Paul Babeau #318Z or Sheriff Babeau, pen & ink portrait or stylus portrayal, with pencil sketch by artist Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, with LBGTQ Gay prints, and scans. Prints & Scans Of This Portrait #318Z ~ Order Here.
This fine pen & ink portrait of Paul Babeau is a tribute to an outstanding gay man, because he is a man ruled by principle. In 2012, then Sheriff Babeau publicly “came out” and was well received, because he is honest. Attesting to his outstanding good character, Sheriff Babeau was re-elected as Sheriff of Penal County, Arizona, because he was excellent.
Pencil Drawing Of Paul Babeau
This pen & ink drawing of Paul Babeau is done with a fine point pen, because I wanted to get the fine details of his face. If you look closely you can see the pencil drawing beneath the ink, because I started the drawing out in pencil. I use the pencil sketch as a guide for my pen & ink, because it gives me the ability to move around the sketch.
Pen & Ink Drawings With Prints & Scans
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Paul Babeau #318Z or Sheriff Babeau, pen & ink portrait or stylus portrayal, with pencil sketch by artist Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, with LBGTQ Gay prints, and scans.
Faith is a game of dominos #519Z, a case for the mythology of religious belief systems. A pen & ink portrait of Jesus with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Of This Portrait #519Z ~ Order Here.
A Case For The Mythology Of Religious Belief Systems
Faith in any religion is ultimately based on your belief in the actions of fellow believers, because you watch, and look up to them. It is impossible at all levels to believe in something that you do not know, because we are empirical beings. We look, watch, and test everything around us every day, all day long, because we are looking for security.
Church Members
When people attend church, they look around to see if the key members are there, and if they are in good decorum, because they are “Spiritual role models” of “our faith”. We take comfort in knowing that John and Jane Doe are here, showing that they also believe, because this gives you comfort in your doubts which continuously haunt you. Then you look at the next, the next, and finally the next, like a game of dominos, missing the point, because faith ultimately rests in you. Because you are the determinant of what is acceptable, and what is not. You are the one that judges to see if John, and Jane Doe are “Keeping the faith”, and showing “Steadfastness”. This faith is authored by you.
Theologians
Worst of all, is the unthinking task of reading the works of Theologians, because you think that they have the answers. Not one Theologian of any denomination or other Religion has any answers at all, because they are only providing you with opinions. I speak with authority because I am an Alumni of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield, Illinois.
Swindlers
At best Theologians are swindlers, because they want you to think that they know, when in fact they do not, and all at your expense. They love to bury their work in Existentialism, and Post-structuralism, to masquerade the truth that they really do not know. When you keep pressing them to their point, they melt like the Wicked Witch of the West, because the honest questions that you ask are like the clean water on the witch, exposing the fact that they really offer nothing, and simply are washed away.
If you want to read anything sober, please read Michel Foucault, because he is at least honest and brilliant, a breath of fresh air. I have serious reservations about Paul Tillich. Father David Tracy is quite scholarly, and earnest, however he offers no solutions. I have read his books, Blessed Rage For Order, Analogical Imagination, and Plurality And Ambiguity, which are his three most noted works, because they address Theology in a current context. I have issues with his concept of “Limit Language”, and I was totally disappointed with his conclusion of Plurality And Ambiguity. Theologian Martin Marty is duplicitous from the get go. I put down his book “The Public Church”. As a member of the Arts Club of Chicago, I would see him often there, as well as the Fortnightly Club.
Each Theologian comes to you with his baggage, or perspective, because he has his own agenda that he is trying to work out. If you know a mans agenda, you knew everything, because a man’s agenda bespeaks what he is about. Below is my perspective, the architectural rendering of the Loeb Mansion in Kenwood, Chicago.
As you can see from my architectural rendering below, I am a man of extreme precision, and exactitude, and I do not fool around. The same holds true for me in all things, because I am clear headed, exceedingly precise in my reasoning skills. I do not, and will not accept staggering amount of ethereal Philosophical jargon that modern Theology is infested with, because it offers nothing but smoke, and mirrors. Give to me something of substance, rationale, and I will listen, otherwise I wash my hands of it. I demand accuracy, and precision, and will accept nothing less.
One Theologian that I have to bring out is William Lane Craig, because all of his writings are worthless dribble. More repulsive than his books, especially “Reasonable Faith”, are his obnoxious, and arrogant manners. I one heard him “debate” with the brilliant Theologian, Gerd Ludemann. Dr. Ludemann was correct in all of his point, but the rude, and pontificating William Lane Craig, just kept on talking, not listening, or grasping anything of what Dr. Ludemann was saying, because he does not possess the intelligence to grasp it.
