Ricoeur on Evil

i'm still reading through Paul Ricoeur's Figuring the Sacred (Augsburg Fortress, 1995), but i really liked this on evil in the introduction:

While the Bible does offer a theodicy of retribution in which the victims, because of their faithlessness, are held responsible for the violence inflicted upon them, Ricoeur argues instead for a wisdom theodicy of lamentation and anger where the perennial cries of Why me? and How long? are seen as the most adequate responses to unmitigated evil.
Mark I. Wallace, introduction, Figuring the Sacred, p32.

having read David Bentley Hart on evil (the doors of the sea) and Miroslav Volf on forgiveness (exclusion and embrace), this is close to where Hart ends up (for whom God is always opposed to evil) - and quite different to Volf (who emphasises the responsibility of both the perpetrator and victim in seeking reconciliation).

i like the way he's not systematising, but using the bible's language we see in the context of suffering in evil.

hebrews + matthew OR zechariah

i gots to decide - one year of college left, and i need to choose between OT in hebrew (where we do the entirety of Zechariah) or NT in greek (where we do Hebrews then Matthew). i could do both but that knocks out an elective and doing a project means i can only do two electives.

so far we've done
(nb: eng means only eng, heb or gk means both)

• OT
  Numbers (eng)
  Deuteronomy (heb)
  1-2 Samuel (heb)
  Psalms (heb)
  Job (eng)
  Isaiah (eng)
  Ezekiel (heb)
  Daniel (eng)
  Jonah (eng)
  

i'm hoping to do aramaic as one elective, so that would mean i'd get to do the aramaic section of Daniel and the aramaic paragraph of Ezra. we also did a bit of Ruth in hebrew, but just to think about text criticism.

• NT
  Mark (gk)
  Luke (gk)
  John (gk)
  Acts (gk)
  Romans (gk)
  1 Corinthians (gk)
  Ephesians (eng)
  1-2 Timothy (eng)
  Titus (eng)
  1 Peter (eng)
  Jude (eng)

reasons for NT4

1. can complete the quadrafecta (quadrilla?) of gospels
   
2. can study a non-Pauline epistle in greek
   
3. long term in ministry greek will probably be used more - and i'm more likely to take it for granted (i.e. i should keep working on it this year)
   
4. i i don't think i'll do ATBGE (advanced topics in biblical greek exegesis - or simply, nerd greek), but i plan to audit it
   
5. doing aramaic means i'll be doing a language related to hebrew anyway

reasons for OT4

1. we can do a whole book of the bible in an original language - everything else has been overview, with a deeper focus on particular areas only
   
2. zech is a pretty crucial book in the NT (particularly matthew i think)
   
3. it's my last chance to study in hebrew - i don't think any masters subjects are in hebrew, only greek
   
4. it'd probably make sense to keep hebrew up whilst learning aramaic

so that's my thinking. what do you think, faithful reader(s?)?

book reading tizzy

i've loved getting my head into some books of late.
first came Gulliver's Travels (via gutenburg.org), then i finished off Calvin's Institutes, then Ben Elton's Inconceivable, then the diary of Anne Frank, then a penguin excerpt from Herodotus, Xerxes Invades Greece.

Gulliver was great, particularly as i'd only ever read a dumbed-down version of the first part, the voyage to Lilliput (which the supposed abomination of a film is broadly based on). what was striking was the decline in humanity evidenced in each of the four parts. the God-fearer Swift was interested to show the absolute depravity of man, which is revealed bit-by-bit throughout. indeed, by the end of the book (SPOILER ALERT) Gulliver cannot stand the sight nor smell of others of his species, so disappointed is he with the race he was unfortunate enough to be born of.

Calvin was long. and often concerned with defending orthodox Christianity against people who are long-gone and arguments long-forgotten. i was struck with his thoughts on baptism, as well as confirmation, which i will write about soon. i'll probably have to read it all again when i finish college - the beginning, read two years ago on the bus, is a distant memory.

