As I read through John Goldingay's "Old Testament Theology: Israel's Gospel" I will be blogging about it. It's a long book (more than 800 pages) and not a quick read, so this could take awhile. It won't be a daily blog item, but it will keep coming up.
I first heard of the book when Scot McKnight blogged about it on Jesus Creed. I'm not looking back at those blogs, because I want this to be fresh, but you are welcome to if interested.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Postmodern theology: Israel's Gospel, part 1
Understanding the Bible as story rather than as a set formulas and accepting that our own understanding of the Bible is limited by the culture in which we live are key parts of postmodern theology.
In chapter 1 of "Old Testament Theology," John Goldingay, a postmodern theologian, discusses Old (or what he calls "First") Testament theology as narrative. He notes that the narrative--or story--of the First Testament is much longer than it needs to be if it were merely concerned to get the facts down. On the contrary, it is discursive, sprawling and uneven. He says that there are several reasons for this:
1. God takes humanity seriously. He works through humans, rather than forcing his will on humans. However, this is a slow approach, with a lot of backwards and forwards action that can be best understood through specific stories.
2. The Bible portrays the specificity of life with God. By hearing specific stories about specific people with specific challenges, demands, successes, failures, questions etc, we are encouraged to reflect on equivalent specificities in our own lives. Mostly, but not entirely, the narratives avoid proclaiming a set of unambiguous rules. Such "universal principle-based" proclamations can not offer the breath and nuance of narrative we need to help us to understand how God interacts with humans. Narrative is a way to capture these complex truths on many levels and from many perspectives.
3. The writers of the First Testament don't claim to know everything about their subjects, which reminds us that our own knowledge is fragmentary, be it about Abraham or about ourselves.
What do you think of this approach?
In chapter 1 of "Old Testament Theology," John Goldingay, a postmodern theologian, discusses Old (or what he calls "First") Testament theology as narrative. He notes that the narrative--or story--of the First Testament is much longer than it needs to be if it were merely concerned to get the facts down. On the contrary, it is discursive, sprawling and uneven. He says that there are several reasons for this:
1. God takes humanity seriously. He works through humans, rather than forcing his will on humans. However, this is a slow approach, with a lot of backwards and forwards action that can be best understood through specific stories.
2. The Bible portrays the specificity of life with God. By hearing specific stories about specific people with specific challenges, demands, successes, failures, questions etc, we are encouraged to reflect on equivalent specificities in our own lives. Mostly, but not entirely, the narratives avoid proclaiming a set of unambiguous rules. Such "universal principle-based" proclamations can not offer the breath and nuance of narrative we need to help us to understand how God interacts with humans. Narrative is a way to capture these complex truths on many levels and from many perspectives.
3. The writers of the First Testament don't claim to know everything about their subjects, which reminds us that our own knowledge is fragmentary, be it about Abraham or about ourselves.
What do you think of this approach?
The Golden Compass Books: Propaganda
Propaganda, as defined by Wikipedia:
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.
In Book III of the Golden Compass Trilogy, Pullman becomes explicit in blaming and naming Christianity (and most particularly Roman Catholicism) as evil. I want to point out that he could easily have written enjoyable fantasy books about good versus evil without naming Christianity. I think we could all agree that it's evil to rob people of their humanity, to force them into mindless obedience, to use authority to crush reason, to lie, to torture and to murder. I think we also could agree that it's good to find the best in humanity, to sacrifice for others, to pursue truth, to free people to live abundant lives, to give people choices and autonomy, to accept people's flaws, and to allow people to love and to build vibrant communities.
But Pullman crosses the line into propaganda when he explicitly aligns Christianity with evil. He does this in several ways:
1. He distorts reality by showing only one the dark side of the Christian church. Yes, the church has done some terrible things and too often used its power in repressive ways. However, the church has also engaged in stunning works of good. There have been inquisitors and crusaders, but also Francis of Assisi and his followers, George Fox and his followers, Brother Lawrence, Mother Teresa and countless others who devoted their lives to bringing freedom, physical help and hope to many people. Yet none of Christianity's good works are ever mentioned in the books. If the books were your only guide, you would believe Christianity to be wholly about carnal power and wholly evil.
