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Archive for April 2007
New Podcast
Posted on Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 8:16 PM by Jason Barker
Ancient Faith Radio has a new weekly podcast, Faith and Philosophy - Reflections on Orthodoxy and Culture, with Clark Carlton. Episodes currently online discuss the Shroud of Turin, the significance of archaeological discoveries, and the therapeutic strategy of the Orthodox Church.
Posted in Online Resources
Lay Ministry Associate Opening
Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 12:54 PM by Jason Barker
St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church in Stockton, CA, is looking for a full-time lay ministry associate with an emphasis in youth ministry.
Posted in Orthodox News
Youth Worker Disc Preview
Posted on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 12:19 PM by Jason Barker
Below are screenshots from the application that has consumed my time for the last few months: Youthworker V3 (called "V3" because it is the third edition of the Youth Worker discs). Click on the image to see a full-size version:
Screenshot 1: Home Screen
Screenshot 2: Typical Article Screen
The application contains hundreds of resources for Orthodox youth workers: articles, camp and retreat curricula, videos, music, etc. The resources were submitted by the youth departments of the SCOBA jurisdictions: the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, the Orthodox Church in America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church USA.
You can contact Fr. Joseph Purpura for more information about Youthworker V3.
Edited on: Friday, April 27, 2007 9:51 AMPosted in Jason Barker, Miscellaneous
Okay, So Luke Will Be a Little Later...
Posted on Monday, April 23, 2007 at 6:00 PM by Jason Barker
Completing the Youth Worker application is taking a bit longer than anticipated, and thus the first chapter of Luke will not be online until later this week. I hope to upload some screenshots of the Youth Worker application tomorrow, so you will at least be able to see what has been occupying my time for the last few months.
As a sort of consolation for these months of delays, I've uploaded two other works I created in the past.
The first is a series on the Fruit of the Spirit. This series contains ten PDF files that are suitable for individual and group study.
The second is the Web-version of the first multimedia application I created, What Can Orthodox Christianity Mean for Me? This Web version (for Windows browsers only) contains the basic application, minus the audio and video files of Vespers and the Divine Liturgy that are included in the CD version. You will need to install the Plexus plug-in from Digital Workshop in order to use this application in your browser (I created the original application in a now obsolete program called Illuminatus Opus).
Posted in Bible Studies
Latest Tyndale Tech Online
Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Jason Barker
Related to yesterday's post, the current edition of Tyndale Tech is now online.
Posted in Online Resources
Tyndale Tech on Greek and Hebrew Fonts
Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 6:02 PM by Jason Barker
David Instone-Brewer, whose Tyndale Tech newsletter I've mentioned before, has sent out a new edition focusing on computer fonts for biblical studies. He briefly discusses a number of fonts and options for word processors that enable PC and Mac users to read and write about biblical texts, and gives special attention to the problems with Hebrew fonts faced by Mac users (he recommends using NeoOffice for writing Hebrew).
Of particular note is Instone-Brewer's discussion of Unicode fonts; this is important because Unicode is becoming the global standard for computer text creation and display.
Tyndale House has a page with Greek and Hebrew fonts that can be downloaded, as well as texts with which these fonts can be used.
The current edition of Tyndale Tech is not available online, but I would be happy to forward a copy to you. You can reach me via email or IM using the contact information in the left sidebar.
Posted in Online Resources
Monachos.net
Posted on Monday, April 16, 2007 at 12:27 PM by Jason Barker
I highly recommend Monachos.net, an Orthodox website run by Matthew Steenberg with an array of resources for patristic, monastic, and liturgical study.
Posted in Online Resources
Yet Another Postponement
Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 11:02 AM by Jason Barker
I promised late last week that chapter one of Luke will be up this week. Unfortunately, I will yet again be unable to finish and upload the chapter this week. The reason for the continual delay in progressing on the Bible study of Luke is that I have been burning the midnight oil (and frequently the 2 am and 3 am oil) for the last few months finishing a new multimedia CD application for Orthodox youth workers. The application has hundreds of articles, documents, videos, MP3s, and photos, and will be a tremendous resource for youth workers in parishes across North America. Among the resources will be a demo of the Luke application featuring the first two chapters.
