theo|digital

I’m posting chapters of my 2009 masters thesis on digital media ecology and scripture. See more here.

I began my thesis with a quote from 1854 by Henry David Thoreau. He complains that modern advances of his time aren’t always helping us.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from
serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end
which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New
York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to
Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.
… We are eager to tunnel the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer
to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad
flapping American ear will be the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden

150 years removed, it’s a little bit easier to smile about Thoreau’s pessimism. What a difference the telegraph made in the history of the world—playing a role in wars and culture and Christianity.  I chose this quote because it so easily illustrated one of the number one rules of exploring the culture and media:  it’s hard to see.  For even talented people, culture is the water we swim in, everywhere and remarkable transparent.

• Chapter 1: Scripture In a Digital Context (pdf, 1.2mb)

“The fact that early believers followed a “crucified Messiah” (the ultimate oxymoron for both Jew and Greek) meant they aligned themselves with a religious sect whose founder had experienced ultimate shame (hence Paul’s saying to the basically Gentile congregations at the heart of the empire that the gospel is not a matter of shame for him [Rom 1.16]).

To follow Christ and thus experience cultural shame and isolation were not negotiables for Paul; this is the way God had chosen…”

Page 181, Gordon Fee writing on Gal 3 in Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy

The prophet Jeremiah…

You will be in the right, O Lord,
when I lay charges against you;
but let me put my case to you…
Jeremiah 12:1

This is another of those human voices that holds both trust and doubt in necessary tension… that faith that God really does do what is right, but the need to fight it out anyway.

So another part of my quest to start corralling my research is really still rather exploratory. I haven’t done any study in the doctrine of scripture, and I have a feeling that there are some related concepts to theology and communication that I need to understand. Unfortunately my attempt to do a directed study in this area hasn’t yet worked out, so out of necessity, I’m looking into thing on my own.

One suggestion to me from Scot McKnight was Telford Work. I haven’t yet read his book on the area, but I just finished reading a paper he recently gave entitled, “Are We Reading The Same Bible?” (fulltext: pdf) which not only was insightful, but caused me to laugh aloud.

Work makes the point that not all evangelicals speak about scripture the same way. And he has Christian bookstore prices to prove it.

Since at least Irenaeus and Athanasius the Bible has been an ultimate narrator locating us and all things in its story of creation, judgment, and redemption. Many evangelicals have drawn deeply from this ancient vision… [Families who see themselves within the Bible’s cosmic family tree can inscribe their whole family genealogy in the Keystone Family, Faith and Values Heritage Edition Bible (Fireside), available from Christian Book Distributors for $35.99.]

A similar but distinct type sees the Bible as a treasury of truth that teaches facts about God and the world… [Zondervan’s NIV Study Bible($31.99) supplies pages and pages of maps, charts, footnotes, artistic renderings, and cross-references that highlight and contextualize its archaeological, philosophical, and ethical material.]

Many find their own story in Scripture, making the Bible a mirror of personal life experience. Augustine was one pioneer in reading the Bible to gain self-understanding… [The Extreme Teen Bible (Nelson, $17.99) features forty profiles of young Bible characters and 250 study notes for life guidance; the Women of Color Study Bible (Augsburg, $28.99) offers a different range of figures to identify with.]

He’s got nine in all. Genius.

For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name! ~ Amos, eighth century BCE (Amos 4.13 NLT)

Who is God? The one you recognize as the Hurricane Controller is also the One who, by definition, pulls back the curtain of his heart for his creation to know. Who is God? The one who reveals.

The following is a new ad from the McCain campaign. It feels like movie trailer, and not-so-subtly teases Barak Obama’s fame, a message they’ve been working on for several weeks. But the interesting part of the ad is that I’m pretty sure it’s a veiled communication to Left Behind-reading Christians, who are looking for an anti-Christ, like villain like Nicolae Carpathia. It’s the kind of things that would be understood by conservative evangelicals, but wouldn’t mean as much to other viewers, and I’m guessing that’s intentional.

