DOCSLIB.ORG

JOURNAL of the Master’S Seminary

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
JOURNAL of the Master’S Seminary THE JOURNAL of The Master’s Seminary PUBLISHED SEMI-ANNUALLY VOLUME 32 � NUMBER 1 Spring 2021 THE MASTER’S SEMINARY 13248 Roscoe Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 91352 THE MASTER’S SEMINARY JOURNAL published by THE MASTER’S SEMINARY Sam Horn, President Nathan A. Busenitz, Dean of Faculty Edited for the Faculty: Lucas Alemán Carl Hargrove Bryan J. Murphy Brian Biedebach Sam Horn Roberto Sánchez Nathan A. Busenitz Brad Klassen Paul Twiss Austin Duncan Steven J. Lawson Michael J. Vlach F. David Farnell John MacArthur Iosif J. Zhakevich Josiah Grauman James R. Mook Mark Zhakevich Michael A. Grisanti Kevin D. Zuber by Peter Sammons Managing Editor Kevin D. Zuber Production Supervisor Jack Smith Editorial Consultant Anastasia Prinzing Style Guide Consultant The views represented herein are not necessarily endorsed by The Master’s Seminary, its administration, or its faculty. The Master’s Seminary Journal (TMSJ) is published semiannually and distributed electronically. For information about articles, policy, or journal access, contact [email protected]. TMSJ is indexed in Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus of Biblica; Christian Periodical Index; and Guide to Social Science & Religion in Periodical Literature. Articles are abstracted in New Testament Abstracts; Old Testament Abstracts; and Religious and Theological Abstracts. This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database®, (ATLAS®) collection. Both are products of the American Theological Library Association. Copyright is waived if articles are used in a classroom or congregation and if the number of copies (to be distributed free of charge and marked, “Copyright (year). Reprinted from The Master’s Seminary Journal.”) does not exceed one hundred. For any other use, advance permission is required. ISSN #1066-3959 Volume 32 Spring 2021 Number 1 THE MASTER’S SEMINARY JOURNAL CONTENTS Editorial ................................................................................................................ 1 John MacArthur Imputed Righteousness: The Apostle Paul and Isaiah 53 ........................................ 5 J. V. Fesko Imputation and Its Images in the Preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon ................................................................................... 21 Tom J. Nettles In My Place Obedient He Lived: Imputed Righteousness in Romans 5:18–19 ......................................................... 39 Peter Sammons God Freely Justifieth by Imputing Christ’s Active and Passive Obedience ................................................................ 61 James M. Renihan The Substance of Sola Fide: Justification Defended from Scripture in the Writings of the Reformers .......................................................................... 77 Nathan Busenitz Benjamin Keach’s Doctrine of Justification ......................................................... 93 Tom Hicks Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3 ......................................................... 115 Sam Waldron Contending for Doctrinal Language in Missions: Why Imputation and Sola Fide Are Good News for Karma-Background Christians ................................................. 131 E. D. Burns Reviews ............................................................................................................ 159 Advances in the Study of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic: New Insights for Reading the Old Testament by Benjamin J. Noonan ..................................................................................... 159 Reviewed by Paul Twiss The History and Theology of Calvinism by Curt Daniel................................................................................................... 162 Reviewed by Peter Sammons Volume 32 Spring 2021 Number 1 Reprobation: From Augustine to the Synod of Dort The Historical Development of the Reformed Doctrine of Reprobation by Peter Sammons ............................................................................................. 167 Reviewed by Jerod A. Gilcher Linguistics and New Testament Greek: Key Issues in the Current Debate edited by David Alan Black and Benjamin L. Merkle ......................................... 169 Reviewed by William Varner Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes .......................................................................................... 171 Reviewed by Michael A. Grisanti Passionate about the Passion Week: A Fresh Look at Jesus’ Last Days by William Varner ............................................................................................ 173 Reviewed by Michael A. Grisanti A Christian’s Guide to Evidence for the Bible:101 Proofs from History and Archaeology by J. Daniel Hays .............................................................................................. 