Frederick Buechner on the Gospel as Tragedy

"There are all kinds of pressures on the preacher, both from within and without, to be all kinds of other things and to speak all kinds of other words. To speak the truth with love is to run the risk always of speaking only the truths that people love to hear you speak, and the preacher's temptation, among others, is to deal with those problems only to which there is, however complex and hard to arrive at, a solution. The pressure on the preacher is to be topical and contemporary, to speak out like the prophets against injustice and unrighteousness, and it is right that he should do so, crucial even, and if he does not goad to righteous action he fails both God and man. But he must remember the ones he is speaking to who beneath all the clothes they wear are the poor, bare, forked animals who labor and are heavy laden under the burden of their own lives let alone of the world's tragic life.

"There is the one who can't stop thinking about suicide. The one who experiences his own sexuality as a guilt of which he can never be absolved. The one whose fear of death is only a screen behind which lies his deeper fear of life. The one who is in a way crippled by her own beauty because it has meant that she has never had to be loving or human to be loved but only beautiful. And the angry one. The lonely one. For the preacher to be relevant to the staggering problems of history is to risk being irrelevant to the staggering problems of the ones who sit there listening out of their own histories. To deal with the problems to which there is a possible solution can be a way of avoiding the problems to which humanly speaking there is no solution. When Jesus was brought to the place where his friend Lazarus lay dead, for instance, he did not offer any solution. He only wept. Then the other things he said and did. But first he simply let his tears be his word. . . . Rejoice is the last word and can be spoken only after the first word. The sheltering word can be spoken only after the word that leaves us without a roof over our heads, the answering word only after the word it answers."

~ Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale (New York: HarperCollins, 1977), 34-35.

This is the way the blog ends...

This is the way the blog ends
This is the way the blog ends
This is the way the blog ends
Not with a bang but a whimper
- with apologies to T.S. Eliot

Don't go away, however. Such is the law of blogging that now that I have remarked on this blog's effectual demise, it will more than likely resume operation soon. Of course, I dare not mention what I hope to blog about lest I fall victim to the law of blogging's converse: advertised blog series inevitably fail to materialize.

My youngest Hebrew student

I started teaching Shoshana the Hebrew alphabet to vary her bed-time routine. Then I gave her Hebrew alphabet magnets for Christmas to help her learn the shapes. The first time she recited them all on her own she announced,

"I'm learning! Pretty soon I'll be able to go to SBL!"

This evening I showed her the first few videos from the Biblical Language Center's excellent Living Biblical Hebrew MP4. As it turns out, she's been making pretty good progress on the numbers too:

Click here for a sample of the first Living Biblical Hebrew picture lesson. Simple enough "that even a child can follow," as they say.

Tracking Pingbacks using Blogger

I'm looking for a little technical help: When James McGrath published Episode I of his September Biblioblog Carnival a couple weeks ago, I noticed that Jason Staples had responded to my first post on Jewish ethnocentrism with a post of his own. Blogger used to send out messages when someone linked to one of my posts, but the service 'broke', as I recall, when they started sending notifications every time a blogger who included my blog on their blogroll posted something.

I was sorry to overlook Jason's post, so I subscribed to his blog, tried signing up for Google alerts, and turned on Blogger's backlinks service. The trackback service seems to have the same problem as before, and Google alerts don't reliably inform me of my own blog posts, so I imagine they are equally useless in the event that someone else links to my blog.

So to my question: Is there a way to track pingbacks or trackbacks on Blogger or is the only solution to switch blogging platforms?

Persistent Widows: Religious Scripts in the Illness Narratives of Anne Halkett, Ann Fanshawe, and Alice Thornton

I am happy to report that t. successfully passed her M.A. thesis defense in history at the University of Saskatchewan this morning. I am biased, of course, but when a potentially three hour long defense is over in an hour, when the examiners describe the thesis as "brilliant," "wonderfully well done," "very important," and "a treat," and when the only substantive suggestions for improving the thesis concern its future publication, it is fair to conclude that the defense went tolerably okay.

I've included the thesis abstract, which summarizes t.'s argument, and the dedication below the jump break . . .

