Flotsam and jetsam (10/28)

• Fred Sanders comments on the anniversary of Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge (Oct 28, 312). It’s nice to see Constantine getting some love for a change.

The date is important for Christianity because Constantine went on to end imperial persecution of Christians (with the Edict of Milan in 313). He also converted to Christianity personally, and empowered and enriched the church in countless ways, from copying Bible texts, to gathering the first ecumenical council, to beginning Christian architecture. What’s not to love?

• Daniel Kirk offers some excerpts from Irenaeus on the necessity of Jesus’ humanness.

… when He became incarnate, and was made man, He recapitulated in himself the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had lost in Adam–namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God–that we might recover in Christ Jesus. (Against Heresies III.18.1)

• Jason Goroncy reflects on the birth of his son and Moltmann’s idea that children are “metaphors” of hope.

Samuel, this seven pound two ounce wonder, represents, no less than other children, what Jürgen Moltmann once named ‘metaphors of God’s hope for us’, that with every child, a new life – original, unique, incomparable – begins. And that while we typically ask, who does this or that child look like…, we also encounter the entirely different, the entirely dissimilar and unique in each child. It is, Moltmann suggests, precisely these differences that we need to respect if we want to love life and allow an open future. Moltmann also recalls that with every beginning of a new life, the hope for the reign of peace and justice is given a new chance….Every new life is also a new beginning of hope for a homeland in this unredeemed world. If it were not, we would have no reason to expect anything new from a beginning.

• Kevin DeYoung comments on a recent report that 1 in 10 teens has had a same-sex partner. Yet another reminder to look closely at numbers.

Be suspicious of statistics, especially those that seem too good or too bad or too surprising to be true.

• If you haven’t seen this yet, here’s the clip from President Obama’s recent appearance on The Daily Show. And, Jon Stewart leads things off with:

You’re two years into your administration and the question that arises in my mind is, Are we the people that we were waiting for? Or, are those people are still out there and we don’t have their number?

• And, here’s a fun list of the 50 most hated characters in literature. If nothing else, the list scores points for leading with Bella Swan and Edward Cullen from the Twilight books.