Prophetic Voice

The common biblical notion of a prophet is to speak truth to power, prophets are not above the ebb and flow of life, they are not any better or worse than others, yet they are often scrutinized, challenged, and many times beaten down, whilst their words are ignored. It is not a vocation they choose, for who would choose it, but none the less is it is a vocation that is so desperately needed. The ability to vision a new life, a better life, amid the mess that is our present life, sustains many, gives hope, imagination. When hope is on a tightrope, we need to hear the prophetic voice anew, may it inspire the imagination. Surely, at times, poetry is more important than food, soon the revolution will be televised, usque quo domine.

Piper and the Rhetorics of Pimpin

I saw this on a twitter feed of one of my friends and found it very disturbing:

"The horrendous, gut-wrenching reality of Haiti's earthquake happens DAILY in abortions."

It purports to be a quote from John Piper, you know the guy who thinks girls shouldn't be on the wrestling team, and the one who thinks god chases gay sympathizers with tornadoes. So I shouldn't be surprised. But what really made me mad is that in an effort to (re)frame the debate about abortion into the graphic horror Piper believes it to be, he pimps out Haiti's earthquake, and the countless victims. Really? Isn't there a better way to make your point Mr. Piper?

God bless America...

I believe God made the St. Lawrence River, and the Rio Grande River, and the China Sea and the English Channel, but I don’t believe God made America, or Canada, or Mexico, or England, or China. Man did that. . . . It is doubtful that there has ever been a nation established for bad reasons. Nations are always established to escape tyranny, to combat evil, to find freedom, to reach heaven. Man has always been able to desire to build a heaven. But it seems he has never been able to admit that he didn’t pull it off. So he keeps insisting that he did pull it off. And that is really what patriotism is all about. It is the insistence that what we have done is sacred. It is that transference of allegiance from what God did in creating the whole wide world to what we have done with (or to) a little sliver of it. Patriotism is immoral. Flying a national flag—any national flag—in a church house is a symbol of idolatry. Singing ‘God Bless America’ in a Christian service is blasphemy. Patriotism is immoral because it is a violation of the First Commandment.

Will D. Campbell, “I Love My Country: Christ Have Mercy,” Motive (December, 1969)

HT: Halden

Michael Goulder: A Biblical Scholar

On the news of Michael Goulder's passing, I can't help but think of the time he came to Sheffield to speak to our Graduate Seminar, and being profoundly moved. Here was the epitome of a biblical scholar, someone who spent his life playing with the text, not in disservice to the text, but in order to understand it better, to think anew with the text, to never be satisfied with what some might call the "plain meaning" of a text. I remember his lecture starting with the acknowledgment that he could no longer read his own notes, thus signifying in my mind to expect a series of loosely connected meanderings, instead we got a lucid lecture that was easy to follow, yet rivaled the depth of any published monograph on the subject, I was amazed that he did this all from memory. There are few scholars that can stay relevant in a field like biblical studies throughout their lifetime. Michael Goulder was one, and the field was and is better for him.

Brit Hume really pissed me off!

I'm not sure why I read Denny Burk's blog, it always irritates me and gets my blood pressure through the roof. Mind you this is due to Denny's perspective on the Christian faith, not Denny himself, I should note that Denny himself is a pretty cool chap. Anyhow his blog brought my attention to the comments of Brit Hume about how Christianity can help Tiger Woods. Now I am getting this info second hand, because Fox News isn't often played on our televisions...but according to the clip Brit states, "Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

Ok so, if Tiger finds forgiveness and redemption in the Christian God, that's great and more power to him, but how in the hell will that cause a "total recovery" and how exactly will Tiger now be a "great example to the world."

I wonder about the brokenness he caused his family, how he betrayed his wife, and made a complete mockery of her. Forgiveness and redemption may help Tiger with his sense of guilt and his own issues, but it does nothing to undo what was done, and this misogynistic perspective ticks me off. Now don't get me wrong I am a strong believer in truth and reconciliation as a means of moving forward, it names the past for what it is, and finds ways to make the present and future bearable and sometimes better, but to insinuate that with the Christian faith Tiger can make a "total recovery" (whatever that means) is ridiculous.

And please inform me how and why Tiger, if he follows Brit's advice, will be a great example to the world. What exactly is the message here, why would he be a great example, I am racking my brains and can't figure it out. Only in Pat Robertsons F***ed up world would Tiger be a great example.

Brit goes on to suggest that the controversy sorrounding his statement is due to the power of naming the name of Jesus, and this may be true in our politically correct culture where it is verboten to speak such things, but Brit's lack of depth and triteness are what got my blood boiling!

From Lenin's Tomb by way of Stalin's Moustache: A Christmas Wish

From Lenin's Tomb by way of Stalin's

Moustache:

Rage against X-factor

The Facebook campaign to knock the annual X-Factor schlock from the top of the charts by promoting the Rage Against the Machine song 'Killing in the Name Of' is very close to success, but only by the narrowest margin according to reports. I think it was a success!

