Conversational theology can be done at the lunch table, the coffee machine and now here on the web.
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This looks like a great way of keeping the Hebrew going. You have to download the fonts (scroll to the bottom of the page for the link) which I did in a matter of seconds, and then you're good to go. As they say here.
I'm moving to a flat on Saturday. It's on the same street where I currently live which is nice, since I won't have to get used to a whole new area. I'll be sharing with another girl who graduated from Westminster this summer. Having arrived in the country with just two suitcases, I now have a coffee table, a dining table, a TV, a TV stand, a bookshelf, a mattress, a reclining armchair and hopefully, a bed. Thanks everyone!
Not sure how long it'll take for us to get the internet connected, so there may be a hiatus in blogging. Hope to be back soon,
I just read this on the BBC website. What particularly caught my eye was that the expert cited at the end of the article is in fact based at Bryn Mawr College, just up the road from me here in Philadelphia.
My local tiny supermarket (imagine a Spar or a small Co-op) has a shelf display dedicated to British items including, wait for it, Lyle's Golden Syrup.
Coincidence? I think not.
So today's hermeneutics class was a bit more relaxed than in previous weeks. This may have been due in part to the pre-class discussion of pop vs. soda vs. coke vs. other.
For the benefit of my British readers, let me explain. Apparently, the term you use to refer to fizzy drinks is region-specific in the US. Here in Philadelphia, people usually talk about soda. Elsewhere (see this map) people call it pop, coke (even if it's not coke at all), or other.
In Mississippi, it's either 'drink' or 'drank'. I wonder what that tells us.
...when I in awesome wonder???
We sang this tonight and I was reminded of a thought I had months ago.
My wonder is far from awesome. Pretty feeble, actually. Surely what the writer meant was awestruck wonder, which is quite a different thing! Should we lobby for a change?
I believe the inestimable Jonathan Edwards predicted the rise of email some 200 or so years ago, only making the error of supposing it would free up lots of extra time for reading.
But not even he could have imagined the wonders of Skype. Free phone calls over the internet to anywhere in the world.
Let me repeat that:
Free phone calls to anywhere in the world
And, because Skype uses the speakers on a computer, rather than a phone that has to be held to your ear, it gives the illusion of real-life conversation rather better. It also makes it relatively easy to have group chats since everyone in the room can hear the speakers and a half-decent microphone should be able to pick up several voices. No time delay, no echo.
So everyone should sign up here. It takes a couple of minutes and, providing you have microphone and speakers, you can start making calls immediately. There's an easy search facility to find other people you know who are registered. My username is rosclarke, but if you just look for me under Ros Clarke, you'll find me pretty easily too.
So call me!
I've just spent a very fun hour at New Life Thrift Store in Glenside. You literally could furnish a whole house from this shop, not to mention stocking your bookshelves and filling your wardrobe. I got a couple of jumpers, a really nice waterproof jacket, a counterpane, some snow boots and my favourite thing of all - a Betty Crocker cookbook.
And the very lovely people in the store waived the very reasonable prices they were charging because I'm an international student at Westminster. How kind is that!
When we move into the flat, I shall definitely be back to check out the furniture section. And kitchen equipment - there was a very tempting Kenwood chef.
So now I know where to take Jess McClellan when she comes to visit!
And felt I ought to link the funniest thing I've read in ages for the benefit of all my newer readers. Enjoy!
Dan McCartney paraphrases Stanley Gundry's observations regarding the correlation between the church's political fortunes, philosophical outlook and the current predominating view of the millenium:
When the church is persecuted or composed of the disenfranchised, there is a tendency to premillenialism. In optimistic times, when the church is prospering materially and numerically but has little political clout, postmillenialism seems to predominate. And when the church is more comfortable or in league with the state, amillenialism is the favourer option.
McCartney, Dan G.
1988 The New Testament’s Use of the Old Testament. In Inerrancy and Hermeneutic. Ed. H. M. Conn. Pp. 101-116. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. p105
McCartney recognizes that the correspondence is not exact.
Perhaps not quite. But here's some thoughts from Dan McCartney on forming a genuinely biblical hermeneutic:
Certainly grammatical-historical exegesis is the most basic part of the foundation for understanding any biblical text. However, the conviction that the grammatical-historical meaning is the entire and exclusive meaning of the text seems to stem more from post-Enlightenment rationalistic presuppositions than from an analysis of the Bible’s understanding and interpretation of itself. Since such analysis leads to "problems," I suggest that the problems are not really generated by the New Testament’s use of the Old, but rather by our expectations as to what the New Testament’s use of the Old ought to be.