You might be interested to know - and here's where scheduling comes in - that the youth worker application is scheduled to be finished next week. This means that the first two chapters of Luke should be finished next week.
Thus, assuming that I do not receive anymore last-minute items to include in the youth worker application, I will finally finish that project and be able to devote my full time to working on the study of Luke.
Posted in Jason Barker
Why Instant Messaging?
Posted on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 at 9:55 AM by Jason Barker
Related to my post yesterday, in which I pointed out that I'm now available through AOL's instant messaging service, you might wonder, "Why? Isn't email enough?"
A survey in late 2006 would answer that, to maintain reliable contact with teens and young adults (who are, of course, the core audience for these Bible studies), instant or text messaging is essential. The AP-AOL survey found that almost half of all teens - ages 13-18 - use IM; nearly a third say that they cannot imagine life without it. In addition, nearly 75 percent of teens who use IM prefer instant messaging over sending email. Furthermore, at least half of the teens who use IM (and thus an estimated 25 percent of all teens) send at least 25 text messages per day, and 20 percent send over 100 messages per day. It is therefore clear that my ability to communicate with my core audience will be facilitated by making myself available through an IM service.
You might then wonder, "Why AIM? Why not another service?" I chose AIM over a mobile phone texting service because it does not limit my potential contacts to only those using specific phone service. Furthermore, I chose AIM over other services, not for any ideological reason or preference for AIM's feature set, but solely because it remains the most popular Web-based IM service. I considered using Skype to allow users to contact me - which I've previously written about using - but finally decided against it because: 1) It is essential to keep a transcript of all communications, and I prefer to save space on my hard drive by logging text messages, as opposed to recording audio files of phone conversations; and 2) I've seen little evidence evidence that teens use Skype's chat features.
Finally, I should point out that, while I'm using the AIM service, I am not using the AIM client: I am using the open-source Adium client on my Mac, and in past years when I used the AIM service in Windows I used the open-source Pidgin client (previously called Gaim).
Posted in Miscellaneous
IM Me
Posted on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 8:19 PM by Jason Barker
You can now contact me via AOL Instant Messenger - as well as check to see if I'm available - by going to "IM" on the left sidebar and clicking the "Send Me an IM" link.
Posted in Online Resources
New Podcasts
Posted on Monday, April 09, 2007 at 9:04 AM by Jason Barker
Ancient Faith Radio is rapidly expanding its number of podcasts. Currently available is Pastoral Ponderings, the new podcast from Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon. The podcast is an audio version of a weekly e-mail sent out by Fr. Patrick.
Coming April 14th is a podcast for children from clinical psychologist Chrissi Hart called Under the Grapevine (the title comes from her children's book, Under the Grapevine: A Miracle by Saint Kendeas of Cyprus). The podcast currently features an interview with Dr. Hart in which she reads her book.
Coming soon are podcasts by Clark Carlton, Matthew Gallatin, and Fr. Apostolos Hill.
Posted in Online Resources
Great and Holy Friday
Posted on Friday, April 06, 2007 at 11:48 AM by Jason Barker
This will be my last post for a few days as we finish Holy Week at Pascha. I will probably not post early next week as I catch up on some of the work I've been unable to do this week (and I promise, Luke chapter one WILL be up next week).
Here is the fifteenth antiphon of the Matins:
Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the Cross. He who is King of the angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns. He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery. He who in Jordan set Adam free receives blows upon His face. The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails. The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a spear. We venerate Thy Passion, O Christ. Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection.
You can read much more at the Greek Archdiocese's website for Great Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha.
Posted in Jason Barker
"Web 2.0--the folly of amateurs?"
Posted on Friday, April 06, 2007 at 10:47 AM by Jason Barker
Charles Cooper of CNet has a brief review of a book (to be released in June) by Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture, in which Keen gives a pessimistic perspective on some of the ways in which the philosophy of "the wisdom of the crowd" that drives a lot of new technology - particularly, as the article's title indicates, Web 2.0 - is increasingly enabling a culture of mediocrity.
Cooper writes:
The subtitle of his book states his thesis bluntly: "How the democratization of the digital world is assaulting our economy, our culture, and our values."