175 Reviewed by Michael A. Grisanti Unearthing the Bible: 101 Archaeological Discoveries that Bring the Bible to Life by Titus Kennedy .............................................................................................. 176 Reviewed by Michael A. Grisanti Demons: What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness by Michael S. Heiser ......................................................................................... 177 Reviewed by James R. Mook TMSJ 32/1 (Spring 2021) 1–4 EDITORIAL John MacArthur Chancellor of The Master’s University and Seminary Pastor of Grace Community Church * * * * * Calvin famously referred to the doctrine of justification by faith as the principal hinge on which true religion hangs.1 Luther called it the article by which the church stands or falls.2 They did not overstate the case. The principle of sola fide (faith as the sole instrument of justification) is the heart and soul of biblical soteriology. It is an essential tenet of gospel truth, stressed repeatedly in Scripture from Genesis 15:63 to Revelation 17:14.4 Justification by faith is the main precept the apostle Paul systematically explains in the first eight chapters of Romans. It is the primary doctrine he defends in his epistle to the Galatians, the singular truth that defines historical evangelicalism, the material principle of the Protestant Reformation, and the very anchor of biblical orthodoxy. The doctrine of justification distinguishes biblical Christianity from every other religion. Just as justification by faith is the centerpiece of soteriology and the very marrow of the gospel, the principle of imputed righteousness is the necessary center and soul of the doctrine of justification. Put simply, this indispensable article of faith means that righteousness is imputed (or credited to the account of) all who lay hold of Christ by faith. This is done by a forensic reckoning—meaning a legal transaction, like a courtroom verdict. It entails a transfer of credit. The apostle Paul repeatedly uses the Greek expression logizomai to speak of the righteousness imputed to believers. In the New American Standard Bible, this verb is most often translated as “credited,” but it is also occasionally rendered “reckoned,” “take[n] into account,” “regarded,” “suppose[d],” and other near synonyms. It evokes the idea of an accounting— specifically a transfer from one ledger to another, or the relocation of an asset from one agent’s account to another’s. 1 John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 1:726. 2. In his work Iustitia Dei: Vol. II: From 1500 to the present day (Cambridge: University Press, 1986). 1:7, Alistair McGrath quotes from “the writings of Luther himself e.g., WA 40/3.352.3: ‘quia isto articulo stante stat Ecclesia, ruente ruit Ecclesia.’” Translation: “If this article stands, the church stands; if this article collapses, the church collapses.” 3 Abraham “believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” 4 “Those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” 1 2 | Editorial Of course, when a believer is justified, that person’s sins are fully forgiven, and the slate is wiped clean of every offense—past, present, and future. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1). But justification is much more than that. Believers also receive full credit for a perfect righteousness that they have done nothing to earn; it is provided for them. They are declared righteous not for any merit of their own, but because of a spotless righteousness that they receive. It is an alien righteousness, in that it comes from a source outside of them. In Old Testament terms, they are “clothed ... with garments of salvation”; “wrapped ... with a robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10). Or in the words of the apostle Paul, “God credits righteousness [to them] apart from works” (Rom 4:6). It is a perfect righteousness, “the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe” (3:22, NKJV). Where does this righteousness come from? Scripture is clear that it is the righteousness of the incarnate Christ, “who became to us ... righteousness” (1 Cor 1:30). One of His messianic titles is “The LORD our righteousness” (Jer 23:6). Believers are brought into a right standing with God “by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). The Savior’s perfect, lifelong obedience as one “born under the Law” (Gal 4:4) was as vital to His substitutionary sacrifice as the shedding of His blood. It was necessary
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Grindcore.Pdf