2. All the good characters reject and oppose Christianity. A case in point is the scientist, Mary Malone. She is a wonderful, caring person and a dedicated, ethical scientist but also an ex-nun (actually she was a sister, as she was never cloistered, but the book refers to her as a nun). She leaves the sisterhood when she realizes she doesn't want to sacrifice the part of herself that can love and be loved by a man. The church is posited as a force that is willing to rob her of that part of her humanity in order to use her, with no mention of the idea that the Catholic church might discourage people who are not called to the celibate life from entering orders. Further, the book never acknowledges that some ARE called to this celibate life. Mary is a very sympathetic character and a moral center of the book and when she declares there is no God, we are influenced to believe this is true. When she uses I Ching sticks, we are encouraged to see this as a positive spiritual path.
Further, the witches are depicted as strong, caring, independent beings (they are very positive characters)but also as persecuted by the church. Shamanism is depicted as good (Will's extremely good father is a shaman) and as having true spiritual power. If you identify with any of these characters (which it is difficult not to do) you will be inspired not only to reject evil but to reject Christianity in favor, essentially, of anything else be it Eastern religion, Western atheism, Wiccanism or New Age earth religion. In fact, it's not spirituality that is bad, but Christianity.
3. The Christian characters are uniformly bad and usually one-dimensional caricatures. A case in point is a young priest who enters the peaceful, ecologically balanced planet/universe where Mary Malone has escaped. He brings a gun and relishes how he will frighten everybody into obedience. The church tortures witches, cuts the souls away from children, and ruthlessly pursues killing innocent Lyra to protect its power. There's no room for a John Woolman or any compassionate, peaceful Christian in this book. Characters on the side of "the Authority" are often aged, ugly, weak-willed or sadistic.
4.Pullman rehashes the old "Christianity versus rationalism" argument, playing on an unexamined cultural assumption that Christianity opposes rational inquiry and free thought. The assumption is accepted as fact, when a closer examination would show this dualism to be flawed. Christianity has, more often than not, been on the side of reason.
I could go on, but will leave it at that for now. I can only speculate as to why Pullman didn't simply write books depicting good versus evil. He apparently has an animosity towards Christianity. I find it disturbing that these one-sided books are aimed at an adolescent audience. I also find it disturbing that they have won several awards. If Muslims, gay people, Jews or some group other than Christians had been painted as so wholly evil, I wonder if the literary world would have reacted in the same way. Coming soon: violence and power in the books.
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.
In Book III of the Golden Compass Trilogy, Pullman becomes explicit in blaming and naming Christianity (and most particularly Roman Catholicism) as evil. I want to point out that he could easily have written enjoyable fantasy books about good versus evil without naming Christianity. I think we could all agree that it's evil to rob people of their humanity, to force them into mindless obedience, to use authority to crush reason, to lie, to torture and to murder. I think we also could agree that it's good to find the best in humanity, to sacrifice for others, to pursue truth, to free people to live abundant lives, to give people choices and autonomy, to accept people's flaws, and to allow people to love and to build vibrant communities.
But Pullman crosses the line into propaganda when he explicitly aligns Christianity with evil. He does this in several ways:
1. He distorts reality by showing only one the dark side of the Christian church. Yes, the church has done some terrible things and too often used its power in repressive ways. However, the church has also engaged in stunning works of good. There have been inquisitors and crusaders, but also Francis of Assisi and his followers, George Fox and his followers, Brother Lawrence, Mother Teresa and countless others who devoted their lives to bringing freedom, physical help and hope to many people. Yet none of Christianity's good works are ever mentioned in the books. If the books were your only guide, you would believe Christianity to be wholly about carnal power and wholly evil.
2. All the good characters reject and oppose Christianity. A case in point is the scientist, Mary Malone. She is a wonderful, caring person and a dedicated, ethical scientist but also an ex-nun (actually she was a sister, as she was never cloistered, but the book refers to her as a nun). She leaves the sisterhood when she realizes she doesn't want to sacrifice the part of herself that can love and be loved by a man. The church is posited as a force that is willing to rob her of that part of her humanity in order to use her, with no mention of the idea that the Catholic church might discourage people who are not called to the celibate life from entering orders. Further, the book never acknowledges that some ARE called to this celibate life. Mary is a very sympathetic character and a moral center of the book and when she declares there is no God, we are influenced to believe this is true. When she uses I Ching sticks, we are encouraged to see this as a positive spiritual path.
Further, the witches are depicted as strong, caring, independent beings (they are very positive characters)but also as persecuted by the church. Shamanism is depicted as good (Will's extremely good father is a shaman) and as having true spiritual power. If you identify with any of these characters (which it is difficult not to do) you will be inspired not only to reject evil but to reject Christianity in favor, essentially, of anything else be it Eastern religion, Western atheism, Wiccanism or New Age earth religion. In fact, it's not spirituality that is bad, but Christianity.
3. The Christian characters are uniformly bad and usually one-dimensional caricatures. A case in point is a young priest who enters the peaceful, ecologically balanced planet/universe where Mary Malone has escaped. He brings a gun and relishes how he will frighten everybody into obedience. The church tortures witches, cuts the souls away from children, and ruthlessly pursues killing innocent Lyra to protect its power. There's no room for a John Woolman or any compassionate, peaceful Christian in this book. Characters on the side of "the Authority" are often aged, ugly, weak-willed or sadistic.
4.Pullman rehashes the old "Christianity versus rationalism" argument, playing on an unexamined cultural assumption that Christianity opposes rational inquiry and free thought. The assumption is accepted as fact, when a closer examination would show this dualism to be flawed. Christianity has, more often than not, been on the side of reason.
I could go on, but will leave it at that for now. I can only speculate as to why Pullman didn't simply write books depicting good versus evil. He apparently has an animosity towards Christianity. I find it disturbing that these one-sided books are aimed at an adolescent audience. I also find it disturbing that they have won several awards. If Muslims, gay people, Jews or some group other than Christians had been painted as so wholly evil, I wonder if the literary world would have reacted in the same way. Coming soon: violence and power in the books.
O come all ye faithful
Because my list of articles seems to have disappeared, I'll note that my story on the emerging church appeared in the April 2 edition of the Baltimore City Paper. It's called "O come all ye faithful." Two annual real estate roundup articles I wrote for the Washington Post--one on Howard County's and one on Frederick County's housing markets, appeared in the Post's Sunday, March 30, real estate section.
Sticks and Bones
Kay Weeks of Ellicott City has published a children's book, illustrated by Margaret Scott, called "Sticks and Stones, Skin and Bones" which uses the analogy of the human body to help children understand the structure of a house. The illustrations are charming. The text is easy to understand. Though the book is self-published, it is professional quality.
I have never met Kay Weeks, but I do like to support small local enterprise. I try to eat at locally-owned restaurants rather than chains, and when I can, buy handmade gifts at crafts shows. Mostly, I do purchase from large corporations, so this is an edge movement, but why not support it when possible?
Alas, probably because of losing the advantage of a large print run, the book's price is $12.00. However, the book is a labor of love, and would make an educational and entertaining gift for a child from 2 or 8. If you would be interested, you can contact Kay at 443-414-7774 or kaydiweeks@verizon.net
I don't profit or benefit in any way from this endorsement.
I have never met Kay Weeks, but I do like to support small local enterprise. I try to eat at locally-owned restaurants rather than chains, and when I can, buy handmade gifts at crafts shows. Mostly, I do purchase from large corporations, so this is an edge movement, but why not support it when possible?
Alas, probably because of losing the advantage of a large print run, the book's price is $12.00. However, the book is a labor of love, and would make an educational and entertaining gift for a child from 2 or 8. If you would be interested, you can contact Kay at 443-414-7774 or kaydiweeks@verizon.net
I don't profit or benefit in any way from this endorsement.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Golden Compass, part III
In The Amber Spyglass, book three of the Golden Compass Trilogy, we get enmeshed in another complicated plot that I will try to summarize as quickly as possible. The two protagonists, Lyra and Will, age 12, are caught in a showdown between the forces of good and evil. In this twisted retelling of a quasi-Biblical story, the forces of good are the angels who initially rebelled against "the Authority," which by book three is explicitly named as Adonai, the God of the Bible. Others forces of good are witches, shamans, armored bears and free-thinking humans. The Authority, represented by the powerful and evil angel Megatron and supported by institutional Christian churches across the universe, wants to snuff out the human spirit: joy, free will, autonomy, love, truth, etc. The Authority and its followers lie to people and are interested in control, obedience and fear. Herein lies one of my problems with the book: the very attributes of God and Satan are flipped: God is given the attributes of Satan. God is the Prince of Lies, the great deceiver, the threat to humanity.
Because of a prophecy that she will be their undoing, the forces of the Authority want to kill Lyra. For the same reason, good wants to protect her, so across the universe, good and evil mobilize.
Will, Lyra's constant companion, has a magic knife that can cut windows into alternate universes. Lyra's feels compelled to visit the land of the dead to make amends to her friend Roger, whose death she caused.
Will and Lyra are the first in thousands of years to visit the underworld. They find that the Authority has trapped the dead in a gray, misty, cold, horrible world without joy or hope because it has lied to people and gotten them to believe this is heaven. (Even though it is clearly hell.) Repulsive harpies torture people incessantly, wrecking their sleep by tormenting them with whispered tales of all they did wrong in their lives.
Lyra and Will liberate the dead, who with great joy, experience the dissolution of their ghostly bodies into millions of atoms that reintegrate with nature.
Lyra's flawed parents sacrifice their lives to destroy Megatron and save their daughter. Meanwhile, an ex-nun and scientist, Mary Malone, who is studying "Dust"--which is the conscious spirit of the universe -- has traveled through a window to another universe. With the help of gentle, sentient beings tied closely to the earth, Mary constructs an amber spyglass and for the first time can see the sparkling golden Dust. She's alarmed to find that it is fast vacating the planet (and the universe). Without it, all sentient, thinking, conscious life will end. Needless to say, the Authority wants Dust to go.
With the help of the good witch Serafina Pekkala and a good angel, Mary discovers that Dust is disappearing through the windows Will and others have cut through the universe with the magic knife. All the windows have to be sealed up. Further, people who move to a world not their own sicken and die within a decade.
This creates a problem for Lyra and Will, who come from different planets. They have just entered adolescence and fallen deeply in love. But they must each return to their own worlds or die. Needless to say, they follow the path of duty and go home to spread the word about the true nature of the universe, which includes the knowledge that there is no God.
Tomorrow: more on the books' perplexing, upside down view of Christianity.
Because of a prophecy that she will be their undoing, the forces of the Authority want to kill Lyra. For the same reason, good wants to protect her, so across the universe, good and evil mobilize.
Will, Lyra's constant companion, has a magic knife that can cut windows into alternate universes. Lyra's feels compelled to visit the land of the dead to make amends to her friend Roger, whose death she caused.
Will and Lyra are the first in thousands of years to visit the underworld. They find that the Authority has trapped the dead in a gray, misty, cold, horrible world without joy or hope because it has lied to people and gotten them to believe this is heaven. (Even though it is clearly hell.) Repulsive harpies torture people incessantly, wrecking their sleep by tormenting them with whispered tales of all they did wrong in their lives.
Lyra and Will liberate the dead, who with great joy, experience the dissolution of their ghostly bodies into millions of atoms that reintegrate with nature.
Lyra's flawed parents sacrifice their lives to destroy Megatron and save their daughter. Meanwhile, an ex-nun and scientist, Mary Malone, who is studying "Dust"--which is the conscious spirit of the universe -- has traveled through a window to another universe. With the help of gentle, sentient beings tied closely to the earth, Mary constructs an amber spyglass and for the first time can see the sparkling golden Dust. She's alarmed to find that it is fast vacating the planet (and the universe). Without it, all sentient, thinking, conscious life will end. Needless to say, the Authority wants Dust to go.
