Partially Examined Assumptions from PEL #46: Plato on Ethics & Religion
Dear Partially Examined Life podcasters,
Like Skepoet, I was very impressed by your recent episode on Plato’s “Euthyphro.” And yes, Seth, I deeply appreciated your perspective on Judaism. In particular, it helped me realize that modern Christianity in practice actually functions the way you describe Judaism (with decisions made by a small group of authorities revered for their understanding of the text), even if in theory it we claim our theology is a matter of rigorous logical deductions available to all.
That said, my overall reaction was much like the one Socrates had:
But I see plainly that you are not disposed to instruct me-dearly not: elsewhy, when we reached the point, did you turn, aside? Had you only answered me I should have truly learned of you by this time the-nature of piety.
I freely admit I am a philosophical dilettante and undoubtedly biased my religious upbringing. That is why (like Socrates to Euthyphro :-) I come to you who seem so certain to in hopes of illuminating my ignorance. Yet just when you seem on the verge of actually addressing the problem I care about, you veer away. Perhaps you can help me understand why…
Partially Examined Questions
Dear Mark, Seth, and Wes,
Thanks for the shout out on the The Partially Examined Life blog. First of all, I want to apologize for my snarky and apparently misleading comments on your Facebook page; let me know when I’ve expended $10 worth of annoyance and I’ll make another donation. :-)
Now that I’ve got your attention, though, let me try to articulate my concerns more coherently, to hopefully inspire a more substantive critique. It is pretty verbose, though, so I’ve posted a reply on my own blog, below. You can reply either there or on your own post, whichever is more convenient.
Falling Up
I am falling, falling.
It is neither hot not cold, I feel nothing. I see nothing.
Just falling, falling. Down, down, down…
I wake up. I am lying on my back in a field of wild grass. The smell of earth fills my nostrils. The air is warm, springlike. The sun is up, but not too hot. I am alone.
I stand up and dust myself off. Expectant, but not impatient.
He comes. I do not see Him, but I feel His presence drawing near. I wait.
The Voice speaks. “Welcome, my son.”
My mouth quirks. “Hello. Father.”
The Voice smiles, though I still see nothing. “Yes, I am your father. And many other things, including your enemy. But above all else, your father.”
I say nothing. There has been no question. There is nothing to say.
The Voice grins. “Come”, He says, and gestures without hands.
***
John Isaacs Sermon
Posterous test
Sermon: “Road to Joy” – A Boundaries Remix
Growing Church Leaders now on Amazon
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Editorial, Leadership on April 11, 2011
I should have mentioned this awhile ago, but I am very excited to have my new book available on Amazon.com <http://amzn.to/growchurch> in both softcover and Kindle editions.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,400 times in 2010. That’s about 13 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 20 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 691 posts. There were 24 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 12mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.
The busiest day of the year was January 15th with 148 views. The most popular post that day was Kenneth James Sniecinski’s Personal Blurb.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, drernie.com, otpproductions.com, mail.live.com, and inthesunnyspot.net.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for jon andreas, scripture observation application prayer, soap scripture observation application prayer, a long obedience in the same direction – pdf, and purpose driven life chapter 26.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Kenneth James Sniecinski’s Personal Blurb November 2005
Growing Church Leaders March 2010
1 comment
Proverbs 3:5-6 SOAP (Scripture Observation Application Prayer) for LDT July 2007
What You Can Do to Help Those Behind Bars by Jon Andreas July 2007
18 comments
Demolishing Strongholds by Philip John October 2007
The Headship of Christ
How to Fix California
Our presentation How To Fix California is currently being featured on the SlideShare homepage by their editorial team.
Growing Church Leaders final cover image
I hope to approve the final galley proof later today, which means it should be available for purchase at Amazon et al within a couple weeks. Expected retail price is $25 — not bad for a 200 page bible study.
Introduction: The Road to Holiness
“Holy, Holy, Holy”: Growing Church Leaders
Introduction: The Road to Holiness
They [the four living creatures] do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!” – Revelations 4:8b
I did not intend to write about holiness. My goal was to develop a Bible study for training Christian leaders.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why Growing Church Leaders?