The part that disturbs me most about “antichrist” language used by some Christians is not just how it doesn’t seem to be supported in scripture (the only references are in 1 John 2, where John clearly defines anyone who denies Christ is God as, as the word suggests, an “anti-Christ”), but how it calls into suspician things of God like increased world justice and world peace.

New Testament exam complete!

What do I get asked? Well… here. I think I can write most of the questions from memory:
——-
2 hours. You may not use the Bible, books, notes of any kind.

Quick answer: Book/Chapter. Parallels not required.
____ 1. “Cleansing” of the temple.
____ 2. Peter says, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”
____ 3. More than five miracles
____ 4. Words of institution for the Lord’s Supper
____ 5. OT scripture linked to Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem
____ 6. OT scripture quoted by Jesus from the cross according to Mark & Matthew
____ 7. The crucifixion
____ 8. Explicit teaching on discipleship
____ 9. “no one knows the Father except the Son”

More Quick Answer
____ 10. One of the words translated miracles that is usually negative in the Synoptics but positive in John.
____ 11. Author of “ugly ditch” concept between history and faith.
____ 12. Christological title used by early church that is not used by Jesus.
(a few more I can’t recall)

Short answer. Explain:
1. David Hume’s argument on miracles.
2. Jesus’ mercy code over the holiness code.
3. The title “Son of Man” (include OT and NT usage)
4. Four important arguments for the resurrection
5. The theological significance of the resurrection (eight points)

Short Essay.
Using both what he said and did, explain Jesus’ understanding of himself. Reference specific passages. (this answer includes Christological titles, but mostly 7 actions Jesus took that were prophetic, messianic, and sacrificial)

Long Essay
Do a full treatment Luke’s account of the Lord’s Supper.
(Luke 22.15-20. this includes parallels, Passover, OT background, last week timeline, both external and internal evidence regarding signficant textual variants, kingdom of God, “this is my body,” and theological signficance)

I’ve been studying Luke 10:25-37 for about the last six hours. Or possibly my whole life. It’s hard to tell – it all runs together. While I’m doing research using five major commentaries and two journal articles, I’m also doing a word study of the word “neighbor.” It’s key the whole Good Samaritan thing. Of course, there were several Hebrew words that mean neighbor… and several Greek ones… yep. Get’s a little hazy. Especially at hour 6.5. Total hours of school today: 8am -> 10pm minus 1 hour lunch.

Part of this project is due in the morning. But I think I have to sleep instead.

Geesh. Finally a post. And only because I don’t want to study more right now.

A couple thoughts on the beatitudes. You know, “blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek” etc. (Matthew 5.1-11 or shorter at Luke 6.20-23). Growing up, I always implicitly read this as essentially Jesus’ virtue ethics. Put another way: this is a list of things you should aspire to be like. Be meek. Be merciful. Be pure in heart. This is what good Christians should aspire to be like.

Then Dallas Willard came along in The Divine Conspiracy, and upturned that idea. He asserts that Jesus is not making a list of things to “become” – but a list of the kind of people who are in the Kingdom. Meaning – the kingdom has poor people. The kingdom has sad people. The kingdom has persecuted people. This is what the Kingdom is LIKE – a collection of marginalized people!

This fits very well with the picture of the kingdom in the gospels. It was the tax collectors and poor, not the rich or those with political power, that were heartily welcomed.

This helps me, cause if this list is what I’m supposed to BE like, then am I supposed to cry more than I do? Seek persecution?

But read Willard’s way, there are problems too. In order to show that this is a list of welcoming grace, Willard interprets some things weird. For instance, “pure in heart” becomes, “blessed are the perfectionists.”

I’m flying through this topic only to quote my New Testament professor this last week:

I used his text (Divine Conspiracy) a while ago, and love how he starts it with that woman who is tired of simply studying the scriptures and wants to know how to DO it… but I think he goes belly-up on the beatitudes” – Professor Klyne Snodgrass on Dallas Willard via Southern metaphor.

.

I love it when he says “belly-up.”

ps – not sure who I agree with. Scot McKnight (ooh, just found this post on the same topic) seems to lean toward Dallas Willard.