Platypus of Truth

Today, I am merging my linguistic and artistic endeavors. Here, we have one of the practice doodles I've been learning how to do with the Septuagint text of Gensis 1:1a. Evidently, I'm also learning how to create textual variants (gotta keep Bart Ehrmann happy somehow) as my text is missing several accent marks and has misplaced the word "was" in lines 5 and 6. At least it's inerrant in the autograph... Which if you got to hear Dr. Gary Rendsburg's paper at the Lanier is a product of a Davidic redaction anyway (now that's interesting!)...

Have I always had an appreciation for civic space?  I don't know.  What I do know is that I've been thinking about it recently.  The sudden changes in Houston's weather have made it an ideal time for visiting the botanical gardens near my home.  Sudden hot spells bring out all the flowers in a riot of colors.  Sudden cold spells drive most of the people away so that the wife and I can enjoy a quiet and lingering stroll.  If I had my druthers, I'd spend a fair part of every week in the botanical gardens and the arboretum with quick jaunts over to the library and Starbucks.  Well, so much for my selfish little fantasies.... I grew up in a town where fifteen percent of the land was set aside as open space.  Much of the geographic center was taken up by ancestral farms.  In addition to all this wonderful, rural space, it was (and still is) common practice to let the forest grow up where it will.  There were also the wonderful cemeteries, t...

There have been some interesting goings-on in the greater Houston area this past month that are worthy of note. First, the Lanier Theological Library is back in full swing with a new season of lectures.  If you can make it out to this wonderful little replica of the Duke Humphrey, it's well worth your time.  Can't get to North Houston?  The lectures are posted on the website here .  The library is also offering a Hebrew reading course with their visiting scholar, Dr. Tov. Second, Wheastone Ministries , Dr. John-Mark Reynolds of Houston Baptist University , and Providence Classical Schoo l partnered up on Friday to host an amazing event for parents who are seeking to classically educate their children. Houston is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., and it will be interesting to watch what happens over the next decade as more institutions and individuals from other areas are drawn there to connect and collaborate.

There's a marvelous place in North Houston, the Lanier Theological Library .  In the old days, we would have called it a "folly;" a rich man's capricious little building project.  This particular "folly" takes the form of a Oxford style library complete with paneled walls painted ceilings with a replica of a byzantine church a short walk away.  I should also mention the recreated Cotswold village and the peacocks.  Again, all this in the middle of nowhere North Houston.  Weird, I know.  In the true old tradition of nobelesse oblige, the library and church are open to the public.  Beyond that, Mr. Lanier has taken it upon himself to bring world class lecturers (Alistair McGrath, John Michael Talbot, Simon Conway-Morris, Edward Fudge, etc.) in to speak at the library and opening the lectures to the public free of charge.  There's also a free desert buffet in the library following each lecture.  It's an odd thing, and it draws an odd crowd....

For with my own eyes I saw the Sibyl hanging in a bottle, and when the young boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?', she replied, 'I want to die' . We went to a lecture this weekend on Annihilationism given by Edward Fudge.  Briefly stated, Annihilationism is the idea that souls in Hell are eventually destroyed and cease to exist.  Though Fudge cast his claims purely in the light of truth and falsity, I couldn't help getting the impression that Annihilationism is put forward as a sort of "nice" alternative to the endless conscious torment envisioned by the Traditional Doctrine of Hell.  Of course this begs the question of whether existence is a great enough good to be worth retaining in spite of any pain.  I have heard proponents of the Traditional Doctrine of Hell assert that it is "nicer" than Annihilationism because at least it allows the damned the good of existence.  There are other alternatives, however.  George MacDonald was influ...