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Bailing Out McCulture

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said on Sunday that the recession had allowed people to realise that there is more to life than possessions and pleasure.

He said, “The present financial crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the idea that human fulfilment can be thought about just in terms of material growth.”

via christiantoday.com

let’s pray he’s right and this isn’t just a “market cycle” of downturned consumption.

RIP Rev. Stanley L. Jaki

In later works Father Jaki explored the boundary between science and religion; he believed the two were compatible and mutually reinforcing, and in 1987 he received the Templeton Prize, the annual award given for advancing the quest to understand God.

“I believe there is a basic misunderstanding which has existed for hundreds of years and will continue to persist about the ‘creationist problem,’ ” he said in an interview with The New York Times after receiving the prize, “because in intellectual life we do not solve such dilemmas to the satisfaction of everybody.”

via nytimes.com

we need more folks in this area of dialogue.

Brittle Molecular Bonds: How the Flood Really Happened

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
-Mark Twain

What has consistently drawn me to the study of the Bible is my never-ending fascination with the parts of this collection of literature, history, oral tradition, repurposings, fables, parables, stories, moralities that lend themselves to seeing the whole as a collective spider web of many disparate and conflicting modules.

As a qualifier, this does not mean that I view the Bible as some hodgepodge mashup of borrowed tales thrown together to accomplish a particular agenda. Rather, the Bible has succeeded in holding the captivation of billions of members of species because of its incongruences and its non-linear modes of telling God’s story.

Whatever remains of modern mass-culture America has an ongoing fascination with the Bible as well. However, this fascination has a different tone and temper than the one I illustrate above. Instead of the beauty of incongruences and all-night wrestling with the text by the banks of the Jabbok, the veneer of beauty is located in the surface sacrificial history reading giving the Old and New Testaments an ultimate purpose of affirming the central Godliness of Jesus the human above and beyond any other textual issues that may arise.

Pointing out these textual issues or asking questions about the apparent (and evident) inconsistencies within the Bible is an anathema to The Faith. You are spitting upon the cross when you dare to ask how many times Jesus went up to Jerusalem or who actually killed Goliath or what the narrator tells us about the characters involved in the Rape of Tamar.

Rather, consistency is godliness and godliness is finding a foreshadow of the Christ in every literal corner of the text. Veneers crack easily, and the veneer of biblical inerrancy is certainly composed of such brittle molecular bonds.

Nonetheless, this veneer of the Bible’s simplicity, literalness and accurate historicity is not a construction of the οἱ πολλοί. Certainly, folks of all religious and denominational stripes have contributed to this hegemonic stranglehold on the Scriptures. However, the real fault in reinforcing the cult of simplicity lies with the modern book and news publishers (both secular and religious) who feed their molochs with the blood of revenue generated from pushing out formulaic factory books exposing “startling new revelations about the historical nature of the Flood/Exodus/Resurrection/Jesus Story/Revelation.”

This will not change in the foreseeable future. The publishing business is facing a crisis of identity and revenue. That publishing business will continue to churn out what pays the bills. For the time being, one of the areas that pays the bills are “Secrets of the Bible” series or “A New Look on the Flood” books or “Left Around” serializations verging on heresy.

So, where do the few of us who care enough about the Bible to not turn a blind eye to this dumbing-down of Scriptures turn? I would suggest following Jesus’ example and telling God’s story as authentically, incongruously, raw and as dangerously as possible.

References:
– Geologist claims scientific explanation for Exodus
– Religion in America: A many splendored thing
– The Bible’s Literary Merits

Great How To for Arguing with Biblical Studies Profs

I’m definitely using this guide the next time I teach undergrads:

Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » How to argue with your biblical studies teacher: “Most of us who teach classes in college or in some churches have encountered that interesting personage: the argumentative student.”

Who knew such wisdom could come out of FU (I’m a Wofford grad)??

Come on, Thomas… Let’s Go

I’m trying to talk my pal Thomas Whitley into heading down to Florida to see the launch of STS 125 on Tuesday May 12, 2009. The shuttle program is rapidly coming to a close, but this one is especially important since we are performing the final servicing to the greatest science experiment of all time:

NASA – STS-125: The Final Visit: “It’s a mission to once more push the boundaries of how deep in space and far back in time humanity can see. It’s a flight to again upgrade what already may be the most significant satellite ever launched.

And, for the space shuttle, it’s a final visit to a dear, old friend.

The STS-125 mission will return the space shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope for one last visit before the shuttle fleet retires in 2010. Over 11 days and five spacewalks, the shuttle Atlantis’ crew will make repairs and upgrades to the telescope, leaving it better than ever and ready for another five years – or more – of research. “

To quote Jerry Maguire, “Who’s coming with me?” Road trip??