“Self, self, self”–says Dicken’s Chuzzlewit. But oh what slipperiness there is in such a reiterated self! Ethically we come to know belatedly that others have been participant in our selving all along. We thought we were at home with ourselves, just through ourselves, but dwelling with this, we are surprised by the other–a second time. We remember others already enabling us to be so, and we see through this odd illusion of being through oneself alone. Odd, since it is one granted by the gift of the other, one that the generous other seems willing to let be. We become more mature as ourselves, and we realize that this being for self is an immaturity. There are debts deeper than ever one could say or pay. And then an other giving may be known and loved differently, an other giving that enables one’s release to be oneself. Continue reading ‘Being in the Midst - A little metaxu for your afternoon’
Archive for the 'Ethics' Category
At the end of spring term, I had my students sit for a conversational final, during which I had the appalling realization that the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ made absolutely no difference to them in terms of the way they view humanity or ethics. That is, when asked what difference Jesus makes, they all basically invoked WWJD (who was Jack Daniels?). After tearing out large chunks of hair in front of them because it had taken me until the end of the semester to pick up on this tragedy, I pulled myself together and started asking questions tailored specifically toward trying to understand how they could’ve adopted such a superficial perspective. Continue reading ‘Intimacy and History’
That’s the claim made by Preaching Without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Juadaism (2006), a short volume by Marilyn J. Salmon, NT prof at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Salmon stakes the claim, following recent Pauline scholarship, that the Gospels are inherently Jewish texts, that Jesus’ Judaism is at the core of his mission, and that a good deal of Christian hermeneutics, theologizing, and subsequent preaching has notoriously failed to recognize such.
Continue reading ‘Inadvertent Anti-Judaism in Christian Theology? A Reading Group Proposal’
Update 9/14/07: Per Caritatem has a new post on the Orombi’s article here.
So much has happened this week in several blogs that we all frequent, not to mention outside or prodigious circle. Moreover, several noteworthies from the summer escaped my mention one way or another. Take this posting as my unofficial and abridged “I Don’t Know What You Did This Summer, But Here’s What You Should Have Been Reading.” I reserve the right to add to this list, to expect you all to follow up on the items herein, and to mock the many, dare I say most, of you who don’t. We’ll start with this week and work backward.
August 8. Fr. Edward T. Oakes published a charming and timely piece on the First Things blog on Wednesday called “On Canons”. If you’ve been keeping up with Janet and the most recent discussion over at Deep Grace of Theory, or you’ve been following the discussion on the nature of Christian philosophy or the comments under the Balthasar podcast, or you haven’t had your head buried in the sand, you might find his article illuminating. You’ll at least be tickled by such lines as: “No one disputes Hegel’s status as a canonical philosopher; but anyone who has tried to work through his rebarbative prose quickly comes to see how little literary merit counts when it comes to admittance in the ranks of canonical philosophers.” Ok, that’s hilarious to me. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t know what “Rebarbative” means. Hell, my spell checker doesn’t even recognize it. So, for all you playas out there -
Rebarbative: adjective; from French rébarbatif, from Middle French, from rebarber to be repellent; REPELLENT, IRRITATING
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