flaws and sin. So this is what I pray for - for God to be with my family and I, till the end of time.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.  -- Psalms 23:4

My Confession: My reflection on Job 11

 

I continue my reflections on Job.

Zophar's retort
Zophar, Job's friend, simply state that Job deserves much worse than what Job was facing now. Bear in mind that Job has lost his children and wealth, and was suffering from sores.

For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure,
    and I am clean in God's eyes.’
 But oh, that God would speak
    and open his lips to you,
 and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom!
    For he is manifold in understanding.
Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves. -- Job 11: 4-6

He continues, stating that God's reasoning is higher than Job's.

Can you find out the deep things of God?
    Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?
 It is higher than heaven —what can you do?
    Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? -- Job 11: 7-8

His solution for Job was to therefore turn to God and confess his sins.

If you prepare your heart,
    you will stretch out your hands toward him.
If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,
    and let not injustice dwell in your tents.
 Surely then you will lift up your face without blemish;
    you will be secure and will not fear.  -- Job 11: 13-15

Zophar's theology assumes the guilt of Job
What is worrying is that we can fall into the trap of fallacy of correlation thinking. If Job is suffering, he must have committed some great sin. In fact, Job deserves much worse in Zophar's eyes. If only Job would confess admit his guilt, then God would restore Job.

However, at no point of time has Job's guilt been clearly pointed out. Zophar just assumes and asserts it. While Zophar is mainly correct in the nature of God (his omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence), he was too hasty in condemning Job.

What I can learn from Job 11
Often, I too can commit the errors of Zophar by assuming someone's guilt before I even have the details. 

In the words of the Apostle James,

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. -- James 1: 19 -20

Theology 1.0: How did Christianity arrive in India?

 

An exhibit from the Indian Heritage Centre

India is one of the most populous countries in the world. Approximately 26 million of Indians profess the Christian faith (in 2011), which makes up about 2-3% of the population.

So how did Christianity first appear in India?

Earliest speculation
The first written record about Christians in India was in the 4th century document called Church History. Written by Eusebius of Caesarea (a Bishop), he stated that Saint Bartholomew (one of the twelve apostles) travelled to India for mission work after Jesus's death.

If true, then than Christianity might first arrived in India shortly after 30 AD. However, there is few supporting evidence that Saint Bartholomew did so.

In another tradition, St Thomas Christians of India claimed that Saint Thomas (another of the twelve apostles) came to the southwestern Indian state of Kerala in 52 AD and spread the gospel until his martyrdom in Chennai in 72 AD.

Stronger claims
Nevertheless, the first strong evidence of Christianity in India came as early in the 2nd Century. Saint Pantaenus (a Christian philosopher) travelled to India in about 180 AD, and found Christians in Kerala. The Indian Christians were using the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew letters. This hinted that Syriac-speaking Christians (who used a Hebrew script) had somehow evangelised to the Indians before Pantaenus's arrival.

Conclusion
It is hard to confirm when Christianity arrived in India. Nevertheless, Christians should continue to pray for growth of Christianity worldwide.