    Obsah: 1. Úvod..........................................................................................................................2 1.1 Ideová východiska práce.............................................................................2 1.2 Stav bádání, primární a sekundární literatura.............................................3 1.3 Definice grindcore, důležité pojmy.............................................................3 1.4 Členění práce a metodologie.......................................................................6 1.5 Cíl práce......................................................................................................8 2. Historický úvod – žánrová typologie........................................................................9 2.1 Počátky žánru a dva hlavní proudy grindcoru............................................9 2.2 Další vývoj grindcoru................................................................................13 3. Grindcore – hledání extrémního hudebního projevu ….........................................17 3.1 Transformace zpěvu..................................................................................17 3.2 Vývoj rytmu, rytmické sekce....................................................................19 3.3 Vývoj hry na kytaru a baskytaru …..........................................................20 3.4 Vývoj formy a mikrostruktury..................................................................20 3.5 Goregrindové intro....................................................................................22
    [Show full text]
  • Eve's Answer to the Serpent: an Alternative Paradigm for Sin and Some Implications in Theology
    Calvin Theological Journal 33 (1998) : 399-420 Copyright © 1980 by Calvin Theological Seminary. Cited with permission. Scholia et Homiletica Eve's Answer to the Serpent: An Alternative Paradigm for Sin and Some Implications in Theology P. Wayne Townsend The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. "' (Gen. 3:2-3) Can we take these italicized words seriously, or must we dismiss them as the hasty additions of Eve's overactive imagination? Did God say or mean this when he instructed Adam in Genesis 2:16-17? I suggest that, not only did Eve speak accu- rately and insightfully in responding to the serpent but that her words hold a key to reevaluating the doctrine of original sin and especially the puzzles of alien guilt and the imputation of sin. In this article, I seek to reignite discussion on these top- ics by suggesting an alternative paradigm for discussing the doctrine of original sin and by applying that paradigm in a preliminary manner to various themes in the- ology, biblical interpretation, and Christian living. I seek not so much to answer questions as to evoke new ones that will jar us into a more productive path of the- ological explanation. I suggest that Eve's words indicate that the Bible structures the ideas that we recognize as original sin around the concept of uncleanness.
    [Show full text]
  • Total Depravity
    TULIP: A FREE GRACE PERSPECTIVE PART 1: TOTAL DEPRAVITY ANTHONY B. BADGER Associate Professor of Bible and Theology Grace Evangelical School of Theology Lancaster, Pennsylvania I. INTRODUCTION The evolution of doctrine due to continued hybridization has pro- duced a myriad of theological persuasions. The only way to purify our- selves from the possible defects of such “theological genetics” is, first, to recognize that we have them and then, as much as possible, to set them aside and disassociate ourselves from the systems which have come to dominate our thinking. In other words, we should simply strive for truth and an objective understanding of biblical teaching. This series of articles is intended to do just that. We will carefully consider the truth claims of both Calvinists and Arminians and arrive at some conclusions that may not suit either.1 Our purpose here is not to defend a system, but to understand the truth. The conflicting “isms” in this study (Calvinism and Arminianism) are often considered “sacred cows” and, as a result, seem to be solidified and in need of defense. They have become impediments in the search for truth and “barriers to learn- ing.” Perhaps the emphatic dogmatism and defense of the paradoxical views of Calvinism and Arminianism have impeded the theological search for truth much more than we realize. Bauman reflects, I doubt that theology, as God sees it, entails unresolvable paradox. That is another way of saying that any theology that sees it [paradox] or includes it is mistaken. If God does not see theological endeavor as innately or irremediably paradoxical, 1 For this reason the author declines to be called a Calvinist, a moderate Calvinist, an Arminian, an Augustinian, a Thomist, a Pelagian, or a Semi- Pelagian.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Baxter: of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Believers
