Personal Statement of Belief - Scripture

My dad did one of these awhile back, and I vowed that one day I would as well. The current extension of my contract at Holyrood forces me to contemplate what my statement of belief is in earnest, as I will be submitting one in an accredidation process to begin shortly.

Today I came across a paragraph in W. Sibley Towner's commentary of Daniel which summarizes very nicely what I think about the article of the Bible as scripture. He got it from the United Presbyterian Confession of 1967.

It reads: "The Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are nevertheless the words of men, conditioned by language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times in which they were written. They reflect views of life, history, and the cosmos which were then current. The church therefore, has an obligation to approach the Scriptures with literary and historical understanding." Or as Towner puts it, we need to build a "hermeneutic bridge...between ourselves and the biblical writers".

In my own words, I believe that the word of God (which is divine and perfect) has been incarnated by the language of humanity (and therefore subject to errror and the structures necessary for us to comprehend it). Thus, in order to understand it, one must use both mystical/spiritual approaches (prayer, meditation) as well as very academic ones, such as historical and literary criticism.

Book Worm

Coffee's brewing...then I'm hitting the books.

Speaking of books, when I was a kid, we had this competition in our school for who could read the most books in the year. For every book you read, they placed a new "segment" of a bookworm, constructed of heavy colored paper circles, which by the end of the year ran around the school entire. I've wondered in this past year what my book worm would look like for this semester, and thought I'd share it as a way to kill the few moments it takes for coffee to perc.

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Othello by William Shakespeare
Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Othello by William Shakespeare
Great Speeches by Native Americans, edited by Bob Blaisdell
Narratology, by Mieke Bal
Literary Theory: The Basics - Hans Bertens
The World Hitler Never Made by Gavriel Rosenfeld
World Poetry, edited by Katharine Washburn and Josh S. Major
Mary Stuart by Friedrich Schiller
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolome de Las Casas
Narrative of my escape from slavery by Moses Roper
The Four Voyages by Christopher Columbus
Literary Theories, A Reader and Guide, edited by Julian Wolfreys
Selected Essays by Michel de Montaigne
Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, edited by Carl Olson
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, Sarah Lawall, General Editor...
(Which means I've read all of Beowulf, most of the Iliad and Aeniad, and am currently reading Dante's Divine Comedy)
The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical Time by Karen Hellekson

Not to mention all the articles and bits and bites of books I read while preparing papers. Coffee is ready. See you guys later.

I'm in ur blog...peeing my pants

My work computer was on the fritz today, so no update on the Heretic's Guide. Instead, a much needed laugh. I laughed so hard at these pics I cried, my stomach hurt, etc. I hope it's as much fun for you as it was for me. THis pic is what got me going...the rest nearly made me incontinent.

What's Your Sign?

Former religious studies buddy Mandy sent an email with this in it to me. Not me specifically, mind you...although maybe it was. Maybe it was her way of letting me know that I'm a prick.


You can check out more of these all over the Net, but here's one of the many places if you're too lazy to Google "Horrorscopes". Warning...adult language ahead.