Believe me. The words "postmodern fundamentalist" only came strangely to mind as we strolled along, and I'm not sure I ever want to speak them aloud again. I also suspect that I could have come up with a more tasteful, reverent, and interesting way of speaking when I thought it somehow necessary to throw in that my dad had "passed." But this is the way these things go in the land of video I guess. Family members, please pardon my easy use of the first person plural. I don't mean to drag you into my madness (at least not unwillingly). "Memory believes before knowing remembers," sayeth Faulkner. I will say I trust the man’s epistemology. Anyone in Nashville care to guess where Geoff and I were? Incidentally, the youtube site has an option for viewing the thing in higher quality.
I'll get to Beck and Batman and the glories of Steve Martin's Born Standing Up real soon.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Memory Believes
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6 comments:
"Postmodern fundamentalist" is all fine and well, but I think the real winner here is "redemptive skepticism."
Hello David!
We ALL should be like the Bereans (and this sounds more like 'un cliché') who received the Scriptures with all readiness of mind, but studied them to see if they were so. No one preacher or individual can take any verse out of context and just preach about what they think it means to them. Any verse of Scripture conveys just what it has to convey and in other words, God's Word does not go void.
Interesting Video, David!
Regards in Him who is Truth
Stephen
('Le cliché' is really a paraphrase of a verse of Scripture)
Ahna, this is indeed "the money phrase," I think.
And (in response to Stephen's kind post) I think it (redemptive or always-redeeming skepticism) is our only shot at hearing, receiving, and doing THE WORD rightly. As I see it, the Bereans responded to the task that is the task of anyone who means to have a go at getting scriptures right: Try to get it right AND be hellbent on finding out, on a daily basis, that you're getting it horribly wrong (This is an especially costly exercise for those who believe God's love for us depends upon our right interpretations). I think of Peter who had reason to believe himself a possessor (or copyright owner of) "the Word of Him Who Is Truth" but who also had the readiness of mind to discover (thru prayer, visions and, my favorite, open-ended conversations with other people) that he had been very wrong concerning the scope of good news of God's kingdom. His reading of the scriptures had once led him to conclude (understandably, we might add) that the kingdom was only very bad news for the people he called gentiles, but he came to understand that his reading was limited (I suspect he already knew it). Our limited readings are all we've got. They're blessedly finite, we might say. They're what we do. They're our field reports. And we can look forward to and anticipate future generations of readers whose faithfulness to God's word will render our attempts at faithfulness interesting historical artifacts. I trust they'll look back on us mercifully and (one hopes) praise our less death-dealing habits of mind, our redemptive skepticism.
Yay for youtube. It's freaking me out.
I don't know how to better word this, but with respect to the Bereans, did they know they were receiving the Scriptures "with all readiness of mind," or was that better said about them than by them? I don't know that I can pinpoint the moment when I am at readiness to receive. I hope it is all the time, but I suspect that if I equate "receiving" with "enthusiasm about" or "passion for" or "purpose driven," then I'm maybe risking the same level of superficial emotional (?) attachment that I have to Bewleys Irish Afternoon tea, or the idea of Stewart and Tennant in Hamlet (although my prayers return often to some miraculous chance at seeing that). If I think about the telling of Jesus saying, "My flesh is food and my blood is drink. He who eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood has eternal life," or when He heals one person out of a hoard of need, I don't know how the hell to receive that. I think I know, but Faulkner is right-that has more to do with the basement Baptist VBS and a Benny Hinn rally--or at least the moments when I read/heard, "correctly handles the word of Truth," as "knows everything the Bible means, absolutely." I've found moments of readiness when I was insulted by a preachment or dead-set against giving someone a chance, but I don't think I can apply that behavior as a strategy. Hmmm...
David, were y'all at that park on Granny White? And "freaking me out" sounds like Dorothy took over for a moment.
everything has to do with everything
Is it Sevier Park - that tomby building and then the mansion that had 40 bullet holes in the front door from the Civil War?
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