The bottom line is that you can only have the faith that you choose to dispense, because the struggle with the search of finding the truth is ethereal. Therefore, do not look to others in your church or congregation, but look to yourself, because you are the house of faith. Faith is mythological, and you are the High Priest, because you, and you along are the only one that really knows, for it is all a priori. So, in the future, look to yourself, and not others, because you hold the real answers.
Pencil drawing of Jesus Christ wearing a stephanos, or crown of thorns, by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Pen & Ink Drawing Of Faith Is A Game Of Dominos
Pen & Ink Drawings With Prints & Scans
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Faith is a game of dominos. A pen & ink portrait of Jesus with prints & scans, by artist Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries.
Crown of thorns #517Z, pen & ink portrait with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Revealing the myth of Jesus’s crown. Prints & Scans Of This Portrait #517Z ~ Order Here.
According to the Gospels Jesus wore a crown of thorns, because He was crowned with them by Pontius Pilate. Jesus supposedly wore a stephanos or garland wreath of thorns, because He was being mocked. However, this point brings out the error in the Bible, because Pontius Pilate would have put a crown on Him. A stephanos is a symbol of victory, not the crown of the king, because you have to earn it. For Pontius Pilate’s orders to inscribe “King of the Jews” he would have put a diadem, not a stephanos on Jesus’s head, because Jesus was a king.
Stephanos Vs Diadem
The “crown” of Pontius Pilate that was put on Jesus’s head was a crown of the king, because that is what he had inscribed above Jesus on the cross, Matthew: 27, 37. A stephanos of thorns, or anything, just does not work, because it has nothing to do with kingship. Pontius Pilate would have known that, because he was a lawyer, and knew the law.
Pen & Ink Drawing Of Crown of thorns #517Z
Below is my pencil drawing of Jesus wearing a stephanos, because it is open at the front. The entire concept of a crown for Jesus stems from the Judaizers, subconsciously under the heels of King David. Thus, they came up with the concept of “King of the Jews”. This would have been a diadem, not a stephanos.
With the advent of the Hellenistic Jews things change, because they were educated. The Hellenistic Jews changed the diadem given to Jesus by Pontius Pilate to a stephanos at the stoning of St. Stephen, because the stephanos is ethereal. The Hellenistic Jews very cleverly changed the story of Jesus from mockery to victory! Jesus was transformed from the King of the Jews, to the savior of the world. This was very radical, and very new, because the Hellenistic Jews were taking over the grass-roots movement of John the Baptist, and his second in command; Jesus. Understand that the Gospels are the writings of winners, because they rubbed out the diadem of the Judaizers, and worked in the thorns.
Jesus Was Never Crowned
The crowning of Jesus is mythology. The Romans would never have put up with maintaining Jesus’s hairdo, and makeup. This was a killing, and not a Hollywood production. These Roman soldiers had no time for nonsense, and they were not going to put any wreath on anyone’s head, nor were they going to write out and post up inscriptions. The entire storyline is a hoax. Golgotha was a stinking filthy place, and those who were out there were doing the most heinous, and vile act of brutally stringing up naked men to a cross to die in anguish.
These men, as criminals, were crying, howling, and screaming the entire time, all day long, because they were dying. No Roman soldier, out in this living Hell, was going to bother at all with the show business of a crown of any kind, much less a notice of Kingship to be mounted on the cross.
Pension
These soldiers were Romans, and not Jews, and took disgust in the whole scene, because they had to put in their 20 years to secure their pension.
Mythological Crown
The concept of the crown was devised by the Judaizers as diadem for their King, and transfigured to a stephanos by the Hellenistic Jews, to carry their new storyline of Savior. We now leave behind the King of the Jews, and herald in the Savior of the World, which is all pure mythology. There was never any crown, for it was concocted by the Judaizers, because they wanted to keep their grass-roots movement alive. The crown of thorns was as real as the Tarnhelm from Wagner’sRing Cycle. The diadem belongs to Jesus, the earthly King of the Jews, and the stephanos belongs to Christ, the ethereal Savior of the World.
Kingdom
The Judaizers wanted a King David, and a Kingdom, because kingship offered meaning, and security. The Hellenistic Jews wanted a Philosophy that made sense of the new world order. Thus, they took the myth of the diadem, and transformed it into a stephanos, because they needed a Tarnhelm that would help them take on the new world order. Now with the crown of victory, and the trumpet of the archangel who could stop them?
Pen & ink drawing of the Tarnhelm from Der Ring des Nibelungen of Richard Wagner, by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Pen & Ink Drawings With Prints & Scans
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Crown of thorns #517Z, pen & ink portrait, and pencil, with prints & scans, by artist Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries.
