Jones on Job

I had the privilege of interviewing my PT professor Hywel Jones about his work on the book of Job. It can be found at the Creed or Chaos website.

Poetry

I had the opportunity to teach a Sunday school session on the subject of Christian poetry recently. Here is the audio. We looked at four poems, from the likes of T.S. Eliot, John Donne, and George Herbert.

Also, I led one section in our Ethics class on "The Law and the Sermon on the Mount." Hopefully nothing too radical.

College slogans

I'm back...but I can't promise to be consistent. I know this is necessary for truly worthwhile blogs, but time is "more than money" as Switchfoot says.

Anyhow, for fun and also for academic purposes I've compiled a list of Christian college slogans. You might ask what the purpose of such a collection is. I think at the very least they show that colleges, just like any business corporation, have to encapsulate their "image" in a statement that reveals something about itself. Also in many ways these slogans portray the "vocational shift" that higher education in general is taking. Here they are: what do you think?

His World. Your Calling.

No Greater Task: hearts and minds renewing God’s world.

Find your place in God’s world.

Catch the Spirit.

The Opportunity Place--God's Special Place for You

Firmly grounded, fully engaged.

Momentum for Life.

Engaging the culture, changing the world.

A Matter of Mind and Spirit.

A Global Center for Christian Thought and Spiritual Renewal.

For Christ and Scripture.

Challenge your mind...build your faith.

For Christ and for liberty.

A Better Paradigm. A Higher Education.

Blog Vacation

This blog will be on vacation for one month, because the blogger will as the British say, "be on holiday." I'm not an avid enough of a blogger to get a replacement while I take a break, like superstar evangelical blogger Justin Taylor. So until next time, keep it real.

Stop footnoting yourself

Joe Kazinski has written a book about wiffleball.[1] In it he basically argues that one of the main problems with wiffleball playing these days is that people treat it like baseball, when it is not. This is partially true, but altogether obvious. In my previous work, I have argued a more compelling case that wiffleball is more like tee-ball.[2] For the fact of the matter is, as I have maintained in subsequent works,[3] wiffleball is performed within the rubric of the nascent state of ball and bat, so that the child-like re-enactment of one’s repression is figuratively displayed in the aggression of pitching and hitting. Reviewers of my work lauded its genius.[4] Kazinski’s work leaves much to be desired, but mine does not (see for example my recent Wiffleball Nation and For the Love of Wiffleball). It is clear that the outstanding expert on this subject is the present writer.
[1] “Why I am the best at wiffleball”
[2] “Why I know more about wiffleball than anyone else” – published by me, written by me, edited by me.
[3] “The Wiffleball Bible” – by me.
[4] It must be said that one of the reviewers was my cousin, and the other was a student of mine. But they nonetheless displayed the scholarly objectivity and detachment necessary in academic reviews.

I read a book review recently that was basically like the mock-review above: instead of being an explanation, appreciation, and criticism of the book under consideration it ended up being a discussion of the merits of the reviewer's own work. This straight up ticked me off as a selfish and amateurish piece. What's more, I cannot believe that the journal (which is semi-reputable) allowed this to be published! Perhaps the only thing worse than a review of this sort is a book of this sort - where the author interacts with no one but himself and his previous works. If you are going to think of yourself as the world-expert on any given subject, start a blog. But don't actually publish something with such presumption!

Ayn Rand U.

Just what we need: a college dedicated to reviving the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It's called Founders and of course its website looks attractive.