Elton is a great writer, whether for TV or his novels. he did a great job in this book of making the whole vibe associated with trying to conceive a heck of a lot lighter. this isn't why i was reading it - but the depths of despair i understand can be associated with this issue, when cut with Elton's humour, couldn't hurt. i think...

Anne Frank was great. seeing the war from a little teeny-bopper's perspective (i refuse to say tweenager) was very different. i've talked to people who were her age but in Australia (my nan) - a thoroughly different perspective - as well as someone her age in Germany (my Gast-Oma). it's funny to think that they probably all would've gotten along well. what i found hard reading it was as the dates got closer to (SPOILER ALERT) her being found and taken to a concentration camp was her ignorance. the last entry shows her to be a typical selfish child - like all 14 year old girls the world over since time immemorial - who just happens to be in hiding with seven others in Nazi-occupied Holland. so she whinges to her diary - and that's it. no warning. the hagiography in the beginning of the book was a bit odd, yet not unexpected. but a great example of the pointlessness of war, greed, xenophobia, that catches all and sundry up in its wake.

finally, Xerxes. this is where the inspiration for the movie the 300 came from. a couple of years ago i read Thucydides' the Peloponnesian War, which has a very similar style. frustratingly, there are 9 and a half blank pages, and the story isn't finished - (SPOILER ALERT) Athens is sacked - and the book stops! what happens to the ships that have sailed down south? does Xerxes make it across the isthmus? of all the relatively inane things that are included, why include them, and not finish this part of the story, AND leave blank pages? what are you doing with Penguin Epics mr/mrs Penguin? anyway, it was interesting to read Herodotus explain the origins of all the various tribes and nations - where they'd come from, who they moved on, their descent, origin of their name etc. it is bizarre to think of a time when you could emigrate somewhere where there was noone where you were going - hey, this looks like a good place to start a settlement that will still be here in a few thousand years!

but otherwise, onto some serious reading. Ricoeur, Figuring the Sacred. should keep me going a little while.

Calvin: why baptism?

i'm getting closer to finishing Calvin's Institutes. in the second-last chapter he has a go at the five sacraments rejected as unbiblical (confirmation, penance, extreme unction, orders and marriage). he doesn't have a problem with the first or last two, just with them being called sacraments in the same way as the lord's supper or baptism are.

in speaking against penance, he writes:

As if baptism were wiped out by sin, and is not rather to be recalled to the memory of the sinner whenever he thinks of forgiveness of sins, so that from it he may gather himself together, take courage, and confirm his faith that he will obtain the forgiveness of sins, which has been promised him in baptism!
IV.xix.17

that is, one of the key reasons for baptism is to recall, when you fall into sin, that you are one of those Christ died to redeem, and to go and sin no more.

the wisdom of wedlock

i tried to follow the same basic outline for all three weeks, so the outline was again

i] what is wedlock?
ii] we need wisdom to guide us through wedlock
iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems wedlock

again, it was an opportunity to put together some of the strands from ethics this year.

i] we first thought through the importance of wedlock in the media - both the gossip columns as well as the political sphere. we also recognised that we all have some interest in the topic - most of us are the product of wedlock, and most of us either are, will be, or desire to be married one day.

again, we looked at Gen 1-2 and 3, to see that there is a tarnished goodness in marriage - it is spoilt by sin, but there is still goodness in marriage.

ii] Proverbs is a bit politically incorrect - the context is the father to the son. and you can't just make it all gender non-specific, it doesn't always work. so that, as well as the context where most people are married (most at church aren't) means we need wisdom to apply the wisdom of Proverbs to us in our situations and contexts.

the two extremes are the adulteress and the quarrelsome woman.

• as far as the adulteress is concerned, this is not marriage advice but fooling around/sowing-wild-oats kind of advice. she is alluring
  

  Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
  let us delight ourselves with love.
  For my husband is not at home;
  he has gone on a long journey;
  he took a bag of money with him;
  he won’t be back for a month.”
  Prov. 7.18-20

  but despite the intoxication of the thought of 'lovemaking till morning', this woman leads us to death.
  
• the other extreme is marrying poorly
  

  a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
  Prov. 9.13b
  
  Better to live on a corner of the roof
  than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
  Prov. 25.24
  
  Better to live in a desert
  than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
  Prov. 21.19

  
  
• the middle point, the third way, is to choose your wife well and enjoy your life with her.
  

  May your fountain be blessed,
  and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
  A loving doe, a graceful deer—
  may her breasts satisfy you always,
  may you ever be captivated by her love.
  Prov. 5.18-19

  
  
• an even better good tho, than finding a good wife, is finding miss wisdom herself, and marrying her.
  

  Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
  and call understanding your relative.
  She will keep you from the forbidden woman,
  from the adulteress with her smooth words.
  Prov. 7.4-5

  that is, finding true wisdom will keep you from following the path of folly to death.
  this places the good of marriage into it's appropriate place, that is, it is a good thing to marry (Prov. 18.22), but this good is secondary to the goodness of seeking wisdom; the folly of marrying the quarrelsome woman is therefore not a good to be pursued.

iii] this then is how Jesus redeems wedlock. such that Paul can write to the Corinthians both of the goodness of marriage, but also great good of not being married. so then marriage is seen differently, as it points people to the love of Christ for the church. but singleness is seen differently also:

1. because we’re part of a community of believers, unmarried people can honour marriage, by being glad for those who are married without bitterness and envy, and caring for those who are married in their own areas of need.
   
2. part of this can be making sure marrieds don’t turn their marriages and families if they have them into an idol. you can do this by reminding them of those beyond their immediate horizon, that God’s Kingdom is to be our horizon, and service of others is to be the way of life for all Christians, whatever our marital status.
   
3. single people can model in a different way what it looks like to be a Christian who is content with the riches we share in Christ. this means being sexually pure, making the most of the gift of singleness. this also means that while you may ask God for the gift of marriage, there is no place for thinking of yourself as a second-class Christian, or for making crass jokes about getting people married. there may be many reasons that people are single, some not by choice, but others are single for well-thought through reasons.

finally, i reflected a bit more on the sadness that singleness can be, because it is good part of God's good creation.
and then there was a call in line with Heb. 13.4, that all are to honour marriage.
and lastly, a reminder to all, to keep focussing on the thing greater than the greatest marriage, the future of all believers, in the closest of relationships with our saviour.

the wisdom of work

doing a series on proverbs at church atm.
the first week was an intro (1-9), 2 weeks ago was wine, last week i was on with work, as well as the next two weeks with wedlock and then words.
i stole the titles from st albans lindfield when we did these a while ago (you may remember me posting thoughts from my intro talk)

i've really found ethics helpful this year, and we spent a bit of time thinking about work, so it was nice to try and put it all together

my basic outline:
i] what is work?
ii] we need wisdom to guide us through work
iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems work

i] tried to show that work is part of creation, that even though tarnished by sin and cursed by God, it's not devoid of good. there's usually both good and bad in all work, and what's good one day can be toilsome the next.

ii] talked through three areas where proverbs is particularly vocal:

1. honesty
   

   The balance and scales must be just according to the Lord;
   he concerns himself with the weights of the pouch.
   Prov. 16.11

2. the way you work
   here i talked about the two poles - the sluggard on the one hand
   

   The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
   it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
   Prov. 26.15

   - and the wicked, on the other, who i tried to show were not dissimilar to the workaholic.
   

   10 My son, if sinners entice you,
   do not consent 11 If they say,
   “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
   let us ambush the innocent without reason;"
   [...]
   18 these men lie in wait for their own blood;
   they set an ambush for their own lives.
   19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
   it takes away the life of its possessors.
   Prov. 1.10-19

   what proverbs advises is therefore contentment, such that we can pray this prayer with Jesus in the Lord's prayer:
   

   Two things I ask of you;
   deny them not to me before I die:
   Falsehood and lies keep far from me;
   give me neither poverty nor riches,
   but give me only my daily bread.
   lest I be full and deny you
   and say, “Who is the LORD?”
   or lest I be poor and steal
   and profane the name of my God.
   Prov. 30.7-9

3. generosity
   

   Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
   and he will repay him for his deed.
   Prov. 19.17

iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems work.   yet even saying this, we need to recognise the deep fallen-ness of so much work, where people are forced into demeaning jobs, where people are unable to find work, where physical or mental illness or disability deny people the opportunities to work, and others are in pointless, purpose-less jobs. thankfully we can see how even in jobs that seem close to pointless, these areas of work have value

1. Creation
   this is stuff like subduing and having dominion. like mothers changing nappies, people building engineers, weeding
   
2. Community
   keeping society functioning. IT, accountants, all these sort of things which seem quite pointless in any eternal sense are hence given purpose
   
3. Gospel
   

i finished off talking about Luther, his idea of vocation (Beruf), that we are called by God into his service - thus making all of life holy, be it changing nappies, applying for jobs, plucking chickens, taking out the rubbish.

therefore we can understand why Luther, even if Jesus were coming back tomorrow, would still plant an apple tree today.


and that was it.
i wanted to talk about the idea of rest, and how that fits in. but no time.

Eucharist in John 6?

a while ago i summarised Calvin's Short Treatise on the Lord's Supper.

i began thinking about it again in relation to John 6 and what's going on there. in the anglican prayer book service, i thought it said something like 'may the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in eternal life.'

in John 6.53-58 Jesus says

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

now, it's pretty clear that Jesus is talking about his death, but it's not insignificant that the same terms used to talk about his death are the used to talk about the remembrance meal he instituted.

Calvin says in the aforementioned treatise

The bread and the wine are visible signs which represent the body and blood, but the name and title body and blood are given to them because they are as it were the instruments by which the Lord distributes them to us. (Section 14)

we want to protect people from popery (check out not a couple of the 39 articles!), but what happens at the Lord's table isn't nothing either. Calvin does a great job of charting this line between Luther and Zwingli in this respect.

reading a couple of protestant commentaries on John 6 (Hendricksen and Köstenberg), neither think it's about the institution of the eucharist, but Köstenberg does suggest Calvin might be on to something in that it is derivative - that is, we celebrate what Jesus tells us about sharing in his death by sharing in the meal. indeed, whenever we remember Jesus' death on our behalf is a great opportunity to share in a remembrance meal, celebrating our union with him in his death and resurrection. we are not obliged to do it every time, but by never doing it we miss out on engaging all our senses (hearing, speaking, seeing, feeling, tasting) - a beautifully creaturely way for us creatures to join together to remember Christ's death, instituted by our creator!

being Hauerwas

in between prolonged illness and exegeticals, i've managed to squeeze in a fair bit of Hauerwas. dan, pretty much the closest thing to a Hauerwas specialist, recommended i start with Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir, which i really loved.

i should add - Stanley Hauerwas is an American ethicist, who is strongly influenced by John Howard Yoder who was a Mennonite pacifist.

Hauerwas has worked at a variety of institutions - most notably Arkansas (which i was taught this week is actually said Arkansaw - who would have guessed!), Notre Dame and Duke. he came over to do the New College Lectures back in 1990, and as well as being named by Time magazine America's best theologian, he presented the 2000/2001 Gifford Lectures.

he's a really interesting guy - as mentioned above, Hannah's Child is a great introduction to him. there are also some great anecdotes about him.
an untrue, yet very funny one, is that he visited Harvard, asked 'where the library was at', and upon being told that people at Harvard didn't end sentences with prepositions, rephrased his question, 'where's the library at asshole'.
he denies this ever happened - but not that it is at all against his character (i.e., it could've, but didn't happen).*

my biggest problem with Hauerwas is he's written so voluminously! it's really hard to get through all he's written, particularly with others wanting to borrow the same books from the library! what i like about him is his emphasis on the centrality of the church, and the importance of simple acts such as kneeling and doing communion as signifying what it is to be a set-apart community. although he perhaps overstates the importance of for example doing the eucharist weekly, in the Australian, and particularly Sydney context, we have definitely gone to far in the other direction - there is a fear of making church look like church.

anyway, i'll keep trawling through. will say more when i have more to say.

