Lots of Ministry and Some Hebrew Grammar Next Quarter
I registered for my second to last quarter today. I have some ministry requirements to fulfill that have been put on hold while I’ve taken courses on New Testament and related issues. That said, it’s not that I’m not interested in the ministry courses. It’s just that I have a bit of tunnel vision with my academic plans, so I have had to focus on New Testament, early Judaism, and Christian origins. Without further adieu, here are the classes I’ve signed on for next quarter (the course links take you to descriptions, the teacher links to their homepages at Fuller):
- The Congregation as a Learning Community with Mark Lau Branson. Ths class fulfills the “Christian Formation and Discipleship” requirement for the M.Div. From what I understand, Branson has good Anabaptist leanings!
- Grief, Loss, Death and Dying with David Augsburger. This one hits the “Pastoral Counseling” requirement. Forget Anabaptist “leanings,” Augsburger is a great Anabaptist leader and scholar. You may have seen his recent book, Dissident Discipleship. I think half my church has read it.
- Making Doctrine Live with Marguerite Shuster. This class is one of the three classes needed to fulfill the “Preaching and Communication” requirement: one class generally on Homiletics, then two practicums. This would be my first practicum. Actually, I tried to stay with my current professor for Homiletics, Doug Nason, but both of his practicums were taken. I’m waitlisted for those, so I might switch over if space opens up. All the practicum listings have only 8 or 9 spots. We all preach (or speak) twice in the quarter and give comments to the other preachers/speakers.
And for the final elective of my Fuller career:
- Advanced Hebrew Grammar with Jeremy Smoak, who is, according to the website, a post-doctoral fellow at UCLA’s NELC department.
So it should be an interesting quarter. In the summer quarter, I hope to take my final preaching practicum in communication, fulfill two church history courses (with “Medieval and Reformation History” and “Post-Reformation and Modern Theology”–the latter taught by Richard Muller), and take “Intro to Islam” as an IDL. Then, I’m all done with this seminary thing! It’s hard to believe.
"Hearing" the Bible and presuppositions
Brueggemann makes an interesting comment in his preface to The Message of the Psalms. He opens the book itself with two quotes, one from John Updike and another from Jose Miranda, Communism in the Bible, which goes like this:
It can surely be said that the Psalter presents a struggle of the just against the unjust.
Brueggemann identifies Miranda at the “extreme” but wants to point to the helpfulness of Miranda’s thought. For example, he says, “With force and regularity the questions of justice, righteousness, and equity are regularly [sic] brought to the throne, often to our surprise” (13). But what really caught my eye as I was reading was actually Brueggemann’s qualification in using Miranda’s quote:
I have not set out to do liberation theology, as Miranda might urge, for I have been committed to no goal but to hear the Psalms. [12-3]
This strikes me as a powerfully healthy perspective for a Bible scholar. As for myself, I am continually drawn to the ideas of liberation theology in its struggle for justice. So, when I read the Bible, I will certainly be informed by that perspective and be attentive to themes of justice, power, etc. On the other hand, as I am developing my scholarly tools at this stage of my career, I must find ways to “hear” the biblical texts without molding them to fit my ideological perspective (I realize I’m departing a bit from Brueggemann’s intention here).
Many folks are, of course, announcing the death of historical methods in studying the Bible. We live in postmodernism now (or “pomo” for the cool kids among us) . . . how can one presume that we can find the meaning to anything? Is it not arrogant to say that we might be able to reach the “intention” of a text? Is not our assumption of the meaning we find in any text a product of our social and cultural location as well as our ideological presuppositions?
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps we need a balance here. I am going to go out on a limb and say that there are some things that history can tell us. I think most people would agree (Bruno Bauer excepted) that Jesus actually existed as a real human being. We can discover certain things about the social, political, and cultural world that Jesus and his followers may have inhabited. Sure, we can debate about the meaning of our findings (this is the work of scholarship), but should we just throw our hands up in the air and say that our debates get us nowhere, let’s all just read the texts from our own perspectives? I don’t think so.