Dead Sea Scrolls Introductory Works

Note: I am not an expert in the history and text of the Dead Sea Scrolls: this is the reason I decided to read these introductory books for amateurs. Given that I am planning on seeing the exhibit of the DSS in San Diego soon, I wanted to be a semi-informed observer. Here are my brief thoughts on each resource:

1. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Lim (OUP, 2005)

Lim offers a great overview of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as a summary of the scholarship on the scrolls. He also includes an entertaining chapter of some of the political and academic drama surrounding the issues of ownership and accessibility of the scrolls since their discovery. Particularly helpful is his discussion of how the DSS contribute to our understanding of the history of the OT text - he points out the major areas in which they have filled in certain gaps in the textual transmission process. His account of the Qumran community is engaging, although he does not do justice to alternative theories that place the origin of the manuscripts outside the Essene community. However, he also does well to place the Essenes in their original context of second temple Judaism. In my estimation, even if the scrolls weren't produced at Qumran, it still helps to know about the time and place in which they first existed, and Lim does provide us with a good glimpse of the original context.

2. What are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why do they Matter? by David Noel Freedman (Eerdmans, 2007)

Freedman is a formidable scholar of the OT, Early Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, this book is very accessible. Written in a question and answer format, the book covers all the introductory questions like "How were they discovered?" "What were the distinctive beliefs of the Qumran community?" and "How do the DSS relate to Early Christianity?" His discussion of the eschatology of the Essenes fills in a gap that was uncovered by Lim's book: so if you aren't up to date on the terms "children of light, wicked high priest, and son of light" this book is a good place to turn. Also, Freedman is clearly an expert on OT textual criticism, but he is also able to explain the differences and similarities between the DSS, the LXX, and the Masoretic text in a way that is easily understandable. The book also has a helpful glossary of terms related to the DSS. This is the first book I would read if I was completely unfamiliar with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

3. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity by James C. VanderKam (Harper, 2004)

For those interested in a more in-depth introduction, this is the place to look. It is an update of his 1994 work "The Dead Sea Scrolls Today." Unlike Freedman and Lim's work, VanderKam gives several example translations of various passages from the scrolls and places them each in their theological, communal, and historical context, while addressing its relation to the Hebrew Bible, etc. He also devotes more space (which is good!) explaining the alternative theories of the scrolls' origins, although in the end he comes down siding with the traditional Essene community hypothesis. Since it's a larger introductory work, it contains pictures, graphs, and manuscript charts that might aid the visually inclined. He also includes some more technical discussion on the method of dating, and the technology used to study the manuscripts. Of course no book about the DSS would be complete without at least some writing about the scandals and controversies associated with their preservation and editing, and VanderKam does well to present this section in an equally scholarly tone as the rest of the work.

Lastly, for those interested in translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there's a few affordable ones out there:

1. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation" by Michael Wise and Martin Abegg
2. "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English" by Geza Vermes

On Eliot

(From a paper I wrote on the transition from "existential to eschatological" in TS Eliot's poetry):

The view of the “self” for Eliot is closely tied with one’s view of history and time. When poetic characters reflect on the significance and meaning of history, they disclose their personal understanding of their relationship to time. The early poetry of Eliot treated history as something to be neglected, or as a troublesome conundrum. Prufrock did not explicitly wrestle with the issue of “history,” but his memory is short, and he is seemingly too distracted to reflect on it in any sort of meaningful way. “History” for him is too grand of a concern to engage. Gerontion’s description of history, as we recall, was more thoughtful: “history has many cunning passages, contrived corridors/and issues, deceives with whispering ambitions, guides us by vanities.” For him, history exercised an invisible influence on the present, such that individuals were left all but helpless in light of “her (history’s) supple confusions.” The only proper response to history was one of defeat. In “Ash Wednesday,” the reality of history can never be fully understood, as the present is the only “actuality:”

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are…
(Eliot 85)

The saint’s perspective is directed toward eternity, and thus the transience of life is a necessary contrast to the reward in the future. ‘Little Gidding’ introduces the most unified view of history in Eliot’s poetry, emphasizing the immanence of the past on the present, by suggesting that “history is a pattern of timeless moments.” The concept of “timeless moments” implies the significance of every moment in history, but more importantly signifies the divine presence in transient reality. Individuals participating in spiritual things experience “transcendence” over time. Thus, the moment of belief, of prayer, is the ultimate “timeless moment.” Following from an affirmation of both time and eternity, ‘Little Gidding’ provides a view of the promised future that is hopeful, giving us the sense that the present moment is not the end of the matter.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(Eliot 208)

Pieces of poetry

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.

