Tobennett0420's Weblog

Week 10 PCBR “Exodus-Toward-Egypt” by Fernandez

tobennett0420 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 04:02:48 +0000

Why, might I ask, does Fernandez labor to re-imagine the Exodus story when the tale of Exile seems to have so many more obvious points of contact with the Filipino-American experience? Now, I tread lightly here because I am not Filipino-American and I don’t know exactly what that life is like, but I do feel competent to speak on OT narratives.

Fernandez says that Filipinos have moved to the land of the colonizer; this sounds like settling in Babylon. He speaks about throwing in the community’s lot with the colonial oppressor; this is God’s Word to the exiles through Jeremiah the prophet. In fact, Jeremiah’s vision of what community life is to be like in a time of crisis is almost exactly the one Fernandez promotes for the Filipino community. In Babylon, the Israelites were second-class citizens, given some opportunity, but never truly insiders.

I applaud Fernandez’ attempt to appropriate biblical narratives to help theologically construct Filipino-American experiences, I just wonder if he hasn’t chosen the wrong ones.

Week 10 PCBR, “Mary of Magdala” by King

tobennett0420 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:54:56 +0000

King’s scholarship and attention to pertinent details are excellent and her argument concerning the way the church replaced Mary the Leader and Disciple with Mary the Repentant Whore is surely on the right track.

I am somewhat concerned with her exegetical decisions concerning the Gospel of Mary. King goes to some lengths to hide the fact that this is a Gnostic text. The story she cites has little to do with the role of women in the early church and everything to do with positing a “hidden gospel” to which the apostolic fathers were not privy.

King is more than a little disingenuous when she does not tell us that the Gospel of Mary replaces Mary the Leader and Disciple with Mary the Dispenser of Hidden Wisdom. We absolutely must rehabilitate Mary’s reputation in the church, but we must not make mistakes analogous to those of the Medeival church in so doing.

Week 10 PCBR “Cutcher Tamil” by Israel

tobennett0420 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:46:06 +0000

At first, I was disturbed by the idea that different forms of Tamil created the possibility of perpetuating caste distinctions even within the Christian community. Then I remembered that we do the same thing in America. Language is and always has been a political tool. It separates cultures and sub-cultures as well as educated and un-educated classes.

As I was reading and thinking about Israel’s work, I was struck by the profound power of parable in Jesus’ ministry. Parable may have been an attempt to get around and outside the lingual barriers that separated people by setting eyes on narrative instead.

Week 10 PCBR, “Local Divine Powers” by Mbuwayesango

tobennett0420 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:38:37 +0000

I’m not sure how I feel about bible translation that usurps local terms for the deity. Part of my difficulty comes from how conflicted I am even about the use of “God” in the West. The disinterested, all-loving, all-powerful god of the enlightenment seems to be what we conjure when we use that word, and that deity is certainly not entirely like YHWH as depicted in the OT.

At the same time, YHWH makes Godself known to different people in different ways. Surely the ultimate source of local traditions about Mwari are God the Holy Spirit? Surely the Messiah Jesus is the true face of YHWH to the world? I don’t know what to make of all that missiologically, but it definitely bears further consideration.

Week 10 Wednesday

tobennett0420 — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:01:26 +0000

I am very curious about the interplay between two ideas: being a non-conformist within culture, and escaping (or at least reforming) the attachment to economic exchange. I’m still not entirely sure to what extent we should oppose the hegemony economics holds over various spheres of life in the West. I don’t think anyone can deny that its reach is too far, but neither can anyone deny the effectiveness of the paradigm.

Week 10 Monday Class Reflection

tobennett0420 — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:13:18 +0000

I am curious about the exilic model of the church. When the Jews were taken into Babylonian exile, they retained their ethnic status by enforcing dietary laws, Sabbath-keeping, and sexual mores (especially forbidding marriage outside the tribe). My question, I think, is whether or not Yoder’s five practices would effectively maintain Christian identity in the midst of exile. What else would be required so as to ensure that the community identity in Christ doesn’t get completely assimilated by the host culture?

Week 9 Comment on John Brennan’s Fuellenbach Post

tobennett0420 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:34:05 +0000

John’s a bit worried about some of Fuellenbach’s “high horse” language. Example: On pg. 212, Fuellenbach quotes DiNoia to the effect that the church ministers and engages folks, believing grace to be operating in their midst even if they don’t know it yet.

Sorry Mate, but I’m having difficulty seeing what the problem is. I mean, that is what we think isn’t it? As Christians, don’t we really think that God revealed God’s self in Jesus and is now acting via the Church to reconcile the world? Don’t we think that the Holy Spirit is moving to prepare people for the inbreaking of God’s kingdom whether they know it or not?

Well, that’s what I think, at least. And Brother, let just say that I share your concerns vis a vis the Christian high horse–I can’t stand the jingoism any more than you, but doesn’t genuine dialogue depend on me saying, “Hey, this is where I’m at, and I totally want to know where you’re at”? Yeah, it sure can sound like we’re grabbing the Truth flag for ourselves, but it doesn’t have to. It can sound patronizing, but it shouldn’t.

Maybe you were just expressing a little bit of worry about what can happen if the triumphalists start blasting that kind of verbage in a Falwell-esque orgy of self-congratulation. If that’s your fear, I’m with you, but if we don’t think that God has a special role for the Spirit-powered Christian, I’ve got to wonder what we’re even doing here…

Week 9, Fuellenbach Chapter 8

tobennett0420 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:25:00 +0000

Oh, I do like this quote:

“The church’s mission is to reveal through the ages the hidden plan of God and to lead humankind toward its final destiny. It must be seen to be entirely at the service of this divine salvific plan for all human beings and all of creation, which is operative and present where people live, no matter what religion or faith they may confess” (219).

What Fuellenbach proposes, is a completely amorphous vision of the church–one given over entirely to functionality. Will this advance God’s plan as revealed in the scriptures and by the Spirit? Then let’s do it. Is this holding us back from being who we are and thereby revealing to the World that it is the World? Then let’s chuck it. If this kind of thought is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

I need to go reread the whole chapter right now.

Week 9 PCBR, “God at the Crossroads” by Rivera

tobennett0420 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:19:11 +0000

Color me annoyed. Yes, Jesus is associated with Lady Wisdom. Yes, early Christian interpretation of the Jesus-event collapses the two figures. So, yes, by the time of the gospel of John Sophia and Jesus have been fully identified and emerge as the (masculine) Logos. This is NOT an overt move to co-opt a female symbol in the cause of patriarchy; it is rather the natural result of Jesus having been a human male. One thing we should notice is that the gospel picture of Jesus is incredibly similar to the “hybrid Sophia” Rivera describes. Standing neither as the proper Israelite woman or the alluring foreigner, she is at the crossroads. Notice that Jesus is as well, in the way that he walks a line between social etiquette and kingdom practice. The collapsing of Jesus and Sophia in Christian theology is one of the high watermarks of feminism in human history, Rivera’s critique notwithstanding. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

Week 9 PCBR, “Maori ‘Jews’” by Huie-Jolly

tobennett0420 — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:06:43 +0000

The take-away insight from this really excellent piece is the powerlessness of the Johannine community at the time of composition and the functionality of the gospel as delineating identity. Connecting this with the Maori, Huie-Jolly correctly perceives the same dynamic at work: Oppressed minority disassociates from oppressor by making sharp doctrinal distinction. What is at issue is not the doctrine per se, but why the minority is (a) a minority, and (b) in need of an identity marker over against the majority.

Surely the church has (ostensibly) been against that kind of thing from the beginning?