Paul Tillich #512Z, pen & ink portrait with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Order Here.
A peer of the famous New Testament Theologian Albert Schweitzer, Paul Tillich ranks as one of the greatest Theologians of the 20th Century, because he understood New Testament times. Both he, and Albert Schweitzer died in the same year, 1965. Paul Tillich was more philosophical in his Theological approach than Albert Schweitzer, because he was more of a Philosopher than a New Testament Scholar. New Testament scholars are absorbed with the technical aspects of the text, whereas Theologian are more abstract in their writings.
Above is my pen & ink drawing of Paul Tillich, because he was a professor at the University of Chicago. He wrote his famous Systematic Theology while at the University of Chicago. This work is very profound and looks at the Bible and Christianity in contemporary terms. Paul Tillich never attempts to put new wine into old wineskins, because he is a first rate thinker.
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Paul Tillich #512Z, pen & ink portrait with prints & scans, by artist Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries.
Mindset of Biblical authors #511Z, inspired writers pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Order Here.
It must be made clear in the mind of today, the mindset of the authors of the Bible, because they are far removed from us. People today very wrongly pick up a recent translation of the Bible, and read it like it was fresh off of the press, because they think it is current work. The Bible is not current at all, because it was written thousands of years ago. Further, these people did not write in our language, because they wrote in remote Semitic, and Greek.
Pencil Drawing
Above is my drawing of a Jewish Rabbi writing in the Tora, because he is a devout Jew. Most of the New Testament was written by Jews, because the first Christians were all Jews. These Jews were what we call today “Judaizers”, because they were Christians that follow the Jewish Laws.
This is all fine and good, however, these people barely knew if the world was round, that there is a subconscious, and that we are formed genetically, not made from Adam & Eve. Further, these people were not aware of light, and the Theory of Relativity, Nuclear Fission, and Radioactivity. To even have the most remote expectation to ask a man of modern times to embrace a mindset of such crude, and remote circumstances, is pure folly. These people only look to Moses, and the law attempting to make people of their time fit into the old wineskins of the Tora. These were people only looking backwards, because they did not know anything else.
Humanity
The best course of action is to read what they have written, and to interpret it in our times, as we know and understand where they are writing from. For surely, their writings are not hot off of the press, and not fresh. I speak with respect, and not with disparagement, because few people in the History of the World have offered more to humanity than the Jews. Now, let us wisely take what they have given to us, because we can always learn something when we open our minds.
Below is my pen & ink drawing of Theologian Paul Tillich.
Mindset of Biblical authors #511Z, inspired writers pen & ink drawing with pencil, offering prints & scans, by artist Stephen F. Condren of Condren Galleries.
Artist Stephen F. Condren Of Condren Galleries, A Fine Arts Gallery
Sinaiticus Redaction Criticism #506Z, a pun of Biblical Criticism pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Order Here.
Found by Constantin von Tischendorf, Sinaiticus is one of the oldest Bible manuscipts in the world, because it was found in its place of origin. Sinaiticus ranks in status with Codex Vaticanus in historicity, because of it’s authenticity. Modern Bible research has taken a secular stance on the hermeneutics of the Bible, because they think is written by man not God. I agree with this view, because the Bible is a document made by men. The inspiration of the Bible is personal, because all people approach it with different points of view.
Bible scholars from all over the world look to Sinaiticus for deeper understanding of the Scripture, because it is closer to Jesus. The logic is that if the manuscript is old it is a closer news account of the life of Jesus, because hit would be an eye witness.
Pencil Drawing
Above is my pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch of Sinaiticus being cut to pieces, because it is a pun on Biblical Criticism. The scene takes place in Tischendorf Hardware, where scissors, and razors are being used to cut apart Codex Sinaiticus, because it is cleaning up the Bible. A portrait of Constantin von Tischendorf hand on the hardware store wall, because he is the owner. The razors are manufactured by Bultmann Incorporated, because they are a discount razor supplier.
Below is my drawing of the Holy Spirit bleaching out the miracles from the Gospels, because miracles are not real.
Pen & ink drawing of the Holy Spirit as a dove hovering over Jesus in the Jordan River, baptizing Him with a bottle of Clorox, by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Pen & ink drawing of Jesus teaching to the people by artist Stephen F. Condren.
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Sinaiticus Redaction Criticism #506Z, pen & ink drawing, with prints & scans, by artist Stephen F. Condren of Condren Galleries.
Artist Stephen F. Condren Of Condren Galleries, A Fine Arts Gallery
Rudolph Bultmann #505Z, Theologian, pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Order Here.