He then proposes four theses to bear in mind when forming a biblical hermeneutic:
First, hermeneutical method is a product of world view. Even for Christians, this world view is influenced not by Scripture alone but inescapably by cultural, intellectual, linguistic (pace Barr), spiritual, and even physical environment.
Second, hermeneutical method is subservient to hermeneutical goal. That is, the method is simply the tool used to reach a goal which is at least vaguely known beforehand.
Third, our world view must be compatible with the biblical writers' world view. An interpreter must recognize the function of world view, not only in the biblical writers but also in one's own interpretations, and must seek consciously to bring his or her world view into harmony with that of the Bible.
Finally, our hermeneutical goal must maintain identity with the goal of the New Testament writers, namely, the focus on Jesus Christ and his redemptive program.
McCartney, Dan G.
1988 The New Testament’s Use of the Old Testament. In Inerrancy and Hermeneutic. Ed. H. M. Conn. Pp. 101-116. Grand Rapids: Baker Books. p103
In class yesterday, Professor McCartney was explaining how for him, this had been a difficult and long-drawn-out conclusion to reach because of his modernist presuppositions. Coming to the conclusion that grammatical-historical exegesis is not the be-all and end-all of biblical interpretation does not, however, turn you into a postmodernist (in any sense of the word) nor does it allow for any and all interpretations of the bible to be valid.
What it does do is remove some of those rules that we all find so comforting. And it may make it harder for us to give short, easy answers to show why some interpretations are wrong.
But I refer the reader to earlier discussions on 'psychopathic minimalism' on this and David Field's blog (links here). We short change the people we minister to if we underinterpret scripture just as much as if we overinterpret. And the sooner we get over our modernist, Enlightenment straight-jacket, the better.
Just listening to the BBC World Service and hearing a discussion under the heading 'Why are there so few female suicide bombers?' Fascinating. It was as if the participants couldn't quite decide which was worse - suicide bombing or the Muslim culture that restricts women from becoming suicide bombers. I think perhaps a little perspective is needed...
Today has been a good day. I feel like I'm starting to make some progress with the paper I'm working on. I finally made it to chapel (which happens at about 10.30am in a different building from the one I work in so I always forget). I've been remembering why I came (Joshua 1:16 and Mark 10:29-30).
And when I arrived at my desk this morning I found this:
Thanks Karyn!
A hummingbird. Tinier than I'd imagined and fast and amazing. Also a red cardinal.
The Delaware River and New Jersey. So that's two states down. 48 to go. Or maybe not.
An assortment of very odd and slightly spooky scarecrows.
A Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue inspired by Mount Sinai.
A road sign advising you to 'Beware aggressive drivers'. Also one that warned: 'Whoa! Road hump ahead.'
A lot of US Navy planes (on the ground at the air base).
Thanks Jesse and Andrea for a fun time!
I'm linking this summary of the current state of Christian counselling here, just in case any of my WTS friends are reading my blog and haven't yet found the much more interesting stuff over on David Field's.
I think it's a pretty challenging summary which might suggest profitable lines of development for those concerned with this field. What do people who know more about this than me think?
Here are some things I'm finding hard right now:
Never being able to start a conversation with, 'Do you remember when...'
Never being able to start a conversation with, 'Do you know so-and-so?'
Never going anywhere and thinking, 'That was where...'
I know I've written about this at length elsewhere and probably bored most of you rigid but now that I'm experiencing this in reality I just want to say again how important the connection between people and places is.
'Place is space fraught with history' [according to Brueggemann, I think, but haven't got my notes here to check] and being in a space where I have no history, and with people with whom I have no shared experience, there is a profound loss of identity.
All of the letters (of which there have been a lot - thanks mainly to Dawn here), emails, phone conversations and so on are greatly appreciated. But none of them can replace the need for a personal history with the people I see here and a personal history with the place where I'm currently living. And that will take time.
So in the meantime, do pray that I'll find my identity secure in Christ and my home with him, remembering that we're all aliens and strangers longing for a better and more permanent home in the new heavens and the new earth.
I didn't mean that to sound quite as pseudo-profound as it probably does. What I mean is I am a Myers-Briggs introvert. Which is not to say I can't be chatty or confident with people. Rather it is to say that I find being with people draining and I need time alone to re-energise.
Which may be one reason why, three weeks into my time here I feel exhausted. There've been a lot of people to meet in those three weeks. Which is a good thing and much better than the alternative of feeling lonely, unwelcome or isolated.
