Trip to Israel

Tomorrow morning I'll be leaving for Israel for two weeks, with a group from the Theology Department at the University of Nottingham. We'll be visiting significant locations, archaeological sites, and a conference on Early Judaism and the Gospel of John at Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva. I'll also have the opportunity to present a little discussion paper at the university, on "Issues Relating to the Literary Integrity of Sacred Texts, Using 1 Corinthians as a Case Study".

In short, I'll begin by summing up arguments against the unity of 1 Corinthians: Over the last hundred years, a number of influential scholars have argued that apparent incoherence in 1 Corinthians (inconsistencies, unclear flow, etc) is best explained by seeing the letter as a "letter-collection", pieced together by a redactor who wanted to create a systematic Paul-Corinth collection, for particular purposes. Having surveyed these applications of Redaction Criticism to 1 Corinthians, I'll then briefly explore three major hesitations that I have about this direction in 1 Cor scholarship: These hesitations are, respectively, methodological, hermeneutical, and exegetical.

In short, I don't think apparent literary incoherence in 1 Corinthians is best explained by appeal to Redaction Criticism - I believe we're on surer ground seeing the letter as a unity.

If you would like a more light-hearted illustration of Redaction Criticism, click here and read through the comments.

So be good while I'm away, and don't forget to vote in my poll!

exalted in my body

If you come to the postgraduate study room for theology students at the University of Nottingham, you will discover that above the door on the way in, there is a little sign saying "The Ivory Tower" (actually, we are situated just beneath the clocktower in the Trent building)... and as you leave the study room, you will see a little sign above the door announcing your exit to "The Real World". The little signs were placed there a few weeks back by a particular Australian theology postgrad, as egged on by certain other inhabitants of this room.

Of course, the point is an ironic one... but it does provoke me to think each time I come in and go out. Why didn't Paul say what I wanted him to say: "It is my eager expectation and hope that... Christ will be exalted now as always in my study"... I'd be much more comfortable with that...

"In the bodily obedience of the Christian, carried out as the service of God in the world of everyday, the lordship of Christ finds visible expression and only when this visible expression takes personal shape in us does the whole thing become credible as Gospel message." Ernst Kasemann

Final Easter post: How to get funding for a documentary

1) Carefully wrap up scholarly integrity and chuck out window
2) Practice facial expressions: Aim for the look of an earnest enquirer desperately trying to get to the "real" Jesus
3) Use the word "bombshell" a lot
4) For main points, interview fringe scholars (including at least one wild-eyed Nag Hammadi expert)
5) For fringe points, interview mainstream scholars
6) Refer to medieval legends as "evidence"
7) Hold out hand for $$$ from Channel Four

Suggested ideas for future Easter Specials:
- "The Hidden Years: Jesus in Shropshire"
- "Mary Magdalene: Husband of Thomas?"
- "Faith or Fiction? In Search of Ratings"

blessed are those who do not see

Why was Thomas in a less favourable position to ourselves? Why is it a blessing to believe without seeing? Again, this is related to the opening questions in this blog...
I think it all has something to do with this: God wants us to know him as the one who gives sight to the blind, and life to the dead - and so he withdraws the risen Jesus from our sight, offering us only the testimony of the cross and resurrection, delivered by followers of the hidden Lord.

So is our positive reception of this message effectively a nullification of all of our previous contemplations and searchings and ponderings? Does grace, in this sense, destroy nature - or does it come as the corrective perfecting of our previous groping for God? Of course, there is a long and heated theological debate. Luther and Barth are often thought of as being the key representatives of the idea that grace destroys nature, in opposition to Aquinas, who represents the idea that grace perfects nature.

I wonder if it would be fruitful to think about it like this: Grace resurrects nature... that is, the grace of God is not continuous with any human foundations - it crucifies human pride... on the other hand, the grace of God does enliven and bring to fullness the genuine personhood that had been crudely existent before the coming of salvific grace. In this sense, grace genuinely destroys and perfects.

Easter Saturday... death

I have no intention of posting every day on this blog, but the first three days are pretty important - yesterday's post, made on Good Friday, was really all about the cross... Today is Easter Saturday - the in-the-middle, nothing-happening, still-in-the-tomb day.

My favourite song about death is "Letter to Alan" which appeared on Cold Chisel's best album "Circus Animals"... the song is about - no - here it is (the beginning, anyway):
When it's time for your reflection,
As you wait till help arrives,
See our good friend's face on the dashboard,
And you know you cannot leave that cab alive...
Do you know I'd reach for you, from later times?
Once I knew... now I'm walking in the dark.
Like bells, our dogs are yelling all across Centenial Park,
And the Sunday morning light just sends me blind,
And I'm only feeling useless, cause there's nothing I can blame:
Every person, thing, and circumstance, that moves this perfect day,
you've left behind.

There is something a bit stupidly incongruous about a fine-weathered Easter Saturday - why have the earthquakes stopped? "Gold's in the sky, and in my blue eyes - you know it feels unfair: there's magic everywhere".... stupid weather.
But, looking outside, we are having our first proper icy snowfall of the year.... hmm - not always stupid, perhaps

crypto-theology

Here is a crucial question: Why did the ascension happen? Why was it "better" (John 14-16) for Jesus to leave the disciples with only his indirect presence - via Spirit, Word, and Sacrament?
And why did he picture the Kingdom of God as something which is hidden until the climactic harvest?
Here is a parallel question: Why was Saul of Tarsus struck with blindness as his fundamental experience of the risen Jesus?
And one more related question: Why were the Corinthians so emphatically wrong to act as though they could see clearly in the present (1 Cor 13)?

Perhaps one way to express the Corinthians' problem is "over-manifest spirituality" - an error at home in the pre-parousia age, in which Jesus can only genuinely be known and celebrated as the Crypto-Kurios... the Lord who is hidden from the world's esteem by the disgraceful curse of the cross. Consequently the cruciform hiddenness of the Crypto-Kurios is witnessed to by the cruciform mission of Paul, the original Crypto-Theologian.