Lord, I am not worthy Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.

From - TS Eliot, Ash Wednesday

Milton and Dostoyevsky

"Though different in so many ways, John Milton and Fyodor Dostoyevsky are one in their use of the biblical narrative of Christ's temptations in the wilderness at key moments in their works. Each address the problem of theodicy - seeking to justify the ways of God to men."

- Andrey Gorbunov, Literature and Theology 20.1 (2006)

Sayers

"The one thing I am here to say to you is this: that it is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is a lie to say that dogma does not matter; it matters enormously. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is virtually necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe. It is hopeless to offer Christianity as a vaguely idealistic aspiration of a simple and consoling kind; it is, on the contrary, a hard, tough, exacting and complex doctrine, steeped in a drastic and uncompromising realism."

- Dorothy Sayers, "Creed or Chaos", p 28.

Law and Love

(A) shared view of the relationship between love and law between the Old and New Testaments represents a major instance of continuity with respect to love and law between the testaments. However, in addition, in this case continuity should not be thought of as perfect symmetry for the NT gives love the priority (cf Rom 13:8, Gal 5:13) while it may reasonably be said that because the OT puts the love of neighbor in a legal context, it gives the system of law the priority...

- Richard Allbee, JSOT, 31.2 (2006)

Prophetic

This is taken from a 1952 article by Tadakzu Uwoki in the "Japan Christian Quaterly" and has striking relevance for today's context, particularly in relation to America's foreign policy:

"Politically speaking, the Japanese dared to make a great leap after the war. Democracy is taken for granted in these days. The trouble is that people are not well trained in the democratic principles. On the contrary, some are making use of them for undemocratic purposes. In any sudden change of a social or political order, it is quite natural that superficial gestures are taken to be genuine action. A similar phenomenon occurred some eighty years ago, just after the Meiji Resotration. The character of a nation accustomed to feudal ideas for hundreds of years, would not very easily be made over. There were Chrsitna leaders who warend the people that the change in the form of government would not alter the national characteristics at one stroke. Constitutionally-minded people must be produced through a longer preocess of education. The most urgent necessity was the cultivation of a new spirit and character in the nation. This warning was well-founded. The feudalistic character of the people remained alive far into the constitutional era."

Psalms

Psalm 1 not only identifies devotion to Torah as "the way of the righteous" but its authorial voice also embodies attentiveness to Scripture through its dependence on and interpretation of other texts. In fact, Psalm 1 is a tapestry of the writings of ancient Israel. In its first three verses, Ps 1 alludes to Deut 6:6-9, Josh 1:8, Gen 39:3, 23; Jer 17:5-8; and Ezek 47:12. These five allusions serve a critical exegetical function by actually modeling the very devotion to Torah that the psalm extols and by interpreting reality in light of this reading.

Brian Russell "Psalm 1 as an Interpreter of Scripture" IBQ, 26.4 (2005)

Summer reading

For the month of June, I am consciously avoiding any specific theological reading unless absolutely necessary (for Sunday school preparation, etc). This is because I want to actually feel like I'm having a summer break; although I enjoy reading theology, it has practically become part of my job and so I'm drawing the line of demarcation.

One was "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester. A very interesting account of two men who contributed much to the writing of the massive Oxford English Dictionary, a veritable tome and exhaustive treatment of the English language. The madman spent several decades from his place in the asylum writing and reading, in order to help with the citations of the OED. But the thing is, while he was clearly off his rocker in certain respects, in many other ways he was perfectly rational. It is a story worth reading. I enjoyed the chapter about Samuel Johnson's

dictionary too - he is one of my heroes.