    Richard Baxter’s Of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers Quinta Press, Meadow View, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, Shropshire, England, SY10 7RN The format of this book is copyright © 2018 Quinta Press The text was sourced from EEBO (Early English Books online). The images are black and white so sometimes the text is blurred by various degrees of foxing. Also sometimes the book was not microfilmed flat meaning text is hidden in the binding. Such instances where it is difficult to read the original are indicated by [[?????]]. All these instances need double checking against an original copy and it is hoped to consult these during 2019. OF THE IMPUTATION OF Christ’s Righteousness OF BELIEVERS: In what sence sound Protestants hold it; And, Of the false devised sence, by which Libertines subvert the Gospel. With an Answer to some common Objecti- ons, especially of Dr. Thomas Tully, whose Justif. Paulina occasioneth the publica- tion of this. By Richard Baxter; A compassionate Lamenter of the Churches wounds, caused by hasty judging and undigested concep- tions, and by the Theological Wars which are hereby raised and managed; by perswading the World that meer verbal or notional Differences are material, and such as our Faith, Love, Concord and Communion must be measured by, for want of an exact discussion of the ambiguity of words. London, Printed for Nevil Simons and Jonathan Robinson, at the Kings-Arms and Golden-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1675. The Preface. Reader, F thou blame me for writing again, on a Subject which I have written on so Ioft, and so lately (specially in my Life of Faith, and Disputations of Justification) I shall not blame thee for so doing; but I shall excuse my self by telling thee my reasons.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Baxter and Antinomianism
    RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691) Dr Williams's Library Other ages have but heard of Antinomian doctrines, but have not seen what practica11 birth they travailed with as we have done.... The groanes, teares and blood of the Godly; the Scornes of the ungodly; the sorrow of our friendes; the Derision of our enemies; the stumbling of the weake, the hardening of the wicked; the backsliding of some; the desperate Blasphemyes and profanenes[s] of others; the sad desolations of Christs Ch urches, and woefull scanda11 that is fallen on the Christian profession, are all the fruites of this Antinomian plant. Richard Baxter, 1651 DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER DOUGLAS JOHN COOPER RICHARD BAXTER AND ANTINOMIANISM A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Tim Cooper-::::- University of Canterbury 1997 BX S?-O~+ . 1~3 ,c~'1:{8 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ii A NOTE ON QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV ABSTRACT V INTRODUCTION 1 -PART ONE- CHAPTER: I mSTORIOGRAPIHCAL INHERITANCE 11 II THE ANTINOMIAN WORLD 50 III PERSONALITY AND POLEMIC 91 -PARTTWO- IV ARMIES, ANTINOMIANS AND APHORISMS The 1640s 144 V DISPUTES AND DIS SIP ATION The 1650s 194 VI RECRUDESCENCE The Later Seventeenth Century 237 CONCLUSION 294 APPENDIX: A THE RELIQUIAE BAXTERlANAE (1696) 303 B UNDATED TREATISE 309 BmLIOGRAPHY 313 1 9 SEP ZOOO Abbreviations: BJRL Bulletin ofthe John Rylands Library BQ Baptist Quarterly CCRE N. H. Keeble and Geoffrey F. Nuttall (eds), Calendar ofthe Correspondence ofRichard Baxter, 2 vols, Oxford, 1991. DNB L. Stephens and S. Lee (eds), Dictionary ofNational Biography, 23 vols, 1937-1938.
    [Show full text]
  • The Doctrine of Imputed Sin Is Not Explicitly Stated in the Bible. The
    What is the Doctrine of Imputed Sin? The Doctrine of Imputed Sin is not explicitly stated in the Bible. The doctrine is born out of careful study of the biblical text, and, in this case, a careful study of the Greek language. It is often confused with Original Sin and is a subject of much controversy. The doctrine is based principally on Romans 5:12-19, which has been arranged so that each unit of Paul’s logic and thought can be more easily understood. Romans 5:12-19 12) Therefore, Therefore makes an inference to what has gone on before. After his introduction to Romans, Paul speaks about the depth and depravity of sin committed by both Gentile and Jew. Even with the Law, the Jews have failed to be holy and are under God’s judgment; all of humanity is helpless to sin (Rom 1:18-3:20). But God provided a means for righteousness for humanity: justification through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul uses Old Testament examples, Abraham and David, to illustrate how God declares people righteous on the principle of faith instead of works (Rom 3:21-4:25). Jewish allegory had always held to the concept of two Adams: one with good inclinations and the other with bad. The significance of using Abraham and David is apparent; God had made covenants with them. Now Adam can be introduced; the bridge has been set, with the focus on the two Old Testament covenant figures, to connect the second Adam (Christ) to the first Adam. How sin, introduced by the first Adam, can be resolved with the second Adam Jesus Christ.