Blogging hiatus

The blogging dry spell over the last several weeks has not been for want of ideas, but for lack of energy and time as the semester winds down. This will likely continue as our family enters a busy and significant week--on which more anon--as I polish off the last of my marking, and as we prepare for family visits later this spring. Then, of course, there are research projects waiting in the wings that seem more urgent than casual blogging. Nevertheless, semi-regular posting will resume eventually. In addition to several posts at various stages of drafting, I would like to begin a weekly series on Christian prophecy as a way to distill and work out ideas from this semester's Prophecy after the Prophets seminar. Look for the first installment next Sunday.

Mort's Day

"Shamus and Findley sat silently on the slivered wooden bench as the dirty fog of darkness hovered over them. . . . "

So begins "Mourir," a short story I wrote as an assignment for grade 12 English. The story itself is best forgotten, but I am still intrigued by the idea of a Mort's Day--a term and concept borrowed from my high school physics teacher--which the story develops. According to Mr. Armstrong, a Mort's Day is a 24 hour period between 11:59 and 12:00 a.m. when time stops for everyone but you.

The possibilities are endless, though I most often wish for one when I enter my office and look wistfully at Edwyn C. Hoskyns and Noel Davey's The Riddle of the New Testament (London: Faber & Faber, 1931) or C.F.D. Moule's The Birth of the New Testament (3rd ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982) sitting unread on my shelves.

Perhaps as a warning against such utopian dreams, my short story concluded on a darker note, with the bench "stained red with Shamus' blood."

Winter Reflections

I laughed outright when someone told me--before we moved--that Saskatchewan winters last six months. But sure enough, we've had snow on the ground since the beginning of November, if my memory serves, which means we are now well into month five.

I took the photos of our driveway this afternoon. The temperature: - 10 celsius.




We're supposed to have highs above freezing starting tomorrow, but I'll be surprised if the snow is all gone before April.

To be fair, this has been a long and cold winter even by Saskatchewan standards, and we've never had this much snow in the seven years we've lived here.

Christ Imagery in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

We took a break the other night to watch Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the "Best Picture of 1936" according to the National Board of Review. It's a charming comedy and, as is frequently the case in classic movies, good acting compensates for the lack of special effects. My enjoyment was enhanced by an added dimension missing from the Wikipedia plot summary and rarely discussed in detail elsewhere:

1. Parents: The first clue--I missed it--is that the names of Longfellow (Gary Cooper) Deeds's parents are apparently Mary and Joseph. (In his excellent detailed review, Tim Dirks calls this "an unusual Christ-like reference.")
2. Betrayal and Crucifixion: Longfellow proves himself surprisingly shrewd, with the exception of "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), a New York reporter who gains his confidence in order to "crucify" him in the local press.
3. Disciples: In addition to Babe, Longfellow's converts include his initially sceptical troubleshooter and, perhaps, his men-servants, whom Longfellow prohibits from kneeling before him. He'll put on his own shoes, thank you very much.
4. (Virtually) Sinless life and Gospel Message: According to the corrupt lawyer who wants to manage Longfellow's new-found wealth, Longfellow is "naive as a child." Babe declares, "You're much too real." Ironically, Longfellow said much the same thing to Babe. I conclude that Longfellow's gospel message is égalité, fraternité, et realité. Salvation, as one would expect, is through romantic love.
5. Cleansing the Temple: Longfellow hosts a reception for the opera, and then turns them out "bodily."
6. Feeding of the Multitude: After an encounter with a homeless man, Longfellow decides to give away his fortune to provide a new start for down-and-out farmers. He orders his aide to provide sandwich lunches for the 2,000 men waiting to register for the program.
7. Arrest and Imprisonment: To stop Longfellow, the lawyer arranges to have him arrested on the charge of insanity. He is imprisoned briefly in a mental hospital.
8. Trial: At his insanity trial, Longfellow says nothing in his defense ...until, of course, Babe professes her love and the whole thing turns around. Longfellow, it turns out, is the only truly sane (=real) person in the courtroom.

Sappy, to be sure, but more fun than I've made it sound.

Note: There is a 2002 remake starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder, which had a budget of $50 million and received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 21%. My advice: Watch the original, which cost under $1 million, and won Frank Capra a second Academy Award for best director.

Other general discussions of Christ imagery in Frank Capra movies may be found here, here and here.

A commonplace update

I've been wondering whether I should revert to my original description of גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁב as

"A commonplace book containing items of interest to a biblical studies professor at a confessional Christian college. My voice will only intervene in the event I have something to say."