On the other hand, postmodernism and ideological criticism gives us a helpful corrective: we can’t know everything. Like my friend, Matt, I’m inclined to say it is helpful to recognize our presuppositions in our research. I think that if we are honest with ourselves and know what we would like to see in the texts, we can become more productive scholars. So, I am an Anabaptist with affections for liberationist and feminist readings of the biblical texts. I then seek out texts that challenge those perspectives and try to, as Brueggemann states, “hear” them.
I suppose what I now have to be careful of is that I don’t go so far to the extreme of looking for texts that challenge my perspective that I am more predisposed to see challenges than otherwise.
"The Fuller Seminary Generation"
Those are the words of Jim Wallis in his most recent blog post. I didn’t go to his talk during his Fuller visit, but I hear he said a lot of the stuff that he usually says. I like Wallis’ message, but he does tend to repeat himself. That said, do check out the post, if for no other reason than he actually uses the words “the Fuller Seminary generation.”
Hey, I know, let's blame it on the Jews…
Yesterday a friend of mine, who had just come back from an interfaith retreat and had picked up a cold, said, “The Jews made me sick.” Well, she was sitting in between two Jews, both with bad colds, at a dinner during the retreat and she happened to pick up what they had. But, given all the reading that I’ve been doing about the history of New Testament scholarship, it was almost a parody of some of the sadder moments in NT research. NT scholars throughout history have so often (and so easily) “blamed” the Jews for some theological problem they had.
For example, I have read in a few sources about how William Whiston (1667-1752), famous as the translator of Josephus’s works, demonstrated this tendency in dealing with the problem of Old Testament prophecy fulfillment in the NT. One of the major concerns for the early post-Reformation researchers in biblical studies was the fulfillment of prophecy. Alongside miracles, for them it was an indicator of the Bible’s divine origin. By Whiston’s time, however, much of the research on the “literal” sense of the putative “prophecies” in the Hebrew Bible was showing that these seemed to be misused by the authors of the New Testament. Read in their proper and “literal” or “plain sense” context, these were not prophecies at all, but mostly referred to historical events from their own historical situation.
Whiston’s solution? Blame it on the Jews! The early Christians used the original Hebrew texts appropriately, according to Whiston, attentive to their “literal” meaning. But then Jews, in reaction to Christian interpretations, went back and changed their own sacred Scriptures so that the literal meaning would not support the Christian claims of prophecy fulfillment.
I don’t doubt that there was back and forth between Jews and Christians and there was, at some point, some sort of “parting of the ways” between the two. I don’t doubt that such a parting led to the tweaking of some teachings on both sides of the equation (although, I’d imagine it was quite heavier on the Christian and anti-Judaism side of things). But to suggest that Jews would actually corrupt their own Scriptures to spite Christian interpretations, and to make this suggestion just so that Christians can hold onto a threatened belief in prophecy fulfillment . . . That’s just ridiculous.
Reception for Bibliobloggers (or whatever you call us) in Boston?
Jim West, the man of the perpetually transforming blog presentation, informs the public that we may indeed have a chance to be an official reception at SBL. Such an event would be great, considering the unwieldy nature of our massive biblioblogger lunch in San Diego. I think it would make for a better event, too, because it would be a set time and place advertised in print for all SBL members to see.
Is it too early to be excited about Boston? I did grow up in Massachusetts after all. It’s my home! By the way, this Friday is the last day to register for the meeting at the “early bird” rate. March 1st is the due date for paper proposals.
A Psalm of the Hungry Single Mother in a U.S. City
A couple weeks ago, Prof. Goldingay gave our class an assignment to write a lament psalm following the general patterns of biblical laments, especially in the Psalter. There was a fair amount of freedom to the assignment and I chose to write a lament as another person, which is a significant theme in biblical laments. It was partially inspired by stories I hear from my wife, who is a public health dietitian. So, this is the resulting psalm:
A Psalm of the Hungry Single Mother in a U.S. City.
Great God, you are the sustainer of the earth,
You have provided the earth with resources to survive.
Living bread, you are the reason I am still breathing,
I don’t go a day without acknowledging the life that flows through my veins.
Yet, my awareness of life is fed by the threat it faces.