Daily Zizek: on the sacredness of questioning

“What is perceived here as the problem is precisely the Christian universalism: what this all-inclusive attitude (recall St. Paul’s famous “There are no men or women, no Jews and Greeks”) involves is a thorough exclusion of those who do not accept inclusion into the Christian community. In other “particularistic” religions (and even in Islam, in spite of its global expansionism), there is a place for others, they are tolerated, even if they are condescendingly looked upon. The Christian motto “All men are brothers,” however, means ALSO that “Those who are not my brothers ARE NOT MEN.” Christians usually praise themselves for overcoming the Jewish exclusivist notion of the Chosen People and encompassing all of humanity – the catch here is that, in their very insistence that they are the Chosen People with the privileged direct link to God, Jews accept the humanity of the other people who celebrate their false gods, while Christian universalism tendenti[ous]ly excludes non-believers from the very universality of humankind.”

(Slavoj Žižek, On Belief. Routledge, 2001: 143-144)

HT: Deane Galbraith

BW3 and the deconstruction of Sheffield

James Crossley brought to my attention the Christianity Today article about the whole Sheffield fiasco, highlighting some rather strange remarks by Ben Witherington. The article is really poorly written, with a number of gross inaccuracies, so let us hope that BW3's remarks were also taken completely out of context.

Just to offer some examples: the article insinuates that "evangelically minded" faculty were purposely replaced with non "evangelically minded" scholars. I have no idea what this might look like in real life. My understanding of how the policies work, and I this is sheer conjecture, but when a NT scholar leaves who specializes in Paul, a faculty member with roughly the same specialization is sought. Andrew Lincoln left the department some time ago, and was replaced with another Pauline scholar, and Loveday who left rather recently (2008) and she was not replaced at all. Here is the CT quote:

"Evangelically minded faculty, including Andrew Lincoln and Loveday Alexander, were not replaced with scholars who held similar views."

Now to the BW3 quote:

"Other faculty were "bent on the deconstruction of the Bible, and indeed of their students' faith," according to Ben Witherington, a New Testament scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary."

This is a very strange statement that I can't even begin to understand, but let me take a shot at it...so first "evangelically minded" faculty were replaced with "bad" non evangelically minded scholars, then "other" faculty, even worse than the "bad" non evangelical scholars were present who dabbled in the dark arts of deconstruction. Hmm, I am surprised a tornado didn't hit the 11th floor of the Arts tower. The BW3 quote starts with the word bent, which is presumably a pejorative in this context (especially for evangelicals, hence not straight) and then dives into the postmodern word of "deconstruction". Deconstruction is a nice, and less violent, way of saying destroy, so these "other" faculty wanted to destroy the very thing they were employed to study and ultimately their students faith. So the Bibs department is really just another Hogwarts, with faculty dressed in black (I have noticed that James favours the darker hues when it comes to wardrobe) bent on destroying the thing that ought never be named...FAITH.

Oh, I guess I can kind of piece this whole thing together after all.

Or perhaps BW3 was just talking about Stephen Moore's earlier project and the CT writer just assumed that it was a pejorative? I guess then the same thing could be said of Jamey Smith's work on Derrida down at Calvin College in Grand Rapids.

Very strange article indeed.

Remembering the 5th of November

HT: dunedinschool

Is N.T. Wright smacking down Jim West or what?

In a quote from N.T. Wright's short rebuttal to the CT piece that claims he is at fault for the protestant exodus to Rome, Wright has this to say:

"It reminds me of the fine old German NT scholar Heinrich Schlier, who found that the only way to be a Protestant was to be a Bultmannian, so, because he couldn’t take Bultmann, became a Roman Catholic; that was the only other option in his culture. Good luck to him; happily, most of us have plenty of other options."

Now who among us loves Bultmann? Perhaps this is why Jim West has yet to ask N.T. Wright into his heart.

Univ. of Sheffield Keeps Biblical Studies Dept.

From an article found here.

October 14, 2009 8:35AM

Univ. of Sheffield Keeps Biblical Studies Dept.

Students had protested an early proposal to shut the department down.

Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Following student protests, the University of Sheffield in England decided to not close the department of biblical studies.

A review by the pro-vice-chancellor had recommended shutting down the department down after current and 2009-2010 students completed their degrees, citing the loss of staff and declining student demand.

At 8 a.m. today, 1,064 members had joined the Facebook group "Don't shut down Biblical Studies at Sheffield" and a website was created to send the vice chancellor petition letters, several of which were posted on the website. Ben Hurrell, who created the Facebook group, told CT that citing the lack of student interest and staff was "unjust."

"The number of entries last year were capped at eight, but this year's graduates and level three students represent all-time high figures," Hurrell said in an e-mail. "While five senior lecturers have left over the last 2 years, the university has not allowed the department permanent staff to replace them for a variety of reasons."

The university senate was supposed to vote on the department's future on October 7, but after students heard through the students' union and protested, the decision was postponed.

