a few pictures

Some bi-planes we saw practicing for the air show. We also saw the blue angels, some wart hogs, a b-52, and some other bi-planes.

A lecture from my Christianity and Tyranny class

Here's an example of what I'm doing in my "Christianity and Tyranny" class, in case it interests anyone. Comments welcome. J H-W

The Old Testament, Jesus, and Moral Reasoning

I. The Bible as Repository of Divine Precepts

Some hold that the Bible should be approached as containing a series of absolute laws that can straightforwardly settle what to do in many situations.

1. The Bible says not to commit adultery (Exodus 20:14)
2. The Bible is the word of God.
3. One ought to obey the word of God.
So, 4. One must not commit adultery.

There are two problems with this view of moral reasoning.

1. Unless this is supplemented with something else, it leaves a great deal underdetermined. Specifically, it leaves undetermined what counts as ‘adultery.’ Recall that polygamy was widely held to be permissible in ancient Israel. Yet, for most of us, it would count as adulterous.

One might think this problem could be fixed with a direct specification of what counts as marriage, and what things would count as transgressing marriage, but this proves not only difficult to do, but probably impossible.

I will argue below that this is one reason Jesus rejects this mode of moral reasoning.

2. Surveying the body of laws in the Old Testament, there are laws that presently seem to us important and laws that don’t, and even laws that strike us as repugnant. Yet, if we are really committed to premises (2) and (3) above, then there seems to be no grounds for making a distinction among them and refusing to act on some of them. There is some temptation to look to Jesus for help here, but Jesus did not revise the text of the Old Testament, and he even says, “I did not come to abolish the law, but to complete” (Mat. 5:17)

This leads us to a dilemma: either we accept that we ought (for example) to give rebellious children the death penalty (Deut. 21:18-21) or we reject the Bible as the word of God. There is, on this view of the law, no middle ground for picking and choosing which laws we want. But I suggest that it is the model of reasoning above that leads to this dilemma, and we ought to reject it, and, indeed I think Jesus is teaching us a different way of looking at the law.

II. The Bible as Source of Moral Exemplars

Instead of looking at the Bible as a source of moral precepts, we might look at the Bible as providing us with moral exemplars. In fact, I think it provides us with examples of good AND bad or misguided action. Obviously we are not supposed to imitate Adam and Eve as they take the fruit from the tree of knowledge. But we do see ourselves in them, we reflect on temptation and how hard it is to be obedient to God. We are to feel sympathy with them, and to follow the story that is unleashed by the fact that humans have this (constant?) possibility of temptation away from their duties. This is what good literature does: it represents us to ourselves realistically; it picks out stories and characters that reveal the human drama poignantly. In the case of the Bible (as with much ancient and medieval literature), the human drama is wrapped up intimately with a divine story. Some of the Bible’s most moving moments occur when people do something misguided out of love for God or their people, as when Jephthah pledges his daughter to God (Judges 11:29), as well as when God reaches out with his mighty hand and leads his people powerfully (Exodus).

What is it to be a moral exemplar? In the case of a positive moral exemplar, someone that is presented as admirable, we not simply to do what they do. Obviously, few of us are in a position literally to lead a nation out of oppression (Moses) or to abandon our families to go about itinerant preaching (Jesus). A moral exemplar is someone we are to see as acting on the right reasons and having the proper motivations; we are to follow those reasons and motivations so far as our lives yield opportunities for doing so. We are to try to follow the shape or the form of the life, though we cannot live the life of Moses or of Jesus. We are to take the opportunities presented to us and to attempt to act (for example) benevolently in them, allowing Jesus to shape our conception of benevolence.

The difficult question is: how does this understanding of the Bible, as a source of moral exemplars rather than moral precepts, affect our understanding of the Law?

I think we are to see Moses as using the law as an instrument to bring the nation of Israel to the love of God. In other words, the law is not the goal; rather, the goal is moral perfection. Jesus can be read as making the claim that people are confusing the law with the moral perfection that it is supposed to help them achieve. The law, which points in the direction of moral perfection, cannot bring about that moral perfection for the reason I pointed to earlier: by itself it is indeterminate. Indeed, Jesus’s claim, I think, is that the law is only properly understood and read by a person who is virtuous, that is, by a person whose soul is shaped in response to God, who strives at every moment to be in accordance with his will. Of course, if that’s the case, then how does the law point to moral perfection in the first place? This paradox (that we need the law to achieve perfection, but need perfection to read the law) is precisely why we need Jesus. The Jesus is to bridge the gap and bring us, through His supernatural intervention, simultaneously to a proper understanding of the law, and to moral perfection.