It is time for a revolution in how the church nurtures new leaders.
As Jim Downing of the Navigators points out, Jesus trained his disciples by imparting:
- Knowledge, through teaching
- Character, by modeling and example
- Skills, through guided experience
While knowledge can be learned anywhere, character and skills are best developed as part of a community that lives, worships, and serves together – i.e., a church.
That is why we developed Growing Church Leaders is a way for mature leaders to train the next generation of leaders in their churches to think biblically, live wisely, and serve faithfully. We encourage pastors to meet weekly with a small group of “faithful men and women, who will in turn teach others,” to lead them in:
- Memorizing bible verses
- Reading from classic Christian books
- Leading devotions, typically from the Psalms or Proverbs
- Studying entire chapters of the Bible, verse by verse
- Exploring how Scripture applies to their lives
- Responding with repentance, action, and worship
Our prayer is that every growing church will invest in establishing future leaders on a solid foundation of biblical truth, character formation, and spiritual discipline. For that reason, this material is available as a free download at http://2transform.us/grow under a Creative Commons “share alike” license, as well as in book form. This allows you to adapt it to the needs of your church or denomination, as long as you allow others to do the same.
May God use His Word to build His Body for His Kingdom!
In Christ,
Ernest N. Prabhakar
Kingsway Community Church
San Jose, California, U.S.A.
May, 2010
Back Cover Copy for Growing Church Leaders
Growing Church Leaders is a way for those who are mature to train the next generation of leaders in their churches to think biblically, live wisely, and serve faithfully. This course is designed to help senior leaders guide a small group of faithful men and women in:
* Memorizing Bible verses
* Reading classic Christian books
* Leading devotions, typically from Psalms or Proverbs
* Studying entire chapters of the Bible, verse by verse
* Exploring how Scripture applies to their lives
* Responding with repentance, action, and worship
Our prayer is that every growing church will invest in establishing future leaders on a solid foundation of biblical truth, Christian character, and spiritual discipline—i.e., practical holiness.
What Christian Leaders Are Saying
• “You have produced a Bible study magna cum laude.” —Luis Bush, Transform World.
• “Impressed with the quality of content and presentation … you are to be congratulated on a job well done!” —Barney Coombs, Salt and Light Ministries International
• “I really like the format, and it is well written for easy reading and good learning. I wish you well in this whole venture, which I believe will be of great benefit to the Body of Christ.” —Brian Watts, King’s Online Bible School
• “Ernie remained faithful to the teachings entrusted to him while presenting them in his own unique dialogue format. I enjoyed teaching the material in this book and look forward to our next class.” —John Isaacs, Kingsway Community Church
ERNEST PRABHAKAR is a ninth-generation Christian and second-generation immigrant from India. His ancestors converted from Hinduism in the early 1700s at the dawn of the Protestant missionary movement. His family immigrated to Chicago in 1967 a few months before he was born. He was raised and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, where his parents continue to be active in lay ministry.
Ernest holds degrees in physics from both Caltech and MIT, though for the last decade he has worked as a product manager for a large technology company in Silicon Valley. This book represents both the scientist’s desire to elegantly represent eternal truth and the marketer’s passion to communicate timely facts that engage the emotions and the will.
He and his wife Sandhya live with their two children in Santa Clara, California. They attend Kingsway Community Church in San Jose, where Ernest serves as a junior elder. You can often find him online at http://2transform.us/ and http://twitter.com/DrErnie/.
Immigrant, Physicist, Storyteller, Transformational Christian
[Autobiographical Blurb for the book jacket of Growing Church Leaders]
Ernest Prabhakar is a ninth-generation Christian and second-generation immigrant from India. His ancestors converted from Hinduism in the early 1700′s at the dawn of the Protestant missionary movement. His family emigrated to Chicago in 1967 a few months before he was born. He was raised and confirmed in the Lutheran church, where his parents continue to be active in lay ministry.
