TheologySubstitute preacher today--the chaplain (if that's the correct term) at the Reformed campus ministry in Lubbock. Sermonizing on the Noah's ark story, he made the predictably Calvinist point that God's covenant with Noah and his family was an act of grace not based on Noah's worthiness--which blatantly contradicted the reading of the text delivered just a few minutes earlier: "Then the Lord said to Noah, 'Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.'" Goes to show you that even the most proudly sola scriptura churches read texts through the lenses of their own traditions.
The Calvinist doctrine of election is too extreme. Even the covenant with Abraham (which the Reformed, based on Paul's letter to the Romans, take as the prototype of salvation by faith alone) seems dependent on Abraham's obedience: "Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you," etc. I don't know Hebrew of course, but the English word "because" in the RSV translation stresses the conditionality of the promise.
Psychology
Started reading The Introvert Advantage. In the introductory chapters the author is mostly concerned to define the trait and to argue that cultural factors cause it to be perceived as a flaw rather than a simple genetic variation with its own strengths and weaknesses. I was interested, not surprisingly, in a little text box on introversion and the movies. I've seen most of the ones listed, but not Chocolat or Gosford Park. Although heretofore I've been avoiding these, the first because it looked fluffy and the second because it looked stuffy, I may now want to give them a try. The best cinematic portray of introversion, though, wasn't listed: Rohmer's Le Rayon Vert. The scene in which Marie Rivière's introverted Delphine gets upstaged at lunch by a boisterous blond was painfully realistic.