* in The State of the University, 2007, p133.

Gaudí en la favela

a few years ago i stumbled upon a documentary about a guy in a brazilian favela who had been decorating it in a style uncannily like Gaudí. like all those living in the slums of brazil (he lives in sao paulo), he built his house from things he found, but in his case there was a tree on his 'property'*, which he incorporated into his dwelling, and it has gone from there.
bbc has a good report on their website here

the info for the doco is here, i'm pretty sure i watched it on abc, but it's probably pretty hard to find.

i love the creativity, the organic nature of his art, the unpretentiousness of it all (he trawls through building sites for things to keep adding to it). it reminds me of the refrain in Gen 1, where creation is to be fruitful and multiply - the creation keeps on creating with its God-given createdness. that is, Ezekiel's perfect temple is beautiful, but that perfect architecture gives way in Revelation to the perfect presence of God with us, and the river that feeds the trees that bring life and healing.

i love cities, but my favourite description of metropopli (?) comes from the sociologist Max Weber, who looked down from a sky-scraper and from there saw the city as an ecosystem, everything organically reacting to each other element. it's therefore not surprising to see the mixing of the metaphors of perfect city and garden, rather very fitting!

* i don't think favelas can ever be official even though there are millions living in them, they're 'domus non grata' (i don't actually speak latin, but that's my best guess!)

Hudson Taylor :: A Man in Christ

i've been busy (you may've guessed that from the lack of posts this last month). i've just finished an essay on Ezekiel and Regeneration, which i would like to talk about at some stage. but for the moment, here's a book review of a book i read a couple of months ago, which will appear at some stage on the webzine of AFES - websalt. check out their site for some really great and current reviews and articles.

Roger Steer. J. Hudson Taylor. A Man in Christ. Carlisle: Paternoster Lifestyle and OMF Publishing, 2001. 372p.

The name of Hudson Taylor is synonymous for many with Christianity in China. A man used mightily by God, this book traces his life in 48 bite-sized chapters, from his youth in England to his missionary work in China. On the way, you see God powerfully at work through a fallible man – but you also get the love story (stories!) and an enthralling picture of perseverance too – as you journey with him.

The first thing you learn is about Taylor’s parents, they always had a deep love for China and for the millions who didn’t know the love of Jesus. They always prayed for him that God would use him to reach China’s Millions.^[1] However he didn’t share this vision until after his conversion at 17 through the persistent prayers of his family. This is a great story of the power of persistent of prayer, a theme returned to often in this biography.

There are some other themes we come across in the formative years of Taylor’s life, one his agonising over whether to finish his medical training before heading off to the mission field, but also his determination to ask no one for money. Both of these are still live issues for many, the first for anyone trying to work out whether to pursue full-time paid ministry. The second is a question for those in ministry, as they consider asking for financial support. Reading biographies of people like Taylor, but also Brother Andrew^[2] and others, the way God provides exactly the amount required – even for the most sceptical – is really challenging.

In China, Hudson had a phenomenal impact. He taught himself to read Chinese whilst still in England, and quickly became proficient in many languages and dialects. His time was rarely trouble free, with disagreements with some missionaries and his incompetent sending mission organisation, as well his chronic sicknesses, deaths of those around him, war, persecution and betrayal. He did have great joy in seeing many be converted and mature in faith. He founded a mission organisation, the CIM (now OMF), and saw his audacious prayers for many co-workers answered.

When you read this biography, you don’t get the picture of a superhuman. You do get the picture of a workaholic, and give thanks for those around him who made him rest. You also see a frail man, yet a man continuing to live the Christian life day by day, reading his bible and praying to the God in whom he put all his trust.

I don’t know if you get in to Christian biographies. I always feel a bit sceptical, wondering if they really did all that, and particularly what the biographer chose to leave out. You end up siding with Taylor in any dispute, the only failure I can think of is when he’s quite old and gets a bit lost in a talk – which happens to the best of us regardless of age! But that said, the book does seem to be really well researched, from personal letters, other biographies, and I guess any filing cabinets around the OMF offices – and is still crafted into a riveting story.