Rudolph Bultmann was a German New Testament Theologian that changed the course of modern Bible scholarship, because of his approach to the original Bible documents. Bultmann developed Form Criticism, and expanded Redaction Criticism, as tools of Biblical research. He is in league with the Lutheran Theologian, Albert Schweitzer, whose work changed the course of modern Biblical studies.
Below is my drawing of Tischendorf Hardware, because it is a pun on Biblical Criticism.
Pen & ink drawing of Sinaiticus being cut to pieces by Rudolph Bultmann as a pun about Biblical Criticism, by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Below is a link to my article on Albert Schweitzer, because he is a Bible scholar.
Above is my pen & ink drawing of Rudolph Bultmann with pencil sketch below, because the sketch lines show through rendering. I have made use of contour line, because I want to bring out the form of his face. More use of bold lines have been made, because cross-hatched lines can become confusing. With figures that have little lighting contrast it is best to use contour lines, because they are strong.
Otto Von Bismarck #498Z, pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch, by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery. Prints & Scans Order Here.
A great man in all regard, Otto Von Bismarck has always been someone that holds a strong interest for me. His famous quote “A constitution is nothing but a piece of paper” stuck home with me when I first heard it back in High School, and it still does to this day. This famous line is very pervasive, because it is true. If you compare the size of the Bible to the size of the Constitution, that is challenged in courts across the land every day, you have a very serious problem on your hands. To make any kind of solid interpretation of a tome this size is sheer folly.
The Bible
Immediately the first thing that comes to my mind, is not the Constitution of the United States, because what is says is a given. Bismarck right, it all lays in the hands of the policies reigning at the time. For you can make the Constitution say anything that you like, because it is all a matter of interpretation.
Hermeneutics
More importantly, the Bible is just “A piece of paper” which of course opens volumes of approaches to it. It is all Hermeneutics that rules the day, because with it you can make any document say what is on your agenda.
Historical Critical Method
I only need to look upon the works of Albert Schweitzer, and Rudolph Bultmann to give added meaning to Otto Von Bismarck’s statement.
Pen & ink drawing of Theologian Rudolph Bultmann by Stephen F. Condren.
Pen & ink drawing of Codex Sinaiticus being cut apart by Rudolph Bultmann.
The message is clear, that we can no longer look at the Gospel stories, and trust them. These are documents written by mere men that did not have a full grasp of their topic.
Proper introduction #459Z, pen & ink drawing with pencil sketch by artist, and Veteran, Stephen F. Condren, BFA, of Condren Galleries. Drawings of Nieto, Trudeau, and Obama are included. Prints Of This Drawing #459Z ~ Order Here.
The greatest gift that you can ever give to anyone, and it is free, is a proper introduction. A proper introduction is the most important thing that you can offer anyone, because it gives the gift of safety. When you offer to introduce someone that you personally know to a person that your friend does not know, but that you know, is offering both your friend, and the person that you are introducing him to confidence, and safety. For your friend is relying upon your good name, and your steadfastness to expose him to a stranger, because this is sound.
It is never wise to meet a stranger on your own and strike up a conversation, for that can lead to peril. That is why you have so many crimes committed today, because people go to bars, and nightclubs to meet people that they do not know, and end up in trouble. God forbid even worse, hooking up online with Internet dating services, this is danger at all levels, because you have not been introduced.
Proper Introduction Pen & Ink Drawing
Presidents Nieto, Trudeau, and Obama shaking hands by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Preliminary Pencil Sketch
Presidents Nieto, Trudeau, and Obama shaking hands by artist Stephen F. Condren.
Photograph
Presidents Nieto, Trudeau, and Obama shaking hands at the North American Leaders Summit in Ottawa, Ontario.
Above is my pen & ink drawing of Presidents Enrique Pena Nieto, (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau, and Barack Obama, being properly introduced to each other, because they do not know each other. Could there be anything safer? No. A proper introduction is the best policy above all, because it gives safety, and it is free.
Christian Van Horn is a leading Base-baritone opera singer, because he is an alumni of the Ryan Center for the Performing Arts, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Since his graduation from the Ryan Center he has taken on an international schedule, because his voice is in demand.
Pen & Ink Drawing Of Christian Van Horn #460Z
Above is my pen & ink drawing of Christian Van Horn, because I heard him sing last night at Lyric Opera of Chicago and wanted to remember him. He sang the part of Count Walter in Verdi’sLuisa Miller. I like this drawing because it shows him with a smile. I drew this image of him, because the photo was on Google. There are many images of Christian on the Internet, because he is now a famous opera singer across the United States, and abroad.
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Christian Van Horn #460Z, with pen & ink drawing by artist Stephen F. Condren.