With the help of the good witch Serafina Pekkala and a good angel, Mary discovers that Dust is disappearing through the windows Will and others have cut through the universe with the magic knife. All the windows have to be sealed up. Further, people who move to a world not their own sicken and die within a decade.
This creates a problem for Lyra and Will, who come from different planets. They have just entered adolescence and fallen deeply in love. But they must each return to their own worlds or die. Needless to say, they follow the path of duty and go home to spread the word about the true nature of the universe, which includes the knowledge that there is no God.
Tomorrow: more on the books' perplexing, upside down view of Christianity.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
What is Yhwh?
This is from Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog about John Goldingay's "The Old Testament: Israel's Theology." One of the things I love about Scot's blog is the chance to participate in scholarly discussion. I am (thanks to Scot) on the brink of working my way through Goldingay's first 800-page book on the Old Testament. Here goes Scot on the second volume. There are some wonderful points here to ponder from Goldingay, a scholar who has made the Old (or First) Testament his life's work:
"The assumption of the First Testament is that there is one God and that God’s name is YHWH. The often-made point that God is unknowable — apophatic theology and its variants — is not quite the way we find it in the Bible: this God is knowable and becomes known in what is said and what is done. Holiness in the FT [=First Testament] does not create dread so much as does God’s majesty. Majesty is the outward expression of God’s holiness.
The “eternality” of God is about God spanning history more than speculation about foreverness. God as “Creator” is more about God’s ongoing creation than just about God making things all at once long, long ago.
Monotheism is Enlightenment stuff; the FT teaches Mono-Yahwism. Yhwh alone is the deliverer and liberator. The big issue is not arithmetical — there is only one God — but “Whom are you treating as God?” (40).
Anyone who reads the FT carefully will see Yhwh’s aides and representatives and rivals, and this is one of the only books you will find that deals with this theme — doesn’t Goldingay like that which cuts across the grain? — as thoroughly, interestingly, honestly, and carefully as does Goldingay. These other deities, he says, exist but they don’t count as God. Deut 32:8-9 teaches the reality, sees these lesser deities as appointed by God, and sees them as governing other nations. [For our readers, Gerry McDermott’s book, God’s Rivals, dealt with this in the context of world religions.]
God’s gender? “The FT avoids bringing sexuality into its portrait of Yhwh. ‘He’ is neither ‘man’ nor ‘woman’ (Deut 4:6) [citing Gerstenberger]” (47).
Yhwh frequently is embodied in representatives."
What do you think of these points?
"The assumption of the First Testament is that there is one God and that God’s name is YHWH. The often-made point that God is unknowable — apophatic theology and its variants — is not quite the way we find it in the Bible: this God is knowable and becomes known in what is said and what is done. Holiness in the FT [=First Testament] does not create dread so much as does God’s majesty. Majesty is the outward expression of God’s holiness.
The “eternality” of God is about God spanning history more than speculation about foreverness. God as “Creator” is more about God’s ongoing creation than just about God making things all at once long, long ago.
Monotheism is Enlightenment stuff; the FT teaches Mono-Yahwism. Yhwh alone is the deliverer and liberator. The big issue is not arithmetical — there is only one God — but “Whom are you treating as God?” (40).
Anyone who reads the FT carefully will see Yhwh’s aides and representatives and rivals, and this is one of the only books you will find that deals with this theme — doesn’t Goldingay like that which cuts across the grain? — as thoroughly, interestingly, honestly, and carefully as does Goldingay. These other deities, he says, exist but they don’t count as God. Deut 32:8-9 teaches the reality, sees these lesser deities as appointed by God, and sees them as governing other nations. [For our readers, Gerry McDermott’s book, God’s Rivals, dealt with this in the context of world religions.]
God’s gender? “The FT avoids bringing sexuality into its portrait of Yhwh. ‘He’ is neither ‘man’ nor ‘woman’ (Deut 4:6) [citing Gerstenberger]” (47).
Yhwh frequently is embodied in representatives."
What do you think of these points?
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