    [Show full text]
  • Romans 3.21-26
    WELCOME TO FELLOWSHIP OFFERINGS fellowshipconway.org • text “give” to 501-434-4449 PRAYER REQUESTS fellowshipconway.org • text “prayer” to 501-434-4449 PRAYER TEAM Resources "THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS "THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF CHRIST'S DEATH" OF GOD'S FREE, GRACIOUS JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS" (Romans 3:21-26) (Romans 3:21-26) (Frank Theilman) (Frank Theilman) Paul also emphasizes the socially unifying nature of Gods righteousness. It comes to all who believe One of the most important descriptions of God's character in the Old Testament affirms that he is without distinction. Since all without distinction have sinned, God in his righteousness has made justification both merciful and just, but not in equal measure. His mercy is more typical of God's character than his freely available to all without distinction as well (3:22-24c, 27-30). This free, gracious justification of every justice. He describes himself to Moses as human being who believes has both anthropological and social implications. Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping On the anthropological side, it means that no one can boast in his or her "works." Justification is given to steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no those who rely on God to provide release from punishment and reconciliation as a free gift, not to those who means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's work for it by means of obedience to the law. Paul has shown that justification by means of obedience to the children, to the third and the fourth generation.
    [Show full text]
  • Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels
    A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Following Motions and Documents Were Considered by the GFC Academic Standards Committee at Its Thursday, May 21, 2020 Meeting
    GFC ACADEMIC STANDARDS COMMITTEE MOTION AND FINAL DOCUMENT SUMMARY The following Motions and Documents were considered by the GFC Academic Standards Committee at its Thursday, May 21, 2020 meeting: Agenda Title: Items Deemed Minor/Editorial A. Transfer Credit Approvals and Denials for May 2020, Office of the Registrar CARRIED MOTION: THAT the GFC Academic Standards Committee approve, with delegated authority from General Faculties Council, the transfer credit approvals and denials for May 2020, as set forth in Attachment A. B. Transfer Credit Updates for CMPUT Courses, Office of the Registrar CARRIED MOTION: THAT the GFC Academic Standards Committee approve, with delegated authority from General Faculties Council, the transfer credit updates for CMPUT courses, as set forth in Attachment B. C. Block Transfer Credit Updates for NAIT Programs, Office of the Registrar CARRIED MOTION: THAT the GFC Academic Standards Committee approve, with delegated authority from General Faculties Council, Block Transfer Credit Updates for NAIT Programs, as set forth in Attachment C. FINAL Item 4 Agenda Title: Proposed Changes to Existing Entrance Requirements and Academic Standing Regulations for Graduate Programs in Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, and Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research CARRIED MOTION: THAT the GFC Academic Standards Committee approve, with delegated authority from General Faculties Council, the proposed changes to existing entrance requirements and academic standing regulations for the MA and PhD programs in the Department of Philosophy, as submitted by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Faculty of Arts, and as set forth in Attachment 1, to take effect upon approval and to be published in the 2021-2022 Calendar.