Ernest holds degrees in Physics from both Caltech and MIT, though for the last decade he has worked as a product manager for a large technology company in Silicon Valley. This book represents both the scientist’s desire to elegantly represent eternal truth and the marketer’s passion to communicate timely facts that engage the emotions and the will.
He and his wife Sandhya live with their two children in Santa Clara, California. They attend Kingsway Community Church in San Jose, where Ernest serves as a junior elder. You can often find him online at http://2transform.us/ and http://twitter.com/DrErnie/.
Marital Dispute Resolution Process
The goal of this process is to help you build the habits and trust necessary to safely and consistently resolve conflict in your marriage. Please review this together, then sign and date it. You are of course free to amend this by mutual consent at any time, but I encourage you to try it exactly as written at least once, to get the ball rolling.
Read the rest of this entry »
About Growing Church Leaders
Growing Church Leaders is a tool for pastors and others in active ministry who want to nurture the next generation of leaders to:
- think biblically
- live wisely
- serve faithfully
Each of those three topics is covered in a separate module of twelve lessons each. Every lesson includes:
- scripture to memorize
- assigned readings from classic Christian books
- devotional time, typically from Psalms or Proverbs
- interlinear bible study covering an entire chapter
- discussion questions
- RAW (Repent, Act, Worship) challenges
The goal of all this is to teach theology, character formation, and christian disciplines in context. Specifically, in the context of:
- the whole counsel of Scripture
- existing pastoral relationships
- the local church
- loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength
Our prayer is that existing leaders will use this as a vehicle to pass their values and vision on to the next generation, by meeting on a weekly basis for nine months with “faithful men and women, who will in turn pass it on to others.”
To that end, this course is also available for free at <http://2transform.us/grow> under a Creative Commons license, allowing you to customize and adapt it as needed (as long as you allow others to do the same).
GCL A.6 Father’s Kingdom: His World, His Image
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which God Creates His World, and Our Place In It
The overriding theme of our journey has been exploring what it means to be “baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Having dealt (however superficially) with the ontological aspects of that “name”, we now focus on the narrative aspects.
In particular, we will focus on the arc of “creation corruption and redemption” found throughout scripture (and literature), as manifested through the persons of the Trinity. Starting with the Father, and Creation…
Memory Verse: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” — Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)
GCL A.7 Man’s Rebellion: His Law, Our Sin
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which We Reject God’s Dominion, And Pay The Price
When God created the world, He gave us as humans dominion over all the plants and animals. But it was not an unconditional grant: rather, we have a responsibility to take His already “very good” creation to the next level, by filling the earth with His image.
And if we fail in that responsibility, the price is high…
Memory Verse: “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” — Psalm 19:9 (NKJV)
GCL A.8 Christ’s Salvation: His Pain, Our Gain
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 3, 2010
In Which We Receive the Gospel, And Are Saved By It
Our series so far — indeed, the first half of human history — is but a prelude to the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the word of God made flesh, the perfect revelation of God’s character, a tangible representative of the Trinity, and a reminder of what we were created to be.
Yet even more glorious than all that: Christ is Our Lord, and has become our much-needed Savior…
Memory Verse: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” — 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV)
GCL A.9 Spirit’s Conviction: Connect, Chastise, Convey
Posted by Dr. Ernie in Leadership on March 2, 2010
In Which Jesus Sends the Comforter, and We Are Convicted By Him
This week we move from the Father and the Son to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This also continues our theme of God restoring His Image by saving us from our rebellion. And as usual, there is a heavy price to be paid…
Memory Verse: “And when He [the Holy Spirit] has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment “ — John 16:1 (NKJV)
About Me
Physicist. Hacker. Marketer. Transformational Christian.
My Twitter Feed- DrErnie: “one of the great thinkers of Western civilization was educated exclusively at home by his father” #Pascal #39 http://t.co/N5G2gKG4
- DrErnie: The #prefuture will be won by simple, dramatic visions supported by sophisticated, incremental implementation. http://t.co/rzpUk4zu
- DrErnie: How to pronounce "Prabhakar" http://t.co/iLHZ8tEn