Them be fighting words, to be sure, and Keen is being purposely provocative. But he's worth reading. Keen's not writing from the uninformed point of view of a technophobe. In his previous life, he was the founder of Audiocafe.com. That said, he's not at all happy about where things are headed, bemoaning the advent of "an endless digital forest of mediocrity" as the number of new blogs doubles each six months. Here's a typical snippet:
"If we keep up this pace, there will be over five hundred million blogs by 2010, collectively corrupting and confusing popular opinion about everything from politics, to commerce, to arts and culture. Blogs have become so dizzyingly infinite, that they've undermined our sense of what is true and what is false, what is real and what is imaginary. These days, kids can't tell the difference between credible news by objective professional journalists and what they read on joeshmoe.blogspot.com."
Keen finds little to celebrate in the rising cult of the amateur. Same for the emerging age of citizen journalism, and he frets about the growing influence of short-form bloggers at the expense of the wisdom of long-form essays of scholars and experts. He worries about the wisdom-of-the-crowd phenomena represented by the likes of Wikipedia or YouTube and the impact they're having on an ADD-prone generation that embraces editor-free news sites. Technology is our friend? Don't kid yourself, is Keen's response. The crowd has often proved itself to be anything but wise. We may have strong opinions but so many of us remain uninformed.
It is true, as Cooper later says, that technology is generally morally neutral, and there are many positive things that can be said about the Internet: I've written about the efficacy of multimedia study tools, as well as the fact that publishing on the Web enables us to reach a world-wide audience in a cost-effective manner. At the same time, Keen's general point can be easily applied to online Bible studies: the fact that someone CAN publish his or her opinions - however uninformed - about the Bible does not mean that a person SHOULD publish these opinions. This fact can be easily demonstrated by visiting any number of online Bible studies - and particularly open-forum discussions - where preposterous opinions are put forth, with the writer expecting that this opinion not only be accepted as readily as the teaching of someone who has knowledge about the subject, but frequently that the writer's opinion REPLACE the teaching of the expert.
This problem can be even greater in Bible studies for youth because, as I've quoted elsewhere, teens generally are inhibited "in terms of their cognitive and emotional development, life experiences, and familiarity with the media apparatus." They therefore need guides in such online learning as Bible studies. It is for this reason that, while I hope to develop ways to increase interactivity in these Bible studies, the basic approach will remain one - for lack of a better summary - of teacher and student (both myself as a teacher through my writing, as well as the teachers and youth workers with whom the youth interact in their local parishes). Discussion must be allowed - and even encouraged - but it must be done within the context of knowing that there is absolute truth, and that there are authority figures who are more knowledgable and experienced in dealing with this truth than teens or newcomers to Orthodoxy.
This applies to me as much as it does to any teenager: I - like most Orthodox writers and teachers - have undergone years of education, and continue to study and keep current on scholarship, and I further always try to ensure that my opinions and writings are in accordance with the Tradition of the Church. Still more, my teachers have done the same thing. It is this faithfulness to the Tradition of the Church, combined with rigorous and ongoing education, that makes our teaching relevant, and ensures that what we write does not simply become another ill-formed shoot in the "endless digital forest of mediocrity."
Posted in Miscellaneous
Are Book-Length Publications Necessary?
Posted on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 at 1:17 PM by Jason Barker
Ben Vershbow has another interesting post on if:book on the fine art of "fileting a monograph" - finding and reading only the sections of a book relevant to your immediate needs or research - and the fact that many of us purchase entire books simply so that we have access to a single section of the text. He writes:
Not all thoughts are book-sized and not all reading goes in a straight line. Selective reading is probably as old as reading itself.
Unbundling the book has the potential to allow various forms of knowledge to find the shapes and sizes that fit them best. And when all the pieces are interconnected in the network, and subject to social discovery tools like tagging, RSS and APIs, readers could begin to assume a role traditionally played by publishers, editors and librarians -- the role of piecing things together.
Vershbow is correct that not all thoughts are "book-size," although I would point out - and his statement indicates he would agree - that some thoughts certainly are "book-size," and require a full monograph to explicate and examine all elements and ramifications of the thought. At the same time, however, his central point has a great deal of validity: digital publications enable readers to easily find the sections that are of interest and relevance to them.
