late night ramblings
I had another one of those moments this morning when it hit me that I have been so out of the practice of prayer that I wasn't quite sure how to start. I hate those moments. Can you say "slow sanctification?" Very good. You've just described my life.
I finished reading Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be tonight. Lots to comment on there. Most intriguing was the way the authors dealt with the OT problem texts (terribly immoral things happening, often to women, with no disapproval whatsoever expressed by either the characters in the story or the author of the text). The primary thrust of the book was that the biblical metanarrative is a counterideological and antitotalizing narrative that embraces the marginalized and suffering, rather than a metanarrative that oppresses. I would have been quite angry had the authors not made an attempt to deal with those OT "texts of terror."
Basically, Middleton and Walsh want to read the inclusion of those texts as evidence of what goes wrong when God's chosen people try to use the biblical story (of their election) in order to grant themselves a place of privilege over other people, resulting in their oppression. No correction is made in the text itself, because we the readers, as part of God's redemptive purposes in the earth, are supposed to recognize the sin in the text and conclude that this or that particular instance (for example, the woman raped, treated badly by her husband, and torn into 12 pieces in Judges 19) was a time when God's people failed to live out their election properly. In other words, even when the author of the text does not plainly recognize a problem, we the readers, who have the rest of God's revelation to us, including His redemptive purposes, in view, should recognize a problem. I'll try to include some direct quotes from the book when I have more time.
I've also started reading The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernism. It should be a very interesting read. As I start plunking out rough draft portions of the thesis (which I'm thinking of titling, "A Trinitarian Theology for Our Postmodern Times," or something like that), I'll include some of it here in blog posts.
I finished reading Truth is Stranger Than it Used to Be tonight. Lots to comment on there. Most intriguing was the way the authors dealt with the OT problem texts (terribly immoral things happening, often to women, with no disapproval whatsoever expressed by either the characters in the story or the author of the text). The primary thrust of the book was that the biblical metanarrative is a counterideological and antitotalizing narrative that embraces the marginalized and suffering, rather than a metanarrative that oppresses. I would have been quite angry had the authors not made an attempt to deal with those OT "texts of terror."
Basically, Middleton and Walsh want to read the inclusion of those texts as evidence of what goes wrong when God's chosen people try to use the biblical story (of their election) in order to grant themselves a place of privilege over other people, resulting in their oppression. No correction is made in the text itself, because we the readers, as part of God's redemptive purposes in the earth, are supposed to recognize the sin in the text and conclude that this or that particular instance (for example, the woman raped, treated badly by her husband, and torn into 12 pieces in Judges 19) was a time when God's people failed to live out their election properly. In other words, even when the author of the text does not plainly recognize a problem, we the readers, who have the rest of God's revelation to us, including His redemptive purposes, in view, should recognize a problem. I'll try to include some direct quotes from the book when I have more time.
I've also started reading The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernism. It should be a very interesting read. As I start plunking out rough draft portions of the thesis (which I'm thinking of titling, "A Trinitarian Theology for Our Postmodern Times," or something like that), I'll include some of it here in blog posts.
posted by Travis Prinzi @ 11:08 PM
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