Sunspots 23

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

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Michele argues that perhaps Professor Trelawney's predictions in the Harry Potter books were not so off-base as they might have seemed.

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A Christian Carnival was posted late on the 14th, or early on the 15th. As it's in table form, it's easy to scan it for items of interest. The two that interested me the most were one on the ethics of using an open wi-fi network and one on science and miracles.

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Bonnie has posted a great quote for this time of year (in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, anyway)

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"Is Harry Potter Christian?", a scholarly article by Dan McVeigh, a professor of literature, is not for the faint-hearted, as it is rather long, but it is quite readable. He deals with C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, the Bible, and, of course, Harry Potter. Sample:
Until Frodo drags himself to Mount Doom - no, until poor Gollum and his Precious actually destroy the Dark Lord - there is no guarantee that Sauron will lose. Yet a fantasy that is the inside of real life is not arbitrary. It may bend or break "rules"; it cannot do without them. A Christian cannot believe that the devil can ultimately be victorious, or misunderstood by God. Satan cannot defeat Christ. But until the end of our pilgrimage, he can defeat us. This is the possibility Harry faces. The series' growing darkness disturbs some readers. But by its nature Gethsemane comes near the end, and the apostles' flight.

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James Dobson spoke at an academic convocation at Indiana Wesleyan University. Ken Schenck, reflecting on this event, wonders what a Christian University is supposed to be about.

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Bonnie has written most thoughtfully on "Deontology vs. Consequentialism in Christian argument." Her conclusion is that both are appropriate at times.

Also, in another blog, she has posted on "Sex and the Solitary Person," here and here. The first post received a lot of comments, by my standards, anyway. The second merits them.

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A short essay on how God chooses people for His work. Sample:

Perhaps the most unqualified person from a human point of view is Jesus of Nazareth himself. True, he meets some of the Messianic specs, but as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews reminds us, our eternal High Priest isn't even a Levite. On a more pedestrian level, we know that Jesus' contemporaries viewed him as the illegitimate son of a backwater town in Galilee, and even accused him of being a drunkard. Maybe it's just God's sense of humor, or maybe the theological method to God's madness is that the Lord delights in raising up that which was cast down, and making old things new. In any case, God's method doesn't seem to be purely the stuff of surveys, church meetings, and weekend retreats.

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Lisa Randall, Harvard physicist, on how the public unfortunately confuses and misunderstands words like theory, relativity, and uncertainty.

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Embryonic mouse stem cells improved heart function in sheep that had had heart attacks.

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Article (long) by Dallas Willard, written for the 1998 C. S. Lewis centennial, on Lewis and truth.

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Catez has been blogging for two years!

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This week's Christian Carnival is here.