Joe Carter is stirring the pot again amongst faith bloggers. First he had his blog symposium on Americanism and Puritanism. He was hoping for 25 entries and got 66. Now he's offering us the "Jesus the Logician Project." The inspiration for this project came from a Dallas Willard article on the same topic. Here are the details on this project straight from his blog:
I propose that the project proceed by implementing the following steps:
1. Read Willard’s article “Jesus the Logician”
2. Spreading this meme throughout the blogosphere – If every faithblogger who reads this post would mention it on their own blog, and every faithblogger who read that post would mention it on their blog, etc., we could make the entire blogosphere aware of this project within a matter of days.
3. Break the task into its constituent parts – It would take months, if not years, for a single person to perform the necessary analysis of the Gospels in order to complete such a task on their own. But with the collective effort of thousands of faithbloggers each tackling one or two verses for study, the entire project could be finished in a matter of weeks. In order to ensure continuity, though, we need a uniformity in our approach. I recommend that each post contain the following information:
A uniform post heading similar to this form: The ‘Jesus the Logician’ Project: Matthew 12:1-8
Chapter and verse of the scripture being analyzed.
The type of logical argument or form that Jesus uses in the passage (i.e., enthymeme).
An brief explanation for how the passage fits the logical form.
4. Collation of data – Each blogger can post their analyses on their blog and send me the link. I’ll add it to a single post which will be indexed by Scripture (i.e., Matthew 12:1-8) and by logical form (i.e., reductio ad absurdum). Under each heading I’ll include the name of each blog (along with its corresponding hyperlink) that has analyzed that particular passage. As the index begins to be filled out, bloggers will be able to see what areas still need to be analyzed.
5. Dissemination of the database – Once the Index post has
been finalized, I’ll paste the HTML code (i.e., text and hyperlinks)
into a word document and upload it to my host server. Any blogger who
chooses to can then download the text, cut and paste it into a post,
and have a “mirror” of the database on their own blog. By having the
database spread across hundreds of blogs, we can ensure that it will
never be lost.
I believe that taking on such a challenging task would do four things:
Bloggers often spend a considerable amount of time analyzing text, evaluating arguments, and deconstructing logical thought. Why not use our well-honed talents for something other than the latest product of the ephemeral news-cycle?
“Paying careful attention to how Jesus made use of logical thinking can strengthen our confidence in Jesus as master of the centers of intellect and creativity,” notes Willard, “and can encourage us to accept him as master in all of the areas of intellectual life in which we may participate… We can learn from him to use logical reasoning at its best, as he works with us. When we teach what he taught in the manner he taught it, we will see his kind of result in the lives of those to whom we minister.”
Tentative deadline for completion: February 1, 2005
Thanks, David, for spreading the word. I'm hoping we can start getting some Reformed folks participating before the Papists come in and show us up. ; )
Posted by: Joe Carter | January 13, 2005 at 11:09 AM
Here's quick and easy 18 lesson guide to logic, using a very illogical teacher in the Christian world as an example. Be sure to return to the main page to get all 4 parts of the series.
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-ppezzo&msg=4279.1
Posted by: TulipGirl | January 15, 2005 at 05:59 PM