Adam S. Miller begins his editorial introduction to Fleeing the Garden (vii-ix) by observing the confusions that surround the terms “literal” and “figurative” in biblical interpretation: “the word literal often just functions as shorthand for the claim that the text refers to something real. In such cases, the word is used without regard to how something is referenced—the designation of how a text refers being the kind of work the word literal is meant to do—and instead is used to... Read more
In her introduction to Ratzinger’s Faith, Tracey Rowland contrasts the emphases of John Paul II and those of Benedict XVI with regard to what each called the “culture of death.” Though neither is a dualist, John Paul focused more on the destruction of bodies while Benedict called attention to the destruction of souls: “John Paul II was focused on practices which completely destroy the human body or at least undermine its dignity through a severance of the good from the... Read more
One of the students at the recent Theopolis course on covenant epistemology nailed the theme of the week. It was a week-long re-initiation into childhood, led by an authoritative guide in childlikeness, Esther Meek. Covenant epistemology calls us to be childlike in our unfeigned delight in the world, childlike in our trust in reality, childlike in our vulnerability to what the world brings our way, childlike in our willingness to risk a venture of knowing, childlike in responsiveness, childlike in... Read more
Look at the birds. Look at the lilies. Jesus meant what He said: Look, actually look. Look in order to address anxiety about food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities of life. When you look at the birds, you realize that God provides food. When you look at the lilies, you know that God will dress you in glory. Jesus encourages a lesser-to-greater movement of reasoning: If God feeds birds and clothes grass, which are of little value, then He will... Read more
Some highlights from this past week’s Theopolis course on “covenant epistemology,” taught by Esther Meek. 1) Using the journey of the Magi as a paradigm of knowing, Esther described knowledge as a venture or adventure, a pilgrimage toward a gift. That is a lovely description that nicely captures much of Esther’s covenant epistemology. It captures the excitement of discovery; the social character of the enterprise of knowing; the fact that knowing involves movement and growth. Unlike many epistemologies, Esther’s focuses... Read more
What Esther Meeks calls the “defective epistemic default” of modernity infects and paralyzes biblical interpretation. In this default, knowledge is defined as information. This can only produce puzzlement about the details of the Bible. They aren’t symbols; they aren’t clues; they text isn’t pregnant with meaning. The details are there as mere bits of information. Why, for instance, are we told that Goliath had a bronze helmet and scale armor and bronze greaves on his legs? Why are we told... Read more
Jesus turned water to wine at the wedding to Cana. It’s the first sign, John tells us (John 2:11). It’s an epiphany of the Word made flesh. Of what is it a sign? The wedding takes place on the “third day” (2:1), which is the seventh day in the sequence of days in John’s first chapter. Throughout Scripture, a third day is a day of new birth (when the grain and fruit trees spring from the ground) and with transitions... Read more
For our culture, real knowledge is the bits of data we accumulate by observation and experiment to store in our brains. Once harvested, knowledge is an impersonal and atemporal heap of information. In the Bible, knowing isn’t so simple. The Bible forces us to ask, When? How? and Who? God planted two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam was allowed to eat the fruit of life from the outset, but he... Read more
Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis’s account of his brief time as the finance minister of Greece, has all qualities of a tragedy. It is, Varoufakis writes, “the story of what happens when human beings find themselves at the mercy of cruel circumstances that have been generated by an inhuman, mostly unseen network of power relations. This is why there are no ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’ in this book. Instead, it is populated by people doing their best, as they understand... Read more
A couple of excellent passages from Paul Tyson’s De-Fragmenting Modernity. First, this on how modernity’s “immanent frame” (Charles Taylor) not only prevents governments from addressing social problems, but actually creates conditions that cultivate the problem in the first place (2-3): “At a policy level, we are more or less locked into seeing ‘mental health’ answers to the youth suicide problem, so we put psychologists at the front line of strategic planning to reverse the problem. But to do so is... Read more
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