One Tough Assignment

 MEMORANDUM

DT: December, 2006
TO: Christiana von Believer, Special Forces
FR: Department of Defense
RE: New Assignment

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to compile a lucid, tightly woven report concerning Jesus, called Messiah. The exposé must include “all the principle truths of the salvation and the kingdom of God.”[1] It must “consider the whole of human experience - hope and fulfillment, suffering and death, resurrection and redemption.”[2]

You may cite the Bible only, and the ratio of Old Testament to New Testament texts must be roughly 2:1 in favor of the Old Testament. You may use no more than 50 citations total.

After you complete the work, a famous composer will set it to music. Once we begin to leak it to the public, we predict that millions of English speaking people will hear this report over the next hundreds of years.

It is due at the Pentagon by January 31, 2007, and will be declassified and publicized in April, 2007.

********

And by the way, Christiana, no pressure.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Unless this officer has a good grasp of the Old Testament, the mission is extremely difficult to complete. Many Bible-reading folk may be able to come up with solid New Testament insights to Jesus’ life and purpose. Old Testament texts are a bit more sketchy in our minds.

Thank goodness, an English chap by the name of Charles Jennen did rise to the challenge back in 1742 or so, and wrote what became the libretto for George Frederick Handel’s famous “Messiah.” From the Old Testament, Jennen brought together scriptures from Isaiah, Haggai, Malachi, Zechariah, Psalms, Lamentations, and Job. His New Testament selections were from Matthew, Luke, John, Hebrews, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Revelation.

During Jennen’s life, the Age of Enlightenment was in full swing, and so-called enlightened scholars began to treat the Bible as if it were merely another piece of classic literature or interesting phenomena awaiting scientific scrutiny. They scorned the idea of Jesus’ divinity. Jennen compiled these scriptures as a defense for the belief the Jesus was truly the Christ sent to bring the kingdom of heaven to the earth and salvation for all peoples.[3]

The brains of the Enlightenment may have not been impressed with Jennen's work, but enough of the rest of folk were. That is one reason why people still take the time to hear or sing a performance of “Messiah” during the Christmas and Easter seasons. The core message of the Good Book, even the oft ignored Old Testament, accompanied by great music, does not cease to stir the human heart.

[1] The Staff or associates of Christian History Institute.
[2] Program notes of Henley Denmead, Hartford Chorale.
[3] Christian History Institute.

 

So is Woman an Add-On?

In my recent blog post, “Can You Really Know Yourself?” the two authors I quoted threw the word “man” and “mankind” around with the carefree abandon of conventional 4th and 18th century linguistic use. Probably the women of St. Basil’s and Alexander Pope’s day knew these words often included both genders. Going further back, Jewish and Christian women of ancient times most likely understood that the Scripture text, “Let us make man in our image” included woman, too.” Right? Well, maybe they did, and maybe they didn’t.

Today, gender inclusive language is one attempt to clarify for both sexes that females have equal presence and participation in any reference to humans as a whole. This is an example of how as a society changes in its self-concept, its language also changes. But let’s face it, inclusive language is still in the awkward stage. For example, “When the student cites an entry from an encyclopedia in [his/her; his or her] essay, [he/she; s/he; he or she] should follow the Chicago Manual of Style.” Makes for a beautifully flowing sentence, doesn’t it?

So until our language accurately and succinctly expresses gender inclusion, certain accommodations are called for. Both men and women have historically required reference points that help them come to know themselves. In the Bible’s case particularly, all of the human race needs to be able to see itself appropriately reflected in its narratives and poems on occasion. Thus, it has not only been since the 1970s and 80s that people have worked at gender inclusive communication. In its ancient languages, the scripture of Genesis 1:26-27 used the word “man” (Heb.: 'ādām; Grk.: anthrōpos) to identify the category of creature, then succinctly clarified the word’s scope of meaning.

Likewise, St. Basil was concerned that his 4th century listeners clearly understand who the “man” is in Gen. 1:27:

“Man!” says the woman, “And what about me? It is the male who was created, for,” she says, “He did not say ‘her’ who is man, but by the term ‘man’ He is shown to mean the masculine.” But no! in order that nobody . . . should take the expression “man” . . . to refer only to the male, the Scripture has added: “male and female He made them.”[1]

We women, then, are not simply add-ons to God’s initial creation of the imago dei. As Basil went on to emphasize, “The woman also possesses, like the male, what has been created in the image of God.”[2]

[1] Johanna Manley, ed., trans., Wisdom. Let Us Attend (Menlo Park, Calif.: Monastery Books, 1997), 712. 
[2] Ibid.

Can you really know yourself?

As evident in his poem, "Know Thyself", the great 18^th cent. poet, Alexander Pope, wondered what the results would be from taking a good look at ourselves.

KNOW THYSELF

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such
Whether he thinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused, or disabused;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

St. Paul would likely agree with Mr. Pope when he admits in 1 Cor. 13:9, 12a, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part . . . For now we see a riddle (Grk. enigma) in a mirror . . . ”

But were we humans always made of such contradictory character? No. Of mystery, perhaps, but not of variance. The Scripture’s portrayal of the creation of the first man and woman is this: God said, “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26).”

Commenting on the verse, St. Basil the Great said,

From this, begin to know yourself.
These words had not yet been applied to any of the creations.
God said, ‘Let there be light.’ . . . One word, and they had come to be.
At this point, man does not yet exist,
and there is deliberation regarding man . . .
Note the dignity befitting you.
He has not initiated your origin by a command,
but there has been counsel in God
to determine how to introduce into life
this living being worthy of honor.[1]

[1] Johanna Manley, ed., trans., Wisdom. Let Us Attend, (Menlo Park, Calif.: Monastery Books, 1997), 709.

Blogsite Purpose

Years ago, as a 20-something, I wrote a pop-jazz song called "OCEAN," whose lyrics reflected a struggle with over-introspection. I perceived that as a “deep thinker,” I was too different from others for them to understand me, and also too much of a dark mystery to myself. In these frustrations, I reached a desire to entrust the ambiguities of being to the God whom I believed fashioned the depths and intricacies of human life.

Today, as a thinker who has become a part of the Holy Orthodox Church, I've discovered that the writings of such spiritual directors as St. Theophan the Recluse, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom), and others encourage one to go down deep into the self. But the reasons, methods, and preferred outcomes of such voyaging are rather different from those I had years ago. These differences are a part of what Bishop Kallistos Ware calls the Orthodox Way.

My purpose for this blogsite is to reflect on our voyage of life from the perspective of the Orthodox Way. I will use Scripture, Liturgical texts, and the writings of the Church Fathers and other persons, from yesteryear to today, to try and garner some portion of their wisdom for the journey. This wisdom is “lagan,” treasure sunk into the sea of murky humanity but not lost; it is attached to a buoy—the merciful Holy Spirit of illumination—so that it may be recovered.