I wonder how many of the PhD students are also I's. I would guess that there'd be very few extreme E's (extraverts) since people like that would be unlikely to contemplate two or three years spent in independent research. But a preponderance of I's in a room doesn't necessarily mean there'll be no interaction, just that the group is unlikely to be off down the pub together afterwards.
Actually I did go to the pub this evening. The Glenside Pub, it's called. Although it's not really a pub in the way any British person would use the term. It's quite a pleasant place to eat however, and it was a nice evening.
On the tables there were laminated cards with a picture of the US flag, the oath of allegiance and the words 'Pray and Remember'. I assume that this was to do with September 11th, but it still felt slightly odd.
'It is quite true that the Seventh Day is meant to teach the power of the Unoriginate and the non-action of created beings. But let us not for this reason abrogate the laws laid down for its observance, and light fires or till the ground or carry loads or institute proceedings in court...'
'If we keep and observe these, we shall gain a clearer conception of those things of which these are the symbols...'
Quoted in Yehoshua Amir, 'Authority and Interpretation of Scripture in Philo' in Mikra (ed. Mulder, M.J. and Sysling, H. [Peabody: Hendrickson, 2004])
Interesting, huh? So understanding the meaning of the symbol doesn't negate the need for the symbol. And understanding the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath doesn't constitute an excuse for disobedience.
Did you know it's the earliest known alphabetic language? Me either.
Sadly, most of our work will be from transliterated texts not the original cuneiform script. Which is a shame since I quite liked the idea of being able to wander round the British Museum reading stuff.
If you're not sure what cuneiform looks like there are some nice pictures here.
I've now had the first lecture for all my courses. One of the things that seems very different is the way work is assessed. There seems to be a lot more fluidity and discretion on the part of the lecturer. Part of which depends on their assessment of your contribution to class discussions. So for those of us who'd rather sit round chatting about what we think than write essays on it where you have to actually read stuff and check footnotes and all that, this seems ideal.
No word limits either. Just '20-25 pages' or 'a major paper'... So that makes life easier.
‘If the exegesis of the Song of Songs has been greatly debated and its allegorical significance, based on prophetic teaching confronted by contemporary history, has often been misunderstood, it is because the study of its genre and its literary structure has too often been neglected.
The vocabulary of the poem is directly and consistently biblical. The most classical themes are used: king, shepherd, flock, vineyard, garden, Lebanon, blossoming springtime, night, awakening; all with eschatological significance and grouped around the central motif, already developed by Hosea, Jeremiah, and III Isaiah: the unfaithful wife (Israel) taken back by her husband (Yahweh) as though he had just married her. The constant reference to the biblical motifs and the dramatization and reinterpretation of the event and aspirations of the period after Nehemiah indicate that this is pure midrash.'
in Approaches to Judaism: Theory and Practice, ed. W. S. Green, Brown Judaic Studies 1 (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1978), 41.
Anyone else think that there may be interesting links between midrash and interpretive maximalism?
Today was the first game of the new NFL season for the Philadelphia Eagles. I know this because the girls across the road had a party to celebrate and I went. With quite low expectations since there really aren't that many sports I enjoy watching on TV. Or indeed at all.
But the great thing about American football is that for every 30 seconds of play there are 10 minutes of adverts during which time it's perfectly acceptable to chat, eat, or even knit (all the girls, none of the men).
So by the time the Eagles party had morphed into a US-Open-final-and-knitting party, I felt quite at home.
And despite everyone's best efforts, I still have absolutely no clue what is happening in an American football game or why anyone should think it matters. But even I can tell it's not rugby.
Rounders for boys. As far as I could make out. Boys who have to wear big gloves to help them catch. I never thought I'd find a sillier game than cricket but this may be it.
Still it was a nice day and I had a good time meeting people and chatting and eating until it got dark.
'For the theologian treats of nothing except in relation to the first beginning and the last end. He is in the intellectual order what the saint is in the practical order: a man wholly engaged with God. A general order covering the activity of the two men need suffer no single change in phrasing: "begin this task at once, work at it ceaselessly, finish it in eternity." For the love of God is not to be encompassed in a lifetime; neither is the knowledge of God. However far afield the mind or the heart may seem to have wandered, both are engaged with God Himself or with the things that pertain to God as Beginning or as End. The saint knows the important answers by the quick intuition that has its deep roots in love; the theologian, by the reasoned argument that has its roots deep in study. When study and love are united to make a saint of a theologian, God has been exceptionally kind to men. (p.17) '
From Walter Farrell's Companion to the Summa
Nicked from David Field here who has a lot more useful things to say than I do.
