Ancient Hebrew Poetry

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of the philosophers

Doug Chaplin of Metacatholic has been kind enough to carry on the conversation about divine passibility / impassibility initiated in an earlier post. It would add to the fun if an open theist or two joined the discussion, or Jeremy Pierce of Parableman, who would keep us all philosophically honest. In the mean time, let me stake out my position in relation to Doug’s. He says:

Why Blogging is a Cutting Edge Phenomenon

In a fine op ed for the New York Times in which he describes why John McCain is an excellent candidate, David Brooks ends by saying:

And if [you don’t like the ins and outs of politics], why have you read this deep into this post?

 Op-ed pieces are now “posts.” Isn’t that interesting? And they are; many of us wouldn’t read them if they weren’t. Brooks also makes a point of referring to the opinion of an online blogger and a premier political blog.

 The world is changing. Blogging counts more than one might imagine. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.

A Moment of Silence for Melitus Were

Thanks to blogs and online news sources, it is possible to research the background of current events and mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice as never before. The print media are little more than a helpful launch point for anyone interested in exploring the world and what happens in it in fine detail.

Melitus Were was just killed in Kenya. 39 years old, a peacemaker and newly elected parliamentarian, he was, by all accounts, one of the righteous. For background, go here.

Faith and History: Avoiding Extremes

As usual, it’s important to define one’s terms. Doug Chaplin, who effortlessly takes Tilling and West to the mat for externations and pins them both, quotes Jim West as follows:

I too am a theopaschite

Abraham Joshua Heschel taught me to be a theopaschite. The passibility of God should be a no-brainer to someone who has actually read the Bible, but Heschel in The Prophets lays it out with clarity and precision.

It’s been a long time since I read anything by Cornelius van Til – a Reformed theologian Karl Barth sparred with. I sat right up in my chair when I read this:

War and Peace in the face of the life and death of Jochen Klepper, Johanna Stein, and Renate Stein

It is my contention that pacifism lite, a vastly popular position in a number of European countries and in the halls of North American universities and church headquarters, is a symptom of political naiveté. It tends, furthermore, to be founded on an unexamined premise, to wit: that a politically responsible person acquits himself honorably if he, a would-be pundit, plays the part of pacifist-in-chief. As if an opinion defines a person, as opposed to a deed or style of life.

What a responsible life might consist of may be illustrated by that of Jochen Klepper, Johanna Stein, and Renate Stein. A gripping story, full of twists and turns, I briefly retell it in this post. It is not my intention to approve or disapprove of specific choices. I simply wish to claim that, in a context in which, as Goldhagen demonstrated, most Germans were Hitler’s “willing executioners,” this family lived a honorable life.

What does the Hebrew Bible have to say about war and peace and faith and politics?

All kinds of things. It’s impossible, of course, to reduce the recounted experiences of a nation over centuries of existence to one or two patterns. Stephen of Emerging from Babel is looking for models that might be useful in our setting.

He rightly points out that kings in the Bible use religion for their own ends. But he fails to emphasize how often religious representatives, those who speak in a religion’s name, want to be used, and are just waiting to be used. To this day, there are religious leaders of every imaginable persuasion whose heart is not in what they do and who aspire to be politicians. It’s good advice to steer clear of such people.

The drift to the right in politics the world over: is there another way?

One side of my family is in mourning this week. For the second time in a row, an Italian center-left government has fallen under its own dead weight after less than two years in office. All indications suggest that Italy will now elect, for a third time, a center-right government dominated by Silvio Berlusconi, the politician even conservatives love to hate. Perhaps Berlusconi will not do as much damage to Italy as his detractors predict. But one thing is sure: Berlusconi is the perfect candidate for an electorate that is desirous first of all of being granted permission to party on the Titanic for as long as possible, the common good, whatever that is, be damned.

Why church and state get war and peace wrong all the time

In this post, I present the fifth in a series of ten theses on war and peace in the Bible. For a list of earlier posts, see this post’s conclusion. It’s impossible to broach these topics without getting people all up in arms. Warning: what you read in this post may call into question religious and theological certainties you do not want to give up.

A Hebraica Blog of Great Interest

You might think that posts which dive into the fine details of ancient texts are of interest to very few people indeed. That’s true enough, but in response to posts like this one, I often receive emails from scholars and students who appreciate them.

Dr. Ezra Chwat of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, Jewish National and Hebrew University Library located in Jerusalem writes to inform me of a blog he and Dr. Avraham David of the Institute keep. It’s entitled גילוי מילתא בעלמא  Giluy Milta B‘alma, in which they present new and interesting findings in Hebrew Manuscripts, particularly from the Cairo Genizah.