textweek

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This week at American Public Media's Speaking of Faith, The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

"A conversation with documentary filmmaker Martin Doblmeier about the life and thought of the 20th century German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer, who wrestled with religious ideas in the thick of political and personal crisis, remains an important model for many in our time."

Included is a particularly interesting letter from Bonhoeffer to his frind Eberhard Bethge, about a "religionless society".

"Barth, who is the only one to have started along this line of thought, did not carry it to completion, but arrived at a positivism of revelation, which in the last analysis is essentially a restoration. For the religionless working man (or any other man) nothing decisive is gained here. The questions to be answered would surely be: What do a church, a community, a sermon, a liturgy, a Christian life mean in a religionless world? How do we speak of God — without religion, i.e. without the temporally conditioned presuppositions of metaphysics, inwardness, and so on? How do we speak (or perhaps we cannot now even "speak" as we used to) in a "secular" way about "God?" In what way are we "religionless-secular" Christians, in what way are we the εκ-κλησια, those who are called forth, not regarding ourselves from a religious point of view as specially favored, but rather as belonging wholly to the world? In that case Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, really the Lord of the world. But what does that mean? What is the place of worship and prayer ina religionless situation? Does the secret discipline, or alternatively the difference (which I have suggested to you before) between the penultimate and ultimate, take on a new importance here?"

Reading Other's Sacred Texts

"Your Scripture Meets Mine," Miroslav Volf, The Christian Century:

"Muslim and Christians try a new approach to interfaith dialogue—reading each other's sacred texts."

Clergy Women Sleuths

"Collared: Clergy women sleuths," book reviews by Betty Smartt Carter at The Christian Century:

"Three crime novelists have turned to the church for inspiration, says novelist Betty Smartt Carter. As a result, their amateur detectives have a lot in common: all three heroines are Episcopalian, ordained and female. And all three are in love with their collaborators—who just happen to be policemen."

Planting Seeds for Empowering Women

"Planting seeds for empowering women," Emily Hershberger, Sojourner's:

"Catholic Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize - a first for an African woman and a first for environmentalism - for her work with the Green Belt Movement, the largest community-based environmental organization in Africa..."

Latin American Women's Theology

At National Catholic Reporter, another in the series of articles, Journeys in Theology: Women's Stories. "Forty years of theology in Latin America," Ana Flora:

"Has everything been wonderful in my path as a woman-theologian? No. Envious priest-professors have called me sapatão (heavy shoe, or lesbian), in front of my students. Bishops, envious of the pastoral work we did with Cardinal Arns complained to Rome and did everything to have us expelled from the theological institute that replaced the major seminary. Cardinal Arns sent all our books and articles to be studied in Rome to see if there were any heresies. The congregation said there were not but he could expel us for our pastoral work. The cardinal said that since we worked with him on the pastoral level he would have to resign himself. In the end they gave him one more semester to expel us.

I was coordinator of the masters' program in scripture, and we weren't expelled from there, but priests who had been our students in the past cold-shouldered us out.

As I reflect, it doesn't seem to me that any of this has to do necessarily with being a woman-theologian. It has more to do with liberation theology and jealousy."

What Color Was Jesus?

Folks were writing about this decades ago, but it's worth looking at again.The Bible and Interpretation has listed the article, "So, What Colour Was Jesus," Giles Wilson, BBC News:

"Jesus has been named the top black icon by the New Nation newspaper. Their assertion that Jesus was black has raised eyebrows in some quarters - so what colour was he?"

Religion & Culture in India

At BBC Religion & Ethics - Bollywood and Religion, Mark O'Brien.

"The core values of Bollywood films remain tied to 5000 years of religious tradition - most of it Hindu."

I wonder often about the connections between religion(s) and culture(s) in our own society. It's one thing to shout rhetoric for or against specific expressions and whether or not they echo particular values, are "moral", etc. But, in what ways do our own cultural expressions mirror and influence our religious/political/social beliefs? What would those beliefs look like, written as a "systematic" by someone unfamiliar with our culture? What happens when we take a rather heterogenous group of "texts" (films, etc) and attempt to write a systematic understanding of culture from them? What happens when we use cultural expressions to influence/express our understanding of religious/political/social issues?

Luke 19:1-10

I'm particularly interested this week in possible historical and other contextual insights, as I seek to read this story in a way that doesn't merely become rhetoric for my own choices. Interestingly, so many of the articles, images, etc from a Google search point toward material for children. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I do wonder how to hear God's word anew, especially in these stories that we've integrated at earlier times and places in our lives.

At MinnesotaAussie's Conservative Christian Lectionary Blog, "The Miracle of the Chief Tax Collector":

"There is a very obvious parallel with the story of the tax collector praying at the temple, children coming to Jesus, and the rich ruler. These stories seem to have been clustered together to illustrate various angles of the People coming into relationship with God. A stark contrast exists between Zacchaeus and the rich ruler: wealth, but response to jesus varies considerably, the rich ruler who is very devout - fails to take the step he must. Zacchaeus the fringe member of the crowd, jumps at the slightest chance to have a relationship with Jesus. Much like the tax collector/pharisee story. The children story seems to play it's part by illustrating the point of view, that God invites us in, and we need to jump at the chance.

Much of this idea is contained in the sandwiched passage 18:24-30. "What is impossible with men is possible with God.""

At Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, Paul Nuechterlein points to
"The Town of Jericho and Zacchaeus," by Andrew Marr, OSB:

"If Zacchaeus needed to be converted, we can be sure that Jesus desired that conversion, just as he hoped that Simon would be converted by the example of love shown by the woman who was a sinner. The challenge of this story, however, is not limited to the possible conversion of one person, but it extends to the possible conversion of the whole community. Whether or not Zacchaeus needs to be converted and, if so, whether or not he does change his life, is immaterial for the greater challenge. Either way, by singling out Zacchaeus and inviting himself to that man's house, Jesus has already robbed Jericho of its scapegoat. The unanimity has been irretrievably broken. That everybody turns to grumbling at Jesus for going to the house of a man who is a sinner suggests that Jesus is well on the way to becoming the unanimous object of hatred. Since Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem where the same thing happens to him again, it is no surprise if it should happen in Jericho as well while he was on the way to the Holy City. However, if Zacchaeus holds his ground and takes the side of Jesus, Jericho lacks the required unanimity against one person and thus foils the town's attempt to reorganize itself around another scapegoat. More important, Jericho now has the opportunity to organize its society around the newfound or pre-established generosity of Zacchaeus in contrast to the Gerasenes who applauded Jesus' healing of the possessed man by asking him to take the next bus out of town. The outcome is left unresolved in Luke's narrative, thus posing the question to each one of us: will salvation come to our house as it has come to the house of Zacchaeus?"

Don't miss the article on Historical Cultural Context, by John J. Pilch:

"This name appears only here in the New Testament. In the Old Testament it occurs only at 2 Maccabees 10:19. The Hebrew word from which this name is formed means "clean, pure, innocent." Luke has reported the story of "Mr. Clean, Mr. Pure, Mr. Innocent," but poor Zacchaeus has unfortunately rarely been presented as such.

Scholars are divided about whether Zacchaeus "converted" on the occasion of meeting Jesus or had done so earlier in his career. I side with the scholars who claim Zacchaeus converted earlier and was misjudged by the grumbling Pharisees.

In this interpretation of the Zacchaeus story, contemporary Western believers can find in this much-maligned character an excellent model of self-esteem. Jesus recognized his worth by calling him "Son of Abraham" rather than "Son of tax collectors." Jesus knew and publicly proclaimed Zacchaeus' true identity. With more than 75 percent of Americans suffering low self-esteem, Zacchaeus is a fine example of how to resist and survive the critical comments of others."

An interpretation from Gerald Darring, at Saint Louis University's Center for Liturgy:

"Recent biblical scholarship has tended to view the story more in terms of the vindication of a person whom society considered a sinner. Everyone thought Zacchaeus was a terrible person because he collaborated, as a tax collector, with the hated occupiers. Jesus unveiled the truth about the man, who in reality was concerned for the welfare of others. The judgmental world was once again proven wrong."

Similarly, at Dylan's Lectionary Blog, Sarah Dylan Breuer writes:

"Our translation of verse 8 and 9 doesn't help. That's where the NRSV has Zaccheas saying, "half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." It's an OK translation in every way but this: the verbs Zaccheas using are not in the future tense, but are in the present. The crowd presumes that Zaccheas hoards his possessions and not only cheats the people, but fails to pay the penalty, and so when Jesus invites himself to Zaccheas' house, Jesus joins their set of THOSE people, the sinners. But Zaccheas is not a cheat, nor does he hoard his wealth; as he says, "I give half of my wealth to the poor, and if I find I have defrauded anyone, I pay back four times as much." These are things he is already doing, even before meeting Jesus. This chief tax collector, who receives only disdain from his neighbors, is actually far more generous and intentional about doing justice than is the respectable ruler of Luke 18:18-25."

I'm not sure at this point how I'm understanding this story, but I'm hearing it as a call to look again - at the meanings of my own life and communities, and at the meanings of the lives and communities of others. It's probably a small insight, but it's so easy to look right over the top of people/things (and ourselves) and to continue to see them according to whatever masks we've designated for them. Whatever the salvation of Jesus might be, it seems to me that it is often about looking again. And again. And again. The salvation of Jesus is LIVING, the Word of God is ALIVE, the message of the Gospel is ALIVE. Yet, I find myself wanting to see reality according to the categories and lines I've drawn to keep it all in order. Time after time, I hear Jesus preaching a reversal, and when I follow him, I find myself, time after time, seeing all sorts of reversals. Things are not what they seem. And once again I'm surprised.

Portrayal of Jews in Comics & Popular Culture

"Portrayal of Jews in Comics & Popular Culture in the Classroom," Leonard Greenspoon, SBL Forum:

"In my research, I look at examples from these and other strips to uncover the various ways in which they portray Jews and Judaism. In common with studies of other media, our analysis is sensitive to the general "rules" of comic strips and the specific characteristics of individual comic strips and their creators. I sincerely believe that these popular culture materials are as worthy as any other of serious (but, I hope, not deadening) research and analysis and that they can play a role in effective classroom teaching. In many contexts, they can also function as an ideal way to raise larger questions about the portrayal of Jews in popular culture within other societies and at other times."

The Text This Week server change

I'm changing webhosting/servers this week for my main website The Text This Week. It will take awhile for the new DNS to be attached to the domain name throughout the internet, and there may be a few "bumps". If you experience difficulties, you might try connecting through http://207.234.141.30/. My apologies for the inconvenience. It should all be working fine in a day or two.