What “Value” Means to You?

I attended a meeting last evening where Professor Joan Jeffri from Columbia University’s Teachers College discussed her recently-published book entitled Respect for Art: Visual Arts Administration and Management in China and the United States. In spite of (perhaps thanks to) my lack of knowledge in visual arts, I ended up learning a lot about the fascinating world of artists, galleries, auction houses and museums in contemporary China as well as their interactions with their peers in the United States and Europe. I also came away with an appreciation for the often crucial role government policies play in shaping production, distribution and consumption of arts in both countries.

One side discussion dealt with the rapid increase in the price of Chinese art over the past few years and whether such an increase was warranted. “The auction value of Chinese contemporary art has skyrocketed, not necessarily because they are excellent and therefore deserve high prices, but because some hedge fund managers are willing to pay high prices for even some mediocre pieces,” went one casual comment. [I am paraphrasing here and not quoting verbatim.]

Which begs this age-old and one of my favorite questions: what do we mean by the word “value“?

Why? Doesn’t everyone know what value means? No! I have seen many instances of public policy discussions where the meaning of this (sometimes emotional and ideological) word is unclear at best and confused at worst.

Black Conservatism

As someone who practically spent every Thursday evening watching the Cosby Show on NBC from late 1980s until its final episode in 1992, I could not resist clicking the link to the article “The audacity of Bill Cosby’s black conservatism,” written by Ta-Nehisi Coate and published in this month’s Atlantic Monthly. I found the article to be informative and well-written. We need more thoughtful expositions about racial experience, particularly in light of this year’s political, social and religious controversies related to U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Somewhat surprisingly, what I ended up appreciating the most about this article was Mr. Coate’s anchoring of Mr. Cosby’s messages into much longer historical context. In addition, I relished sidenotes to two Atlantic Monthly articles from more than a century ago (written by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois in 1896 and 1897, respectively) which brought back some faded yet fond memories from the U.S. history classes I have taken.

Notes on God’s Two Wills

Last night, I finally had a chance to read John Piper’s article entitled “Are There Two Wills in God?” which Susan pointed out to me almost a week ago. This work from 1995 focuses on the theological subject of election as its subtitle [Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved] suggests.

In my shallow first reading, I found the idea of hierarchy or rank order of God’s wills (to fearlessly coin a phrase) to be most beneficial, although I am not sure whether such a reading is an accurate portrayal of Pastor Piper’s thoughts. At any rate, this insight allowed me to construct a preliminary framework to think more clearly about the nature of unconditional election which remains the most challenging doctrine (at least for me) among the five points of Calvinism.

The Starting Point

Thank you for joining me here at the starting point, as I embark on a personal yet public journey.

What are my reasons to start this blog? And, why now? Those are fair questions. While I have toyed around with the idea of maintaining a personal blog for as long as this format has become popular, my recently heightened interest in Christianity—either a sign of my emotional maturity or of simple aging—provided the final impetus to create one so that I can begin to organize my thoughts and commit them to “paper.”

In particular, watching Pastor John Piper’s extensive sermon series about the issue of regeneration and beginning to analyze Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus earlier this year motivated me to study the Bible more carefully and systematically, perhaps as any thoughtful academic scholar would treat his important primary sources. One positive result so far is that I am finding more depth and intellectual challenges in the biblical studies and theological discussions than I had expected. My initial expectations were admittedly flawed since they were based mostly on my readings of political history as well as various secondary sources about Christian philosophy and practice.