I do have notes here and there that might eventually materialize as substantive posts, but at the moment reading about prophecy and preparing for what will be another busy semester takes priority--and feels more satisfying. Also at t.'s recommendation we have resolved to take a "writing date"* three evenings a week this semester. The procedure is simple: Put s. to bed, set up mood lighting, prepare snacks, turn off the internet, and sit for an hour working uninterrupted on our respective projects. The result so far is less time for blogging, but measurable progress on an article I thought I would have to shelve until the school year is done (because I don't have time). It is also refreshing and, in its own way, fun.

*The idea comes from this excellent column by Rachel Toor.

In other news, today is the one year anniversary of my mom's seizure.

My advice for improving airport security

I was not surprised to hear that a disguised man made it onto an Air Canada flight from China without showing a photo ID. I had the same experience flying out of Toronto on Air Canada last month: Although my boarding pass was checked twice, no one in airport security or Air Canada checked my photo ID. (For the record, I wasn't wearing a mask.)

My simple advice for improving airport security: check photo ID.

Blood Computers

I switched on the radio to CBC's "As It Happens" last Friday and caught the last few minutes of an interview with Chris McGreal about atrocities in Congo. I was just thinking I should ask my colleague, Tim Stabell, what he thought, when Craig Norris began reading an email Tim submitted to the talk-back line. I quote Tim's email here, as it appears on the Program Log:

I was once again horrified by the news out of Congo last night, a country where we lived for about fourteen years, and where we still have many close friends.

The news of the mass rapes that took place in North Kivu was dismaying, but is nothing new, except perhaps the scale of this particular incident. Tens of thousands of women and children, and even some men, have been traumatized and victimized by this 'tactic' of war. The international community has known about this for a long time.

The CBC, along with other media outlets, are challenging the efficacy of the U.N. mission to Congo.

There is certainly good reason for a full investigation of this case, but only if it leads to a heightened, rather than a lowered, commitment on the part of the international community to work toward both prevention of further such attacks in the short-term, and a long-term political resolution that addresses the roots of the problem. The latter is closely bound up with illegal mining activity for minerals used in the electronic devices we have all come to rely on so heavily. We are now emailing one another on 'blood computers' and talking to each other on 'blood cellphones'. Until this set of realities is addressed effectively, we will continue to hear stories of horrible violence destroying the lives of our Congolese sisters and brothers."

So we are implicated. What is there to be done? Tim recommends the following:

Enough! The project to end genocide and crimes against humanity
and
Raise Hope for Congo

You can listen to the entire CBC broadcast here. For more on "Blood Computers" see this July 2009 Time Magazine article: First Blood Diamonds, Now Blood Computers?

Truth Telling

The man who tells the truth out of cynicism is a liar.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer ~

Letters and Papers from Prison (London: SCM, 1953), 54.

On Conversation

During Briercrest's SERVE conference a couple weekends ago (podcasts here), Ray Ortlund quoted Spurgeon as saying:

An individual who has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker, and bury the dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living. . . . When a man has a large, loving heart, men go to him as ships to a haven, and feel at peace when they have anchored under the lee of his friendship. Such a man is hearty in private as well as in public; his blood is not cold and fishy, but he is warm as your own fireside. No pride and selfishness chill you when you approach him; he has his doors all open to receive you, and you are at home with him at once. - C.H. Spurgeon, "The Minister's Ordinary Conversation," in Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), 169.

Around the same time I read a student exegesis paper on Colossians 4:2-6 and got to thinking, again, about what it means to "redeem the time" speaking words "seasoned with salt."
According to C.F.D. Moule:

"seasoned with salt" in Colossians 4:6 "may well mean 'witty', 'not insipid'.... If so, this verse is a plea to Christians not to confuse loyal godliness with a dull, graceless insipidity. If a Christian is ever difficult company, it ought to be because he demands too much, not too little, from his fellows' responsiveness and wit" - The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians and to Philemon (Cambridge: 1962), 135.

