It’s easy for Christians to become frustrated with the state of the world, but frustration is ineffective and perhaps dangerous public stance. Over at Comment, I prescribe an antidote to frustration – a public stance infused with the theological virtues. Read more
Jesus’ letter to Pergamum mentions Balaam and Balak (Revelation 2:14), and that is a signal that the whole message is running along the lines of Numbers 22-25. The death of the high priest is a sacrificial moment in the life of Israel. According to the rules of the cities of refuge (Numbers 35), the manslayer would remain in a city of refuge until the death of the high priest. After that, he was free to return to the land. The death... Read more
The essays on art collected in Tikkun Olamoriginated from Gillian Rose’s “broken middle,” writes editor Jason Goroncy. He includes a long quotation from a Rowan Williams essay on Job to explain. Williams writes, “Mere resignation is a betrayal; structuring and explanation is a blasphemy. What is left, then, if the world is neither to be accepted nor to be rationalized? What remains is Job’s protest. . . . His world is not a complete structure to which there can be only... Read more
Knowing follows the “dynamic of dance,” writes Esther Lightcap Meek (A Little Manual for Knowing, 79). The knower and the reality to be known are partners, each one off balance at a particular moment but sustaining “an ongoing, overall balance” (80), engaged in a personal etiquette of overture and response, an asymmetry of gift and counter-gift. In the dance of knowledge “we can grow artistry in our knowing ventures” (83). We dance among the clues as we imagine the focal... Read more
The Void is one of the essential dimensions of humanness, argues Esther Lightcap Meek (A Little Manual for Knowing, 35). The Void is the recognition that we might not be, which can arise from curse, betrayal, or from “a brush with death or fear, depression or danger, an uncomfortable situation, even boredom.” The Void is not necessarily paralyzing. It is rather the root of wonder and gratitude. It is impossible to manufacture: “It comes unbidden from outside of us. .... Read more
As many commentators have pointed out, Leviticus 25-26 form a single literary unit. John Bergsma (The Jubilee from Leviticus to Quram, 82-3) calls attention to the inclusio on “Mount Sinai” (25:1; 26:46), and lists eight literary links between the two chapters, including a common concern for Sabbath, the promise that obedience will lead to fertility, the reminder of release from Egypt and the consequent demand that Israel be a liberating people, the sacral symbolism of the number seven. The text... Read more
How can Yahweh’s name be profaned? Can holiness leak out? In a recent Princeton dissertation (This Is the Thing that the Lord Commanded You To Do) Bryan Bibb notes that some qualities depend on the response of a community; they are socially constructed qualities: “personal qualities (like authority or charisma) depend to some extent on the validation of others. A leader has authority because the society collectively agrees to give that person authority. A popular teacher has high status because... Read more
I offer some reflections on the theology of festivityin the Hebrew Bible, focused on Leviticus 23. Read more
“Knowledge is a gift,” writes Esther Lightcap Meek (A Little Manual for Knowing, 8). She continues, “Epiphany comes as a surprising encounter equal parts knowing and being known. It could never have been achieved in a systematic or linear fashion. It transforms knower and known. Deep insight hints of exciting future prospects, confirming that we have made contact with reality. Pilgrimage modulates into an ongoing dance of communion. Reality proves to bee deeply dynamic and welcomes us in. Knowing ushers... Read more
Israel’s feasts both followed the agricultural calendar and reenacted Israel’s past. Passover, Pentecost and Booths celebrated various phases of planting, growth, and harvest. Israel’s feasts reconciled nature with salvation history. The reconciliation was ritual, calendrical. The dual calendar protected Israel from becoming a nature cult, and from becoming a purely spiritual body, detached from natural cycles. Put in modern terms: Israel was protected both from being essentialists and from being constructivists. Their calendar allowed neither stasis nor relativism. Their pattern... Read more
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