Monthly Archives: September 2012
The Atonement
I had originally planned–or at least hoped–to complete my two main series, “Legends of the Fall” and “The Pretty Good Book” by the end of August. As the academic year moves along, I have less time for blogging in general and working on these series in particular. Still, I have managed to keep them ongoing. I think I will be able to wrap up “The Pretty Good Book” in no more than six more posts (perhaps fewer). On the other hand. “Legends of the Fall” has proven rather intractable.
I had actually thought it finished some time ago; but as I discussed when I began the (increasingly lengthy) series of addenda to it, issues I hadn’t thought about or considered deeply enough kept popping up in relation to it. My original idea had been to examine the Genesis story of the Fall of Man and to explore ways of harmonizing it with modern knowledge of human origins. However, this has been a much larger undertaking than I’d anticipated. After all, if one considers the stopping of the sun by Joshua or the swallowing of Jonah by a whale (or fish), such stories are obviously folktales or myths which can be dismissed without too much effect on the narratives. On the other hand, the Eden myth is right at the center of the main threads of Christian belief–creation, sin, atonement, redemption. Anything one does with this narrative–whether it be uncritical acceptance, wholesale rejection, allegoricization, or anything else–has profound effects in all areas of Christian belief. Read the rest of this entry
Some Muppet Silliness for Saturday
Somewhere out there Freddy Mercury is getting a colossal kick out of this!
Vexilla Regis: Chant for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross
The Triumph of the Cross was yesterday. I need to keep up with the calendar better.
Rubá’í of the Day
XXXV.
I think the Vessel, that with fugitive
Articulation answer’d, once did live,
And merry-make; and the cold Lip I kiss’d
How many Kisses might it take—and give.
Towards a Gnostic Orthodoxy: Index
The second post here was actually written before I began this series, and was (and is) part of the series on the Bible, “The Pretty Good Book”. However, I think it’s relevant here, as well, so I’m putting it right after the introductory post.
Towards a Gnostic Orthodoxy: You Said What??!!
Dualism: Orthodoxy, Heresy, Refrigerators, and Lawn Mowers
Open and Closed Systems, 1: Open Systems
Open and Closed Systems, 2: Closed Systems
Gnosticism and Orthodox Christianity: Similarities
Dualism: Living in a Material World
Towards a Gnostic Orthodoxy: Getting Rid of Anthropomorphism
Insights, Gnostic and Otherwise: I Don’t Wanna Live in This Place (or do I?)
I Do Not Think That Word Means What You Think It Means
The New Testament, translated by David Bentley Hart–a Review
Towards a Gnostic Orthodoxy: You Said What??!!
Indeed, the title might seem as contradictory as “Towards a Marxist Capitalism” or “Towards a Christian Atheism”! So what, exactly, am I up to?
I first became aware of the “Lost (or even better, Banned) Books of the Bible” in my early teens. Dad had recently got the New English Bible, still one of my favorite translations, and was quite taken with 2 Esdras (that’s a story for another day). As a boy raised in a more or less generic Protestant background, with a slight tint of Baptist/Evangelical (at a time when Evangelicals hadn’t yet gone totally over the deep end), this concept gave a delightful frisson of forbidden fruit, scandal, adventure, esoteric knowledge, and the naughtiness of reading something that was Rejected From the Bible! In a sense, it was sort of a theological peep show, ogling the naughty bits of heretofore hidden Scripture.
As I’ve chronicled before, I read the Bible twice in my late teens. First was the King James Version (at that time I didn’t know there even was a KJV translation of the Deuterocanonicals, so I read the standard-issue version of it). About a year later I read the New English Bible, which had all the Deuterocanonical books as well as 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh (which are all, I think, not technically Deuterocanonical, but are in the appendix to the Vulgate). I enjoyed it–I still think the style of the NEB is very effective and contemporary without being banal–but the Apocrypha were not as exciting and mysterious as advertised. Many of them, in fact, were as boring as all get-out. I guess it’s not the first time a peep show promised more than it could deliver. Read the rest of this entry
Another Perspective on Reincarnation
It occurred to me that I ought to discuss another perspective on reincarnation that has drawn attention in some circles. This is less relevant to my “Legends of the Fall” series than the other reincarnation-oriented posts have been, so while I’ll put this in my “Reincarnation” series, I will leave it out of “Legends of the Fall”.
One thing that is very easy to forget about reincarnation–or any other theories of life or continued existence after death is that they are all interpretive frameworks. They are interpretations of phenomena; interpretations that may be useful, and may even be true, but interpretations, for all that. Quantum physics gets pulled into discussions of spirituality–especially Eastern or Eastern-flavored spirituality–way too much, and often in wildly inappropriate ways. Still, a quantum example here is perhaps of use.
According to quantum physics, light, like all other electromagnetic phenomena, can be viewed either as a wave or as particles (photons). The curious thing is that light isn’t a wave that seems to be a particle, or a particle that acts like a wave; it really is either a wave or a particle, depending on the experiment one conducts. If one sends a beam of light through a diffraction grating, it behaves exactly like waves, even if one sends a single photon through. If one switches to using a photon counter, one counts discrete photons, with no evidence of waves. Read the rest of this entry
Rubá’í of the Day
XXXIV.
Then to this earthen Bowl did I adjourn
My Lip the secret Well of Life to learn:
And Lip to Lip it murmur’d—”While you live,
Drink!—for once dead you never shall return.”
The Chequer-board of Nights and Days 