The Fire and the Rose

I believe Colson would agree with everything you s...

2012-02-29T16:45:50.446-05:00

I believe Colson would agree with everything you said in your final paragraph with the exception of your definition of "truth" as "an event that interrupts us, which places us existentially outside ourselves." I would first say that there either are or are not events of this kind on your blog. If not, are you failing your readers? If there are such events am I entitled to get an ineffable truth that leads me to abuse the environment? If not, why not? Can you explain this to me without propositions or will you offer me another event that I am free to make my own personalized "truth" (such as that I should defraud people of their money). Do you intend to start a blog with no propositions and "truth events" only? The fundamental issue is that it is just not "cool" to believe in absolute, propositional truth these days. Perhaps in your new blog you can provide me with an "event" that causes me to "get" how one can absolutely reject absolutes.

It's one of those slow burners that will be in...

2012-01-24T11:09:57.735-05:00

It's one of those slow burners that will be in your top 5 by the time you've played it for a week. I promise. Thanks for the list!

I never listened to it in time. I've listened ...

2012-01-22T23:19:32.370-05:00

I never listened to it in time. I've listened to it once so far, and it's quite good. Not sure yet if it makes my top 20, though. I'll have to see.

Please tell me you accidentally forgot about PJ Ha...

2012-01-22T21:07:21.143-05:00

Please tell me you accidentally forgot about PJ Harvey's "Let England Shake." It was, without a doubt, the best record of 2011, and didn't make your list of top 50 (!!).

David, thanks for the helpful post. Bros. Jimenez,...

2012-01-19T10:22:21.810-05:00

David, thanks for the helpful post. Bros. Jimenez, thanks for sparking an interesting discussion so far.

I only want to add one contextual comment / pot-shot: I've come to speculate that a great deal of bad Barth scholarship that was done in the middle decades of the last century is based in large part on the 20-year gap between the publication of CD I/1 (1936) and I/2 (1956) in English translation. These attempts to gain a big-picture sense of the whole of Barth's theology rely heavily on Romans II and CD I/1 (plus a smattering of essays), demonstrating a failure to pick up the German and stay current with the KD during its initial publication span.

Remarkably, these readings continue to hold sway today in some quarters, and can be easy to spot because of the Romans II and CD I/1 fingerprints all over them, and a decisive neglect or misunderstanding of anything in volume IV.

Apparat is #40, but I've been listening to and...

2012-01-17T18:47:56.259-05:00

Apparat is #40, but I've been listening to and loving that album so much that I'd be willing to bump it up a good 15 places. St. Vincent is another album I left off only because I hadn't listened to it enough, but it definitely deserves a spot. Many other albums as well.

Nice list, David. Also surprised not to see Flo ...

2012-01-17T16:53:53.368-05:00

Nice list, David.

Also surprised not to see Flo + Machine, but I'd add PJ Harvey_Let England Shake_; Crystal Catles_II_; Apparat_The Devil's Work_; and St. Vincent_Strange Mercy_.

St. Vincent was particularly awesome.

I have a couple of those on my list of albums to l...

2012-01-12T10:26:55.023-05:00

I have a couple of those on my list of albums to listen to. I will definitely check these out.

Hi David, Here are a few albums that you might ha...

2012-01-12T10:14:56.398-05:00

Hi David,

Here are a few albums that you might have missed. I'm not sure how they rank, but there is a lot of great music on them.

(1) Hayes Carll KMAG YOYO
(2) Bill Callahan Apocalypse
(3) Charlie Parr & The Black Twig Pickers Glory in the Meeting House
(4) Wooden Wand and the Briarwood Virgins

Seriously...in fact, most will say that they have ...

2012-01-10T11:40:32.271-05:00

Seriously...in fact, most will say that they have not looked into Barth too deeply (just textbook stuff I guess)...

Ah, I see. Those people simply have never read Bar...

2012-01-10T10:35:33.300-05:00

Ah, I see. Those people simply have never read Barth.