The second was "Under the Banner of Heaven" by John Krakauer. It is basically a history of Mormonism mixed in with the story of a group of Mormon fundamentalists who believe in polygamy. Certainly Krakauer offers a "critical history" here, arguing for the persistent and uneasy tension between Mormonism and American culture. It's also includes disturbing accounts of murder. But all in all, I think it's a good digest of Mormon belief and history from an outsider's perspective.

I'm developing an interest of sorts in Mormonism - not out of sympathy, but out of curiosity. It is a very fast growing religion, and although Krakauer wants to place it as a religion at odds with American culture, I tend to think it shares several key characteristics with American life and thought. For one, Joseph Smith basically saw himself as an entrepeneur, and came up with a new "product" to match the tastes of his day. This was to be sure just one example where Christian religion and capitalist marketing have been mixed in the US. Mormonism is also heavily moralistic without a doctrinal center. This is not to say that they don't have doctrine - they do and much of it is flat out bizarre. But on the practical level the upstanding behavior of the community is held above "orthodoxy" and in many ways this reflects the pragmatic spirit of America from its beginnings.

Beckwith

Christianity Today recently interviewed Francis Beckwith, the former president of the Evangelical Theological Society who resigned because of his re-entrance into the Roman church. Here's a snippet of the interview: "The Catholic Church frames the Christian life as one in which you must exercise virtue—not because virtue saves you, but because that's the way God's grace gets manifested. As an evangelical, even when I talked about sanctification and wanted to practice it, it seemed as if I didn't have a good enough incentive to do so. Now there's a kind of theological framework, and it doesn't say my salvation depends on me, but it says my virtue counts for something."

This is disturbing to me on several levels. Firstly, I find it troubling that Beckwith's first mention of "grace" is in connection with "virtue" rather than "redemption." Protestants have traditionally had little problem with speaking of grace in connection with sanctification and conformity to Christ, but in our best moments we have clearly established that grace in this respect is impossible unless we are first clothed with the righteousness of Christ. In other words, before grace works "inside" it comes as a gift from the "outside" - that is, through Christ's life, death, and resurrection which doesn't just start the process of redemption but actually accomplishes it.

This leads to the second point, where Beckwith says that "as an evangelical, even when I talked about sanctification and wanted to practice it, it seemed as if I didn't have a good enough incentive to do so." My response: does the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone not provide enough incentive to pursue holiness, that we have to substitute it with another gospel of faith plus works? Put simply, what about the incentive of "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me" or "We were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life?" It is extremely vexing to me why one would want to exchange the death and resurrection as our incentive for sanctification for something else, which is inevitably a form of self-justification.

Which takes us to the last point, where Beckwith says "Now there's a kind of theological fraemwork, and it doesn't say my salvation depends on me, but it says my virtue counts for something." It seems to me that the underlying text here is, "Now I can finally contribute something to my salvation." In the Protestant scheme, our virtue does indeed count for something: it "adorns the doctrine of God our Savior" (Titus 2:10). What our virtue does not do is "count" before God as earned credit with the heavenly bank. We have two choices when all is said and done: the righteousness that is from the Law or righteousness that is by faith in Christ (Phil 3:9) -seeking my righteousness or receiving the righteousness of another.

Hopefully the fact that the president of the ETS has run away from the true apostolic and catholic Church does not mean others will follow.

Chronicles

The Chronicler's adherence to a 'theology of immediate retribution' provides his dominant compositional technique, particularly formative in his reshaping of the history of Judah after the schism. 'Retribution theology' refers to the author's apparent conviction that reward and punishment are not deferred, but rather follow on the heels of the precipitating events. For the Chronicler sin always brings judgment and disaster, while obedience and righteousness yield the fruit of peace and prosperity.