"The vice chancellor has said that he feels the faculty handled consultation with staff and students so badly that it cannot justify a closure," Holly Taylor, education officer for the students' union, said in an e-mail this morning.

Taylor said that the the faculty will draw up plans for the department, including new staff appointments.

Collin Hansen contributed to this report. Another report will be forthcoming.

(Graphic) Save BIBS

How to help: HERE.

Why Save Sheffield Biblical Studies?

Why save the Biblical Studies Department?

The partial answer is found in an article written by David Clines here.

Top 200 Global Uni's

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html

Where does your school rank?

Idolatry, the F word, and an Album

So trolling through my RSS feeds (and yes, i still use RSS feeds!) I happened upon some really good blog posts.

The first is Roland Boer's spot on examination of the critique of idolatry in 2nd Isaiah. I have struggled with this bit of Isaiah, because it is both subversive in it's portrayed context and because if the critique of idolatry was meant to be taken seriously, it is laughable, as Roland points out. the former claim, that it is subversive in its portrayed context, is key for me because the text declares that YHWH is indeed incomparable deity despite the fact that everything in the present would read otherwise, Israel is still in exile, YHWH was defeated by the Babylonian deities, and so on and so forth. The text screams out for another way to define victory, another way to interpret the present, another way to see the world (see David Clines' wonderful essay I, He, We and They: A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53). To me this becomes even more interesting when we compare it to the text of Romans 2. For here Paul's critique of the Judean/or the Jew is equally as laughable, so my proposition is that Paul, like Isaiah before him, is up to something similar.

The next is a fun little post by Jonathan about language, freedom, and capitalism. I have been rereading my Jameson and Gramsci lately trying to be more consistent in my methodology, and since I am always intrigued by the way people appropriate words, I found this post rather enjoyable.

The next is not a blog post, but I wanted to draw your attention to a magical album by Christopher O'Riley. Christopher is a classical pianist that has his own NPR show, which I highlight, to show that he is a bona fide credentialed pianist. Now I am not well versed in classical music, I like it, I listen to it, but can barely tell the difference between Bruckner and Chopin (I know it's sad). Christopher though meets me where I am at, and that is the world of Indie Rock heroes like Elliott Smith and Post Rock legends like Radiohead. Yes that is right he transcribes these rock heroes into magical piano compositions that are so much more than those lame classical tribute albums that are mere musac-al attempts to capitalize upon the popular. There are times when the compositions near the avant garde but this is brilliance in and of itself, the sonic cacophony that is Radiohead, played by one instrument, and done well, is worthy of a listen. So go buy the new album its only 8.99 on amazon (MP3), and then the catalog!

A Post befitting of N.T. Wrong

From the Londonist

Was Charles Dickens the smuttiest writer of all time? On the face of it, the much-loved author would seem to be the ultimate purveyor of family-friendly literature. But if you read his novels with a 21st Century eye for the perverse then you begin to see all kinds of filth. Or maybe words have shifted meaning somewhat in the past 150 years. Who cares? It's Friday and we feel like unleashing some nonsense.

"'What, old Nobs!' ejaculated the son. And they shook hands heartily." - Pickwick Papers, Chapter 27.

"The jackal then invigorated himself with a bum for his throttle." - A Tale of Two Cities, Chapter 5.

"Tom had sat upon the bed, swinging one leg and sucking his walking-stick with sufficient unconcern." - Hard Times, Chapter 6.

"Mr. Jasper broke silence by declaring that he placed his whole reliance, humanly speaking, on Mr. Sapsea's penetration." - The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Chapter 15.

"Mr Brass's ejaculations died away in the distance (for he continued to pour them out, all the way down stairs)." - The Old Curiosity Shop, Chapter 48.

"When the throbbing I had seen before, came into it as I looked at her, she absolutely lifted up her hand, and struck it." - David Copperfield, Chapter 32.

Thinking about getting Inked?

HT: LISNews

When dogmatics get in the way of scholarship

A panel of "NT Scholars" at Southern Baptist Seminary have gotten together to warn students, pastor's, and congregations alike of the evil ogre that is Tom Wright.

Michael Gorman, has a nice summary, which I could not agree with more!

He sums up the panel as saying, "Wright has some good things to say, but he has strayed from the true faith, he has forgotten the gospel, he is dangerous to students, pastors, and congregations."

When I think of Southern Baptists, this is who I think of..., I know it is not fair but... but where did all the old school Southern Baptists go after the Mohler and Patterson purges? Jim West has a lot of work to do in reforming this denomination.

I am well aware of Jim's distaste for Wright, but his distaste is for very different reasons! Namely Wright's project is rather anti-Bultmannian (is Bultmannian even a word?)

Sex and Prayer

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210811/Mac-sex-prayers.html

New Blog Calvinolatry

James Harding's has posted to his new blog Calvinolatry. James is a great chap and we always seem to be running around in the same groups every SBL, but beyond this he is extremely engaging! Let us hope he continues to explore the worship of self-referential, non-falsifiable ideologies, in what are sure to be intriguing posts to come.

Welcome James!