First, thanks for bearing with my questions. Se...

2012-01-10T10:30:28.230-05:00

First, thanks for bearing with my questions.

Second, with regards to the English historiography, I am trying to understand (outside of Tillich's criticism of Barth being neo-orthodox) where commentators tend to emphasize only his radical transcendence and return to orthodoxy while not giving due attention to Barth's later historical turn. In short, reading Jungel and McCormack helped me to see that Barth had both the transcendent and immanent in tension.

I say this because when I mention to people I am studying Barth I often get the response that "he isn't interested in the world" or that "he isn't practical enough because of his over-emphasis on transcendence" (I get this a lot from people studying either Pannenberg or Moltmann). I believe that this is a caricature but I am just trying to figure out where it came from. I think the actualistic ontology is a good way to respond to this caricature.

Personally, I didn't find the Tom Waits album ...

2012-01-07T20:33:41.330-05:00

Personally, I didn't find the Tom Waits album super exciting. That said, it's still a Tom Waits album, which means it's better than most everything else (IMO, of course). Also makes me hope that he will tour again...

I would have WU LYF a lot higher, and Girls would be up there as well (a bit of a surprise for me based on their earlier stuff). I'm glad to see The Antlers so high because I thought Burst Apart was kick-ass (although I preferred Hospice, mostly because events in my personal life resonated very strongly with that album when it was released... which sucked but made for some great listening!).

I'm a sucker for The Mountain Goats so I would have them higher (NB: I tend to rate albums, not on their coherence or whatever else, but based upon the number of songs found on the album that resonate with me personally). Also, I noticed that you didn't mention The Airborne Toxic Event and, although I didn't dig their earlier stuff all that much, their 2011 album was amongst my favourites.

I was somewhat disappointed with Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. Also enjoyed Cults and Lykke Li.

Tom Waits belongs to a long of albums that ...

2012-01-06T17:11:17.229-05:00

Tom Waits belongs to a long of albums that I wasn't able to get around to. My list would no doubt look very different if I had listened to some of these other albums.

Also, I should clarify my comments about Lady Gaga. I absolutely love her stuff and I think her new album is far more theologically interesting than her earlier work (hence my appreciation for Peter's work). But I was very disappointed in terms of its musicality.

"I'm just thinking about the English h...

2012-01-06T17:06:02.432-05:00
"I'm just thinking about the English historiography of Barth (neo-orthodox) that focuses on Romans II and often does not include the immanence, especially via McCormack/Jungel."

What are you trying to say here? Are you saying that the McCormack/Jüngel line of interpretation does not include immanence and focuses on Romans II? If so, that couldn't be more wrong. Or are you saying that English historiography focuses on Romans II and ignores the McCormack/Jüngel line? Because that wouldn't be correct either.

But does Barth differ from Hegel in that Barth's view of God's immanence is one where God's being-act is a self-determination out of God's freedom as a transcendent God whereas this is a necessary move for Hegel (or is this a stereotype of Hegel?)?

This is a stereotype of Hegel.

Of course. I suppose I was just more interested i...

2012-01-05T02:23:52.042-05:00
Of course. I suppose I was just more interested in why those albums in particular were not among your favorites. I'm just impressed you've listened to enough albums to have a top 50. I could do a top 10, but that would only be because I think maybe I've only listened to 10 new albums this year! ;-)

Did you give Tom Wait's new album a listen?

Hey Nate, nice for you to drop by. I don't see...

2012-01-05T01:27:55.670-05:00
Hey Nate, nice for you to drop by. I don't see reason (or way) to distinguish between "favorites" and "best." Every list is personal, isn't it?

So these are you *personal* top 50 albums from 201...

2012-01-05T01:04:58.898-05:00
So these are you *personal* top 50 albums from 2011? Like your favorites? I totally get that.

(That was me, Nate Kerr, by the way above. I don't know why it showed up as unknown.)

As much as I love Lady Gaga, I think her new album...