- R. Dillard "Reward and Punishment in Chronicles" WTJ 46

FV

Doug Wilson is indeed a prolific blogger. I must say I am impressed with the sheer amount of coherent words he is able to string together on a daily basis, covering all sorts of topics. If he was a writer in ancient Israel they would had to fell half the trees in Lebanon to provide enough paper for his writing.

Anyhow, I was surprised to see that Wilson is responding to every chapter of every book that engages in a critical analysis of the Federal Vision. So he is currently responding to By Faith Alone edited by Gary Johnson, and he recently finished Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry edited by Dr. Scott Clark. The responses by Wilson can be found here. One consistent reservation that Wilson registers is the idea of the republication of the covenant of works at Sinai. He thinks that this is setting up God's people for inevitable confusion, because if the COW was republished at Sinai, it would mean there were two principle operating at the same time in redemptive history: the Covenant of works and the Covenant of Grace. If this is the case, then Wilson argues that we somehow have to distinguish between which parts of this era relate to works and which relate to grace - something that would be unnecessarily tedious. I don't want to get into it in detail here, but I think one problem is that Wilson does not seem to understand the typological aspect of the covenant of works in the Mosaic economy. Here I would simply recommend an interesting article by TL Donaldson called the "The Curse of the Law and the Inclusion of the Gentiles" (in New Testament Studies, 32 - 1986- pgs. 94-112). Here is a great paragraph from the article that relates to the subject at hand:

"Israel serves as a 'representative sample' for the whole of humankind. Within Israel's experience, the nature of the universal human plight - bondage to sin and to the powers of this age - is thrown into sharp relief through the functioning of the law. The law, therefore, cannot accomplish the promise; but by creating a representative sample in which the human plight is clarified and concentrated, it sets the stage for redemption. Christ identifies (with) not only the human situation in general (Gal 4:4), but also with Israel in particular, thereby becoming the representative individual of the representative people" (pg. 105-106).

Islam

Here is the first paragraph of a paper I did for a "Witness to Muslims" class:

Malise Ruthven states decisively, “If there is a single word that can be taken to represent the primary impulse of Islam, be it theological, political, or sociological, it is tawhid – making one, unicity…”[1] The Muslim doctrine of God (Allah) underlies this noticeably strong emphasis on the oneness of Islam: it forms the very first part of the Islamic creed – “there is no god but Allah…” All subsets of Muslim belief and practice including the authority structure, the law, and the community subserve the aim of submitting to the one will of the one God Allah. Ruthven further asserts that “the overwhelming stress on God’s uniqueness reflects the polemical context in which early Islam was forged. Tawhid simultaneously challenges Arabian paganism, Zoroastrian dualism, and the Christian doctrine of divine incarnation.”[2] Indeed, one of the first visible acts of Muhammad was his destruction of all the pagan idols set up in Mecca, save one: Allah. Perhaps metaphorically this is how adherents of Islam might like to conceive of its status: a force that has dispersed all competitors and established itself as the supreme religion above all others. For fourteen centuries Islam, despite all its internal turmoils, has sought to remain committed to tawhid, zealously guarding it against pagan polytheism and Christian Trinitarianism.
[1] Malise Ruthven, Islam: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 1997), 49.
[2] Ibid, 50.

Music

A diversity of friends means a diversity of musical tastes, and I rather like that. So here (without consulting them) are some friendly favorites:

My friend Peter likes Orishas, a Cuban rap group that is really quite musically diverse.

My friend Stephen likes Carla Bruni, a French jazzy-type singer with great song-writing skills.

My friend Scott likes Christian Forshaw, a great saxophonist who integrates choral works with his creative instrumentation.

My friends Justin and Erika like Regina Spektor, a great lyricist with a unique voice: the song "Samson" is worth pondering.

My friend Ellis likes (or at least used to) Blessid Union of Souls, a band with clever (if sometimes depressing) lyrical rock ballads.

My sister Tami likes the Magnetic Fields, an old-school sounding band with very melodic and memorable tunes.