The earth is plentiful, but my house is empty.
Because of the geography of my birth, I do not have access to your bounty,
Due to the color of my skin, I have been imprisoned, hidden from salvation.
You apparently are blind to my world,
Unable to see my indestructible obstacles.
My enemies are those who fatten themselves while my children hunger,
They have raped your creation of its goods for their own enjoyment.
They look at me and I am sin, responsible for my own demise,
But their fathers delivered me into this place of darkness.
When their government hands me a few dollars, they give me barely a hope,
When I cash their checks at my grocer, I am spat upon as a parasite.
They have trapped me in their “cycle of poverty,” giving and taking from me as they please,
I am without a hope, dying and passing on death to my children.
Don’t you see what has been done to your provision?
Can’t you understand that they have stolen my food and drink?
When will you be my savior in life?
Did you end your rescuing in Egypt?
The laughter of my children is the source of my tears,
For they will soon see this world without joy.
They will be slaves to the powerful,
Endlessly working to no profit.
If you do not act now, have you given up?
If you do not act now, I can no longer trust.
Huckabee Quizzes America on the Bible
There was a great story on NPR this evening about Huckabee’s rhetorical allusions to biblical stories (as he continues to run as the most Christian candidate). The story was put together by Barbara Bradley Hagerty, who interviews Stephen Prothero especially concerning the fact that so many people don’t understand what Huckabee is talking about. The story is fantastic to listen to, just to hear the responses people give, trying to guess what Huckabee means by things like “the widow’s mite has more effectiveness than all the gold in the world” or “one small smooth stone is even more effective than a whole lot of armor.”
It would be great to listen to in a classroom setting on biblical studies. The NPR page has the story in text as well as audio. [James at Old in the New also took note of the story and gives some analysis.]
Update (2/11/08): Did you hear Huckabee say this weekend that he didn’t major in math, he majored in miracles? Ugh.
Page 123: About Adolf von Harnack
Jim Getz tagged me in a meme the other day. The idea is . . .
- Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
- Find page 123
- Find the first five sentences
- Post the next three sentences
- Tag five people
My nearest book is History of New Testament Research (vol. 2) by William Baird, which certainly does have 123 pages in it. Page 123 is in the middle of a section on “The Zenith of Liberalism: Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930),” in a chapter entitled, “The Triumph of Liberalism on the Continent.” Here are sentences 6-8 on the page:
The appointment had been contested by officials of the Prussian church who were shocked by Harnack’s skepticism concerning the miracles and the virgin birth. The appointment was supported by Bismarck and finally confirmed by Kaiser Wilhelm II. During his tenure at Berlin, Harnack taught a host of students, including Adolf Jülicher and Karl Barth, and Americans such as S. J. Case and E. J. Goodspeed.
An interesting set of sentences, I have to admit. It could have been much more boring: a list of titles, for example.
Like my friend, Chris, I am wary of the last bit of this meme: to tag five people. But I will nevertheless tag Matt and I don’t know who else hasn’t been tagged. If you haven’t been tagged and you’d like to be: have at it.
Crossley, Politics, and NT Scholarship
Considering how much we’re talking about the political and philosophical presuppositions of New Testament scholarship in Hagner’s “History of NT Scholarship seminar,” biblioblogger James Crossley‘s new book on politics and New Testament scholarship looks awesome, for lack of a better word. He says it could be out by SBL Boston.
-
Elsewhere . . .- Blog titles beginning with "A" to "Z" on your reader Mark Goodacre
- Of making many books there is no end Chris Brady
- Free Online: The Liddell-Scott Jones Lexicon S and C
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? II agathos
- Steven J. Friesen and the Identity of Satan’s Throne in Pergamum alan
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? agathos
- Bloomsbury buys Continuum Mark Goodacre
- Imperial America Peter J. Leithart
- C.F.D. Moule on the Birth of the New Testament d. miller
- Responding to Kostenberger (with comparisons to Marshall) Jeremiah
-
As a member of RevGalBlogPals, I am committed to building a supportive online community for women clergy, women church professionals, and women in religious life.
Research assisted by: