Still on Bauman: “In most of its descriptions, modernity is presented as a time of secularization (‘everything sacred was profaned,’ as young Marx and Engels memorably put it) and disenchantment. What is less often mentioned, however, though it should be, is that modernity also deified and enchanted the ‘nation,’ the new authority – and so by proxy the man-made institutions that claimed to speak and act in its name. ‘The sacred’ was not so much disavowed as made the target... Read more
More on Bauman, since that last post was getting too long: Consumerism, we (especially Christians) tend to think, is driven by desire; if so, perhaps the solution is to limit or suppress desire. Bauman points out that the goal of consumer economies is to render desires irrelevant to consumption. Desires may be cultivated and honed and shaped. What drives consumerism is not desire but whim and the momentary impulse of covetousness. Resistance to the lure of consumerism thus does not... Read more
In his pungent recent book, Liquid Life (Polity, 2005), the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes the divergence between the “teaching” and the “taught” classes within the global economy. What he calls the “knowledge classes” are experts at seeking and achieving satisfaction, and have mastered the communications and transportation technologies that enable them to move faster and more gracefully than “others.” They are adepts at “composing, decomposing and recomposing their identities and cannot but be pleasantly impressed by the facility and... Read more
INTRODUCTION Mary’s role in redemption has been highlighted, and sometimes distorted far beyond biblical warrant. By comparison, Joseph is the neglected member of the “holy family.” Yet, Matthew focuses more attention on Joseph than on Mary, and Joseph is presented as an antitype of the Joseph of Genesis and a model disciple. THE TEXT “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child... Read more
John J. O’Keefe and R. R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 156 p. In recent years, theologians have given intensive, and increasingly favorable, attention to patristic and medieval interpretation of the Bible. O’Keefe and Reno, both professors of theology at Creighton University, provide a concise and readable introduction to early Christian interpretation. Patristic readers did not attempt to find meaning “behind” the text, but “through” it,... Read more
Matthew 1:1: The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. As we saw in the sermon this morning, when the Son of God took on human flesh, he took on the human condition in its totality. He took on ancestors and a history, and the ancestors were not always very honorable ones. He lived in a specific location and entered a specific family. He did all this so that He could begin... Read more
“What time is it?” This may seem a simple and straightforward question. We glance at our watches or at the clock on the wall and give an answer. In fact our answer to this question reveals a great deal about our worldview. We often conceive of time as a commodity, some kind of stuff that can be “saved,” “wasted,” or “lost.” We calculate the passage of time in very precise ways, down to the nanosecond. Sometimes, we think of time... Read more
In their recent study of patristic interpretation, John O’Keefe and RR Reno point out that Irenaeus borrows his notion of recapitulation from ancient rhetoric: “Recapitulation is an English form of recapitulans, the Latin translation of anakephalaiosis, which means final repetition, summing up, drawing to conclusion. As a term in rhetoric, it refers to the end of a speech, when the speaker drives home the point with a summary of the strongest arguments.” In applying this notion to the life of... Read more
In his Life of Moses, Gregory of Nyssa remarks on the fact that Moses was nursed by his own mother while growing up in Pharaoh’s household: “This teaches, it seems to me, that if we should be involved with profane teachings during our education, we should not separate ourselves from the nourishment of the church’s milk, which would be her laws and customs.” Read more
From a quick overview, The Oxford History of Christian Worship (2006), edited by Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, looks to be one of those indispensable reference works. The editors have assembled an international group of contributors, and there are chapters not only on all the usual issues and movements, but also on the church of South India, Reformed worship in Korea, liturgy in East Asia and the Pacific, as well as Africa and Latin America. Regional variations within... Read more
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