Declare: Intro to Tanak

Between the readings & this week's YouTube lectures, what most caught my interest was a quote Dr Lester gave of one of his former students summarizing the importance of historical contextual analysis of the Tanak/Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament. A rough paraphrasing of her quote was that, back when the early Christian church was first making sense of Jesus' life and ministry vis-a-vis the Tanak, folks didn't read Tanak Christologically - instead, they read Jesus scripturally. I believe Dr Lester words were "they looked at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus through the lens of the Hebrew Bible." They did not go back to the Tanak (their source material) and try to read it anew with Jesus' Christ-ness as their lens for (re)interpretation.

The implications of this on me (and us, as students of this intro level OT/Tanak course) are several. For one, we have to possess a keen sense of reflexivity in order to, in Dr Lester's words, "bracket our Jesus lens while looking through fresh eyes." This requires we know who we are, why we are pursuing historical study of this text, and what it means for ourselves as both students of academic thought and students of practical ministry application. These questions (and probably many more) are what I mean by a sense of reflexivity.

On another level, though, it seems like we have to also be willing to dislocate ourselves from our religious identities in order to be open to tracks of thought like biblical and form criticisms that might challenge our deeply held Christological beliefs. To this end, I found the opening chapters of Christopher Stanley's text The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach helpful at providing some perspective to guide the rigorous undertaking of scholarly inquiry on these traditional texts. Dr Stanley suggest to 1) question the text when it's hard to understand or difficult to apply, instead of blindly trusting; to 2) adopt a spirit of independence from the conformity of belief many of our faith traditions adhere to, in order to "gain a better understanding of the biblical text, not to reinforce or undermine [those] teachings;" to 3) embrace the Tanak as a diverse, non-uniform set of writings that came from humans whose views and approaches influenced what they composed and are reflected therein; and finally to 4) approach the text not primarily with an eye toward application of our lessons to our own moral lives, but to a deep desire for understanding the text on its own basis and own merits as an entity unto itself.

I'm excited to begin this process with all of you, and to see how together we are challenged to reflect and grow intellectually as a result.

Peace!

Intro to the OOTLE16 Community

Hey Team OOTLE16,

My name's Alex Plum, and I'm in my first year at GETS, completing Basic Graduate Theological Studies on route to credentialing as a Deacon in the United Methodist Church. I completed a Master of Public Health last spring at Emory University, and I currently work for a major health system in Detroit, where I develop and coordinate global health programs and research.

I look forward to e-meeting everyone and collaborating over the semester.

Onward!
Alex 

Danger in the City??

I would've posed with of-the-period style fisticuffs a-blazin', but the hat demanded something more refined.

My friend Jessie & I made it out to Columbus last week to surprise her friend Brittany, who turned 27 and had a rather inviting 20s-themed box social at The Drawing Room on High St. We arrived at around 11:30pm, but found on-the-street parking to be in short supply, so we turned down 5th Avenue to pulled to the curb.

I turned the car off, and handed Jessie her keys, which she put in her purse. Looking over her shoulder, she saw 3 burly-sized individuals sort of loafing around outside the car, standing closer than comfortable to her door. It didn't dawn on me what they could be doing, but with their oversized hoodies pulled high in deference to their exaggeratedly poor posture, J was wise to their game.

So, she handed the keys back, we locked the doors, and pulled out of their lickity-split, found safer parking, and had a roaring-good time. Until a gentleman at the event remarked on how "unsafe" he always feels whenever he visits Detroit.

I won't elaborate too long on Jessie's and my subtle and irreverent take-down of said man's protestations, suffice it to say he apologized. When asked "where do you visit," he replied "downtown, by Comerica Park and the Fox."

What does it say that the most populous and safest part of the city could strike fear and discomfort in the heart of this Columbus-dweller? A reflection of the city, or a reflection of the heart of this man? I shall submit my experience - on my first visit to C-bus, I dare add - almost getting jumped as a prime rebuttal.

All cities can be dangerous. But that doesn't mean you write them all off. Detroit is no different.