Tuesday 28 April 2015

True stories



An odd moment in Mike Bird’s chapter in the Five Views of Inerrancy book:

“Ancient historians were storytellers, not modern journalists, so naturally they were given to creativity in their narratives and filled in the gaps on details where necessary.” (p.168)

Two questions:

      1. That might be true of ancient historians (allowing for the rather massive generalisation) but how does it fit with Luke 1:1-4, 2 Peter 1:16, 1 John 1:1-3? Would Luke, Peter and John call themselves storytellers without reservation?

      2. Modern journalists: not given to creativity? Really? 

      We really need to get away from this modern history = objectiveancient history = creative idea.
      
       All history writing is selective and subjective. It can nevertheless be true and accurate in whatever it describes.

God's word doesn't change. Languages do.



"The truth is that if we are to have translation at all we must have periodical re-translation. There is no such thing as translating a book into another language once for all, for a language is a changing thing. If your son is to have clothes it is no good buying him a suit once for all: he will grow out of it and have to be re-clothed."

From Lewis’ preface to J. B. Philips, Letters to Young Churches: A Translation of the New Testament Epistles (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1947). Reprinted as ‘Modern Translations of the Bible’ in C. S. Lewis, First and Second Things (London: Fount, 1985), 87

[For a reflection on the latest NIV, see here]

Monday 27 April 2015

some holiday Auden



Browsing the bookshelves of our holiday cottage a couple of weeks ago I found a volume of book reviews written by the poet W.H. Auden. Called Forewords and Afterwords, it’s described by Clive James as “free of bluff, full of life” and full of “unintended hints at the vastness of his reading.” Some little gems:

Speaking of Augustine’s insight into human nature:
“Man, that is to say, always acts either self-lovingly, just for the hell of it, or God-loving, just for the heaven of it; his reasons, his appetites are secondary motivations. Man chooses either life or death, but he chooses; everything he does, from going to the toilet to mathematical speculation, is an act of religious worship, either of God or of himself.” 

On Jesus' death as something unexpected: “The idea of a sacrificial victim is not new; but that it should be the victim who chooses to be sacrificed and the sacrificers who deny that any sacrifice has been made, is very new.”

From the review of E.R. Dodds’ book Heresies:
“One may or may not hold the devil responsible, but, when one considers the behaviour of large organised social groups throughout human history, this much is certain: it has been characterised neither by love nor by logic.”

Discussing Dodds’ work Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety, Auden relates what Dodds considers a major cause of the church’s growth in the early centuries of its life:

“Epictetus has described for us the dreadful loneliness that can beset a man in the midst of his fellows…Such loneliness must have been felt by millions [in the centuries immediately following Jesus’ life]–the urbanised tribesman, the peasant come to town in search of work, the demobilised soldier, the rentier ruined by inflation, and the manumitted slave.  For people in that situation membership of a Christian community might be the only way of maintaining their self-respect and giving their life some semblance of meaning.  Within the community there was human warmth: someone was interested in them, both here and hereafter.” 

[Auden himself lived an unconventional life and had a curious relationship with Christianity, influenced first by Protestant Liberalism and then by Catholicism. A nice introduction can be found here: http://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/08/auden-and-the-limits-of-poetry-10]

Thursday 16 April 2015

home is what the heart is


“The state of your heart is the state of your home. You cannot harbour resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender. You cannot be greedy with your time and expect them to share their toys. And perhaps most importantly, you cannot resist your opportunities to be corrected by God and expect them to receive correction from you.” (Rachel Jankovic, Loving the Little Years, p14-15)