2012-01-04T16:47:45.933-05:00
As much as I love Lady Gaga, I think her new album is pretty lame and generic compared to her earlier work. I don't like Foo Fighters one bit. The Roots are very good, but nothing very exciting; their best work is behind them, I think. Flo + Machine is great, and they might deserve a top 50 slot. I didn't listen to that album beyond the first time, and it just didn't stick in my mind. Maybe some more listens would change that.

As for Girls, I was being pretty generous. I think it's an accomplished album, but I don't enjoy listening to it all that much. Not my type of music.

David: First of all, thank you for including Girl...

2012-01-04T13:41:42.829-05:00
David:

First of all, thank you for including Girls on this list, and as high as you did. I actually think *Father, Son, Holy Ghost* was better than *Album* and you had that at, what #5 or so in a better year for music. But still, thanks at least for putting them above Wilco, though they should be above Radiohead.

But man, do you like bank your indie cred on this list or what? Because other than that I can't think of a single reason why Florence + the Machine's *Ceremonials*, or Lady Gaga's *Born This Way*, or the *Foo Fighter's *Wasting Light*, or the Roots' *Undun* is not on this list. Not a single one of them!

But thanks for listening to all this music for me.

Thanks for the clarification and I agree about the...

2012-01-01T15:14:15.817-05:00
Thanks for the clarification and I agree about the Hegelian reading as the best. I'm just thinking about the English historiography of Barth (neo-orthodox) that focuses on Romans II and often does not include the immanence, especially via McCormack/Jungel. I guess one can say that the radical transcendence along with the immanence illustrates movement and intention, which one can't get with a Deleuzian ontology. But does Barth differ from Hegel in that Barth's view of God's immanence is one where God's being-act is a self-determination out of God's freedom as a transcendent God whereas this is a necessary move for Hegel (or is this a stereotype of Hegel?)?

The "Hegelian" reading of Barth is
2011-12-31T18:17:16.979-05:00
The "Hegelian" reading of Barth is the majority reading of Barth, at least among the best scholars in the field. However, I don't think I mean "Hegelian" the way you mean "Hegelian," if you think "Hegelian" is in conflict with "radical transcendence." A truly radical transcendence coincides with immanence, unless you buy into the Deleuzian school of ontology (which I wholly reject). Kierkegaard and Hegel need not be placed in contradistinction to each other, just as Bultmann and Barth need not be opposed to each other.

I am totally for the "Hegelian" reading ...

2011-12-31T17:21:51.898-05:00
I am totally for the "Hegelian" reading of Barth but it seems like it has not caught on among theologians. For instance, I think the Hegelian reading helps make Barth much more conversational with figures like Zizek and others (or social-political concerns) in the continental tradition while the "radical transcendence" reading makes him somewhat trapped in a purely theological tradition or as an updated Kierkegaard (especially among evangelicals who seem to be suspicious of anything Hegelian).

The term "actualistic ontology" is Bruce...

2011-12-29T23:47:45.724-05:00
The term "actualistic ontology" is Bruce McCormack's concept; it refers to his position as developed in that trinity/election debate. It certainly is indebted to Jüngel, and I suppose you could retroactively apply it to him. The later Barth is crucial, yes, for the way he identifies God's being with the historical event of Jesus Christ.

As for what kind of ontology this is, it's Hegelian. So neither of the two you mention. And no, definitely no analogy of being, though McCormack would allow for a redefinition of that term to refer to the ontological character of Barth's mature analogy of faith.

David, Thanks for the post. I have been struggli...

2011-12-28T10:51:21.518-05:00
David,

Thanks for the post. I have been struggling as of late to work through the election/Trinity debate among Barthians and the idea of actualistic ontology seems to be an idea carried to the next level. Is Jungel the one who gets credit for this idea? Also, is Barth's later thought on the humanity of God the context of this ontology?

Considering your post, I wonder if one can argue that this type of ontology is closer to a Deleuzian (Spinozian) form than one based on a Thomism? Or, is there actually an analogy of being here, however, a less stable being than the classical theistic view?