Reading this biography of the great Hudson Taylor is really rewarding – I tried to read it one chapter a night before bed, and often read many more. You really feel his deep love for the unreached people of China,^[3] and understood his absolute determination in going where reason should have deterred him. But the self-sacrificial love of Christ compelled him to go where no one else would. I would recommend getting into this biography, and to pray with him for the many unreached people throughout China, East Asia, and the world.

[1] the title of Hudson’s magazine, now called East Asia’s Millions.
[2] God’s Smuggler, London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1968.
[3] CIM stands for China Inland Mission – until Taylor, missionaries rarely ventured far from the main coastal cities.

i think you can buy it from OMF or perhaps here and support a great missionary agency at the same time!

girl power

so we have:
a female monarch (QEII)
a female governor general (quentin bryce)
a female premier (christina keneally)
a female lord mayor (clover moore)
and now*, a female prime minister (julia gillard)

perhaps, for those still not sold on the 'noughty generation' (as the one which comes after gen-y), we label all those born now as gen-w, or maybe even gen-XX"

* i realise there is a handover period but it's as good as now

Acts 1 Chiasm

Luke-Acts exam in a few hours.
a little chiasm to keep you going:

Acts 1.2

a   ἄχρι ἧς ἡμέρας
b       ἐντειλάμενος τοῖς ἀποστόλοις
c           διὰ πνεύματος ἁγίου
b'      οὓς ἐξελέξατο
a'  ἀνελήμφθη

... until the day he was taken up (a,a')
after commanding the apostles he had chosen (b,b')
by the holy spirit (c)

you like?

Matthew 18 (reprieve) - forgiving one another

part 2 of my 2 part series on forgiveness yesterday. again, like last week, i had to change it up a fair bit. but that was a good thing, it meant it was fresh, and didn't feel like a recycled talk.

it was good to read the lead article in the catechist, on forgiveness in the face of unrepentance.

i think the issue is that we have one word, 'forgiveness', and we use it to cover two semantic fields:

1. forgiving the person who repents, holding no bitterness, no grudge, but freely forgiving as we have been forgiven
2. a readiness to forgive, to stand, arms outstretched, again holding no bitterness, but in the face of unrepentance, never shutting off the possibility of a reconciliation, although that is not at the present time a real possibility

thankfully there was a question in question time precisely on this, which meant i was able to draw the two threads of the talk together - both the readiness, as well as the actual forgiving.

a good case study is forgiving the dead person - you can't actually forgive them, in that a relationship is restored. but what you can do is give up the bitterness and hatred that would otherwise destroy you.

psalm 32 (reprieve) - forgiven by God

i had the privilege of preaching from Psalm 32 again on sunday just gone. in a preaching group at college i got some great feedback leading into it. in thinking about 'exegeting your congregation', it was a completely different congregation. from the north shore to a city asian congregation was in many ways a whole different world.
i think the main change was from challenging the average north-shorer's expectations of the good life, to what the psalm promises - freedom from guilt and shame.

i'm still struggling with the both-and of exegeting the passage and exegeting the congregation, but having the talk already (from 18 months ago) and then rethinking it with a different group in mind really helped me to hone the message.
perhaps preparing a talk for one group and then redoing it for another is a good way to check if you're on message (God's) or just trying to target what you see as the particular traps a stereotyped group fall into.


this sunday: i'm redoing matthew 18vv15, the same congregation shift. just rereading the talk means there's a lot of change to do!

religion in the classroom

here's another piece of gold from onn

Christian Groups: Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Alongside Global Warming
what i really like is you're not heaps sure who they're having a go at. it starts off having a go at the cousin of the young-earth creationist, the premillenialist (maybe once removed? i can never work that out). but by the end of the clip, i'm not so sure. what do you think?

h/t byron, who is back with a whole bunch of stuff thinking about this world.