Jon Ericson

5,569 reputation

1440

bio	website	fivesecondreview.wordpress.co…
	location	Pasadena, CA
	age	39
visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
	seen	13 mins ago
stats	profile views	207

My day-to-day work is with a combination of C, ksh and PL/SQL. I enjoy asking and answering questions that come up at work. I also dabble in Perl, lua and LaTeX. My boss has asked me to learn Python as well.

My favorite living philosopher is Alvin Plantinga and my favorite dead philosopher is Blaise Pascal. I think Paul of Tarsus is too little credited as a force in Western philosophy. If you think I'm a Christian, you're right.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. -- 1 Corinthians 1:20-25 (ESV)

At home, I have a potted herb garden, potted dwarfed citrus, and a hanging hummingbird garden. My wife and I are also trying to grow a son, but he's harder to feed and train properly.

	5,569 reputation	bio	website	fivesecondreview.wordpress.co…	visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
1440 badges		location	Pasadena, CA		seen	13 mins ago

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Jan 9	comment	Does “Mere Christianity” represent the core of Christian belief? I finally got around to cracking the books and in the introduction (where he mentions Mariam Dogma) Lewis considers "mere" Christianity to be barren, like a hallway and the rooms are where people actually live. The rooms are specific denominations. And he does mention that Greek Orthodoxy is one of the rooms. He also says in chapter 11 of book 3: "Daily prayers and religious reading and church going are necessary parts of the Christian life." So I think your source is mistaken.
Jan 6	revised	What are the protestant arguments against a sacramental economy? It's dangerous to use "us" and "use" in the same sentence.
Jan 6	comment	Does “Mere Christianity” represent the core of Christian belief? When I have access to my copy of Mere Christianity, I'll check what Lewis has to say on the Church. Perhaps he didn't touch on the subject of what the Church consists of as he didn't wish to stir up that particular controversy? Bonhoeffer struggled mightily with the definition of "Church" as well during that era. Can we really say that Chesterton (or Lewis) were "wholly ignorant" of the Eastern Orthodox church? That seems a bit unfair to them.
Jan 6	asked	How does the Catholic Church understand the priesthood of all believers?
Jan 6	comment	What are the protestant arguments against a sacramental economy? @Peter: I'm afraid I don't know enough about Luther or the sacrament of confession to answer that question. Maybe it would make a good question for the site? (Luther himself is such a pivotal figure in the Reformation and yet he is so enigmatic.)
Jan 6	comment	Does “Mere Christianity” represent the core of Christian belief? @Caleb: It occurred to me that I can't very well admonish folks for avoiding BH.SE if I refuse to look at this site. Plus it's a question that won't work in my usual haunts.
Jan 6	comment	What are the protestant arguments against a sacramental economy? @Peter: I discovered several new names in the course of researching my answer. ;-)
Jan 6	answered	What are the protestant arguments against a sacramental economy?
Jan 6	comment	What are the protestant arguments against a sacramental economy? For reference, I was taught that only Baptism and Communion (i.e. Holy Eucharist) were sacraments. Of course most Christians do the other 5 as well (at least in some form or other), but we don't necessarily call them sacraments. (If there are 7 sacraments, it makes my joke that coffee is the 3rd sacrament in our denomination even less funny than it already is. But that's not the best justification. ;-)
Jan 6	asked	Does “Mere Christianity” represent the core of Christian belief?
Jan 6	comment	Is it true that Martin Luther used some bad language in his own writings? He was also sick later in life when most of his objectionable writings were composed. His later screeds against the Jews directly oppose his earlier works. Many of these were ignored after his day and only brought to light when Nazis in Germany looked to justify their antisemitism.
Jan 5	comment	Definition of light in Matthew 5:16 I highly recommend The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which is the best analysis of the Sermon on the Mount that I've ever read. I don't have my copy on hand at the moment or I'd attempt an answer here. (However, it might be impossible to summarize Bonhoeffer's interpretation, since his writing rivals the density of Paul's letters. Long quotation do not a good answer make.)
Jan 5	answered	Why does God resort to genocide and destruction?
Dec 15	comment	Why was Zachariah punished while Mary was not? Here's a related question.
Dec 15	comment	Where did angels get their wings? Also, Ezekiel 1 and 10.
Dec 6	awarded	Scholar
Dec 6	accepted	How could Job be content with the second half of his life?
Nov 26	comment	Denominational adherence to “The New Perspective On Paul” N. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham of the Church of England, so one would want to start looking there. But I don't know if any particular denomination adhere's to the new perspective or even if it's a significant departure from orthodox belief.
Nov 26	comment	What is “new” in the New Perspective on Paul? That's a great question. I've read a lot of N. T. Wright (and really enjoy his books), but I still don't know.
Nov 25	comment	Defending your honor against a superior who accuses you falsely I just happened to hit 1 Peter in my daily Bible reading. The verse pulled out in this answer does make an important distinction between being falsely and rightly accused. But the rest of the letter firmly encourages Christians to endure suffering (including false accusations) until the Day of the Lord.