Over the weekend I read Robert Goldenberg's description of traditional Jewish study:

This mode of study, called in Aramaic havruta ("fellowship"), turns text study into dialogue and makes books into tools for overcoming, not strengthening, isolation. It makes the tradition of rabbinic learning a powerful source of community cohesion, a source of speech rather than silence. This activity was usually called not "study" but "learning," and in every Jewish community an invitation to fellowship could take the form of the proposal "Let's learn together." The life of the mind and the life of society were thus made one....It seems to me that solitary study tends to seek meaning, while study be-havruta tends to look for implications. When we read by ourselves, and we are satisfied that we have understood, we naturally move on. But when "learning" is a kind of conversation, then there is always more to be said. The rate of progress is more leisurely, the depth of analysis more penetrating." - Robert Goldenberg, “Talmud” in Barry W. Holtz, ed., Back To The Sources׃ Reading the Classic Jewish Texts (1984; repr. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 168-9.

Top 50 Biblical History Blogs

Update: I removed the links to the list and to "Linda" after reading Todd Bolen's eye-opening post about how "Top 50" Lists Work.

This just in: גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁב has been included as #1 in a list of Top 50 Biblical History Blogs. How nice. I should note, however, that the list is organized alphabetically (by English name).
And one small correction: While I did my Ph.D. at McMaster University, I teach at Briercrest College and Seminary. Fine institutions, both. Still, thanks for the mention, Linda!

And, if this is your first time here, may I recommend the following sampling from the גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁב past?

Paul and the End of the World (Dec 8, 2009)
Pastor or Scholar? (Nov 6, 2009)
Retrospective Multivalence in Romans 2 (Sept 22, 2009)
History, Criticism and Christian Conviction - Part 2 (July 16, 2009)
Why I don't believe in "timeless truth" or "eternal principles" (Jan 27, 2008)
What's in a Name? On Jews and Judeans (Dec 21, 2007)
Turkey Travelogue (Nov 13, 2007)

Robert Pirsig on (Metaphorical) Mountain Climbing

"Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. . . . When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do it's a hollow victory. In order to sustain the victory you have to prove yourself again and again in some other way, and again and again and again, driven forever to fill a false image, haunted by the fear that the image is not true and someone will find out. That's never the way" (189).

"Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you're no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn't just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where things grow. But of course, without the top you can't have any sides. It's the top that defines the sides" (183).

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance (Bantam: 1975).

A dubious honour

I was happy to be mentioned in the latest Biblioblog Carnival until I started to think about the significance of being included among Augustine's fart musicians. Uh, thanks Pat!

Graham Greene on Love, Hate, and Piety

I decided I had better read Graham Greene's great novel, The Power and the Glory (1940; Penguin Classics reprint 2003), because my colleague, Sean Davidson, gets so excited working through it with his first year English students. Now I see why. Here are a few highlights . . .

On love:

'Oh,' the priest said, 'that's another thing altogether - God is love. I don't say the heart doesn't feel a taste of it, but what a taste. The smallest glass of love mixed with a pint pot of ditch-water. We wouldn't recognize that love. It might even look like hate. It would be enough to scare us - God's love. It set fire to a bush in the desert, didn't it, and smashed open graves and set the dead walking in the dark. Oh, a man like me would run a mile to get away if he felt that love around' (199-200).

On hate:

He couldn't see her in the darkness, but there were plenty of faces he could remember from the old days which fitted the voice. When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity - that was a quality God's image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination (131).

On piety:

He had always been worried by the fate of pious women. As much as politicians, they fed on illusion. He was frightened for them: they came to death so often in a state of invincible complacency, full of uncharity. It was one's duty, if one could, to rob them of their sentimental notions of what was good . . . (127).

One of the novel's main emphases, it seems to me, is the depravity of common piety.

Counterfeit Money

Heard the old canard about how people learn to detect counterfeits by studying the real thing (the point being that Christians should stay away from secular things and study only the truth of Scripture)? It's a myth.

Tim Challies and Mark D. Mathewson explain.

E.M. Forster on Living

Most of life is so dull that there is nothing to be said about it, and the books and talk that would describe it as interesting are obliged to exaggerate, in the hope of justifying their own existence. Inside its cocoon of work or social obligation, the human spirit slumbers for the most part, registering the distinction between pleasure and pain, but not nearly as alert as we pretend. There are periods in the most thrilling day during which nothing happens, and though we continue to exclaim, 'I do enjoy myself,' or, 'I am horrified,' we are insincere. 'As far as I feel anything, it is enjoyment, horror'--it's no more than that really, and a perfectly adjusted organism would be silent. - E. M. Forster, A Passage To India (London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1947), 139.

This is my second time through A Passage to India. Since I rarely read novels twice, that's saying something!