I try to facilitate this reading style in my Bible studies by putting on every screen of the application - and featuring up-front on the home screen - links to indices of the different types of articles within the application. Thus, in the upcoming Luke application, screens will have at the top a menu (designed to look like an airplane ticket) to indices for Bible chapters, commentaries, life application articles, articles on Orthodoxy, and group-study handouts. This makes it easy for users to find articles without being forced to go through a strict linear progression of chapters.
The HTML versions of articles for the various applications allows for a similar reading style. While the primary reason for creating these HTML versions is to enable users to read and print the majority of articles without using the Shockwave application, having these articles in an up-front HTML index also allows even easier access to the material than going into the Shockwave application.
Thus, to answer the question asked in this post, are book-length publications necessary? When it comes to Bible studies, the answer is an emphatic yes! As I wrote in an earlier post:
The focus of our Orthodox Christian Bible Studies is on longer commentaries, articles about the background of the text, and articles about life application and Orthodox faith and practice. The Bible is a substantial collection of texts: it is long, it can be difficult, but it is also vital and transformative. It is the written word of God to His people. The biblical text not only cannot be understood with a cursory reading or video-viewing, and thus the Christian cannot be transformed through such an approach, but such an approach is an affront to the God Who gave us the Bible, and His people who through the centuries faithfully wrote, translated, taught, and learned these vital books.
Concessions must be made to the learning levels and styles of youth who are not currently adept at extensive reading, and we make these concessions by providing the "Fast" overviews. We must not, however, leave Bible study at this rudimentary level. We must fully delve into the Bible with our commentaries and other articles, both for those Christian youth who are currently able and willing to immerse themselves in the Bible, and to provide resources for youth who will do so in the future. While it is conceivable that in the future there will be a more effective medium than text to engage in such extensive and transformative study, at this time text (supplemented, when possible, with other media) remains the primary vehicle for communication, and thus extended articles remain the best way for us to communicate the transformative truth of the Bible to youth.
At the same time, the medium of digital publications allows us to create extended publications that are highly accessible and usable, while retaining all the depth of a book-length document.
Posted in Miscellaneous
Fr. Thomas Hopko on Scripture
Posted on Monday, April 02, 2007 at 8:43 AM by Jason Barker
OrthodoxyToday features an interview with Fr. Thomas Hopko. While Fr. Thomas addresses a number of issues, I found interesting his comments on why some evangelical Protestants are attracted to Orthodox Christianity:
CC.com: What do you think evangelicals see in Orthodoxy that would draw them to it?
Fr. Hopko: Two things. I think one is, evangelicals want a church that takes the Bible seriously as the Word of God, but they don't want a church where everybody can interpret it the way they want to, because I think they were frustrated over how many churches there were claiming to really follow the Bible. So they said there has to be some other criterion of exegesis than just picking up the Bible and reading it, with your Scofield commentary or something.
And then they discovered that the early Church and the Fathers were interpreting the Bible. Then they discovered that there were consensuses of interpretation. Then they discovered that there were whole councils that had battled over exegesis and had come to a common mind, and that there was like a history of exegesis from the time of the apostles that those in a certain church agreed upon, namely the one holy Orthodox Church.
So I think that they wanted the Bible -- they were convinced that the Bible was basic -- but they had a problem of how do you interpret it, and how do you maintain the proper interpretation. And then they found that the patristic and Orthodox tradition was doing that, at least in their conviction.
The other big thing is worship. You accept Jesus as your saviour, you believe the Bible is the Word of God, but then what do you do? What church do you go to? And I think for fellows like Gillquist, that was their main problem -- they said, "We all love Jesus, we all know this is the truth, but how do you worship? Where do you go? What church are you in?"
Then they came to the conclusion, if scripture is true, there's got to be a church around somewhere that's consonant with scripture, and then they became convinced it was the Orthodox.
So I think two things: biblical exegesis, a common biblical mind, and then the other was worship, a biblical worship that would be objective, Christian, communal, and that you wouldn't have to make up yourself. I think those were the two things that convinced them. And I think those are the two main cards that Orthodox would have with evangelical people.
Posted in Miscellaneous