    [Show full text]
  • Music 5364 Songs, 12.6 Days, 21.90 GB
    Music 5364 songs, 12.6 days, 21.90 GB Name Album Artist Miseria Cantare- The Beginning Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. The Leaving Song Pt. 2 Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Bleed Black Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Silver and Cold Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Dancing Through Sunday Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Girl's Not Grey Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Death of Seasons Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. The Great Disappointment Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings) Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. This Celluloid Dream Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. The Leaving Song Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. But Home is Nowhere Sing The Sorrow A.F.I. Hurricane Of Pain Unknown A.L.F. The Weakness Of The Inn Unknown A.L.F. I In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams The World Beyond In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams Acolytes In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams A Thousand Suns In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams Into The Ashes In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams Smoke and Mirrors In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams A Semblance Of Life In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams Empyrean:Into The Cold Wastes In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams Floods In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams The Departure In The Shadow Of A Thousa… Abigail Williams From A Buried Heart Legend Abigail Williams Like Carrion Birds Legend Abigail Williams The Conqueror Wyrm Legend Abigail Williams Watchtower Legend Abigail Williams Procession Of The Aeons Legend Abigail Williams Evolution Of The Elohim Unknown Abigail Williams Forced Ingestion Of Binding Chemicals Unknown Abigail
    [Show full text]
  • ANALYSIS the Day of the Locust (1939) Nathanael West (1903-1940)
    ANALYSIS The Day of the Locust (1939) Nathanael West (1903-1940) 1 The novel opens and ends with a mob scene, the first artificial and the last real. Circular structure is a characteristic of the transcendental mode and of Modernism, as in The Sun Also Rises and Finnegans Wake. In contrast, the structure of Locust implies a downward rather than an upward or progressive movement— to madness rather than transcendence. The great noise outside the office of Tod Hackett is a fake army moving “like a mob; its lines broken, as though fleeing from some terrible defeat.” This image prefigures the defeat of illusory dreams that provokes the mob riot at the end of the novel. The soldiers of European nations at war evokes the brutal recent history of western civilization, culminating in decadent Hollywood. They are stampeding to the wrong “stage” and their leader, in a cork sun-helmet that evokes colonialism, is chasing after them cursing and shaking his fist like a fool in a dark farce. Late in the novel Faye Greener, another force of Nature, is said to be “like a cork. No matter how rough the sea got, she would go dancing over the same waves that sank iron ships and tore away piers of reinforced concrete.” That the dominant forces of history and Nature are beyond control is a Gothic and a Naturalist vision of life. Naturalistic also is the detached view West takes of the retired people who “had come to California to die.” They are like locusts. West implies that believing in what you see on the movie screen is as foolish as believing that the set of “half a Mississippi steamboat” will get you somewhere.
    [Show full text]
  • Touchable Sound Records from the USA
    A Collection of 7-inch Touchable Sound Records from the USA In an era that advocates streamlined product, and music at the click of a mouse, Touchable Sound celebrates those independent-minded bands and labels that make their own records and relish the opportunity to produce labor- intensive one-off artifacts. As Henry H. Owings puts it in his introduction, the book honors “those who invest countless hours of themselves to further their art. It’s about having an attention to detail and a disinterest in the bottom line.” Curated by Brian Roettinger, Mike Treff, and Diego Hadis, and organized by region, Touchable Sound focuses on unique, exquisite examples of American 7-inch-record design. Spanning nearly 25 years, it lovingly documents the obscure and the hard-to-find with help from musicians, artists, and label owners. Many of these records—by bands as diverse as the Olivia Tremor Control, the Locust, Angel Hair, Stereolab, Los Crudos, the Melvins, and more— have never before been seen by a wide audience, and were originally pressed in extremely limited editions. Edited by Brian Roettinger, Mike Treff, and Diego Hadis. Introduction by Henry Owings (Chunklet Magazine & Books). Essay Contributions from Tom Hazelmyer (Amphetamine Reptile Records), Sam McPheeters (Vermiform Records / Born Against), Justin Pearson (Three One G Records / The Locust), Kristin Thomson (Simple Machines Records / Tsunami), Mike Amezcua (El Grito Records), Mark Ownes (Life of the Mind). Featuring over 300 records and 600 bands. All images photographed. Full marketing and publicity campaign planned. Release events scheduled throughout the Fall. Display copies and POP materials available.
    [Show full text]