Jesus speaks of respecting every letter and dot of the law, but then, he himself seems to break the Sabbath law. Matthew here has Jesus claiming priestly dispensation for doing so; Mark has Jesus make a more interesting claim (Mark 3:4), “Is it permitted to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath?” This is supposed to strike us as absurd, I think. It is always permitted to do good and never permitted to do evil; those who read the law as ruling out doing good, or permitting doing an evil, have thoroughly missed the point.

Chopping some food.

This picture was taken a few weeks ago. I like it because it shows Gray Cat sitting in the chair by the table. He likes to be a part of the fun, even in the kitchen. Maybe I should say especially in the kitchen... just in case someone pours a little milk.
We have stopped giving the kittens milk to try to keep them from begging for it and climbing on top of things in order to get to open containers of it.

This is Gray Cat with the mouse.
The mouse is just some pieces of fabric shaped like a mouse. There is a pouch inside for catnip. If the mouse is in a different "room" of the apartment than the one we are in, the kittens like to pick up the mouse in their mouth and bring it to us. They meow loudly when they do this, to get our attention... I guess to show us what sweet treat they are bringing. Those silly kittens!

this snake just ate a pregnant ewe.

job information

Here is practical information concerning my job search.
Today I had an interview at a new frame gallery. I would be selling art, frames, and learning how to make frames. It would be nice to be around art and people making things all day. I think it went ok.


Tomorrow I have an interview at a coffee house (not starbucks) called Beanology. John and I went there to have coffee last weekend when I turned in the application. It is a cute place, but a little sterile. It's almost like, what if Wendy's were decorated in black and gray, and had regular lights instead of flourescent. It would be a job, and probably not a bad one.
Low pressure... I could probably wear jeans and t-shirts (instead of something suite-like). For some reason, that sounds great. Maybe it is because whenever I go shopping for 'work clothes', nothing really fits the way I would like it to. I have one nice pair of gray pants that pretty much has to go with everything. Ok...I admit it, I tried to use some of the Macy's gift cards we got to buy clothes. I was thwarted by the fact that Macy's does not carry clothing that fits me, unless I want something with pink hearts and stars and ribbons on it.
Seriously.


I am also going to stop by this other place, www.bagettes.com. It's a place where you send them a digital picture, and they transfer it onto fabric and make a bag out of it. Pretty cool. A little cheesy, but cool. Apparently it's a famous company, but it's located in Overland Park, KS (suburb). They are looking for someone to cut and press fabric, and maybe do some sewing... It would be a good opportunity to learn some things about working with fabric to improve my sewing skills. The pay, however is only $7/hr. Imagine working a whole day and only coming away with $50. yikes.


Thursday, I have a substitute job set up to go in for a Jr. High math teacher. She's giving tests the whole day, so it should be a breeze. But it will finally be a little money earned off of something besides selling things through the internet (like books, the futon, and my blood... just kidding! i haven't been selling my blood over the internet--i don't think that's legal.
but maybe I should check into it... just kidding, i'm not really going to check into selling my blood over the internet or anywhere else).


oooh!
i knew you were scrolling down, just to see if i would put a picture of blood.
heeheehee.

orange tomatoes

these amish people at the market always have the sweetest tiny tomatoes.



this week, i bought orange ones.

juice

i am fascinated with the look of fruits and vegetables.
i like to look at the textures, lines, shapes, colours.
especially against the grain of a cutting board or the kitchen table.

In the first picture, I used a flash. In the second picture, I didn't. In the second picture, the vegetables strike me as being lonely, even though that's a strange thing to attribute to vegetables. It is the late afternoon dwindling sunlight that does it, I think.

The yellow vegetable on the board is a golden beet. The veins going through it look like someone's trigonometry homework. Graphing the cosign of the golden beet's wavy veins.


These vegetables made golden orange juice.
Black cat likes to sit at the table while I work.