It's like a Picasso

Edmund Capon, the curator of the Art Gallery of NSW on 702 ABC Sydney, speaking about the artwork of Pablo Picasso:

His artwork always says far more about Picasso than it does about the subject.

Like a lot of the Bible, I reckon. It says more about the author, than it does the subject.

A one-sided conversation

One of the problems in reading a lot of the New Testament letters, and particularly 1 Corinthians, is we're only getting one side of the discussion. It's like overhearing someone on a phone call, and you need to supply as best guess the other side of the conversation. Trying to work out the other half of the conversation works best when the side you are hearing is arguing for something (e.g. against circumcision), rather than general statements (give thanks).

This entire process is fraught with difficulties.

As our New Testament lecturer Brian Rosner noted in class,

"It's all kind of speculative. If you don't like it, you call it speculation. If you do, it's called historical reconstruction."

This American Life Live

Do you listen to the weekly podcast This American Life?

If you don't, you should. It is the best story-telling in the world. If you are a preacher, it will help you to understand the craft of language, and how to structure intrigue. If you are a person with the love of a good story, you will appreciate the well-told yarns.

Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone wants to come along with me to see 'Reinventing Radio: An Evening with Ira Glass' (the host of TAL) at Sydney Town Hall on January 11. Sarah has given her blessing for me to go out without her, so I'm after some company.

First show sold out in two days, and tickets on sale tomorrow for the second show (8:30-11:00pm).

And whilst I'm at it, I need to say again that I have no idea why ABC local radio hasn't started a local version of the program. With the long distances Australians travel, I am certain this would soon become the most popular podcast in the country. Someone needs to make this happen. The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler is a start, but this is the next step between the story-telling of Conversations and the production value of PM with Mark Colvin.

What books do I need to have?

Okay, so "need" is probably the wrong word. But I'm in Moore Books with money to spend and I'm lacking inspiration. Suggestions?

National Church Life Survey

Did you fill out a National Church Life Survey survey on Sunday? It's a good idea, I think.

But obviously the NCLS people are not overly optimistic about the life of the church, considering the main sponsor on the front page.

A photo a day

Image credit: oelal.wordpress.com

For the last few days, my wife Sarah has been taking a single photo each day on her daily walk as she passes the time until the birth of our baby.

I am writing about this for three reasons:
1. I'm not sure I have mentioned here previously that Sarah and I are expecting. The pregnancy has been going really well and this little one who we hope to meet in the next few weeks is a fantastic answer to prayer.

2. There are surprises around every corner in the Inner West of Sydney, and Sarah has a keen eye for a good photo. The one above is my fave thus far, and it reminds me of this song.

3. I have blog envy. Her new design is so beautifully minimal, and she caught me ogling at it the other day. How embarassment.

A new game - Scientheology

I've invented a new game inspired by the quote I posted yesterday. I call it Scientheology.

For those who missed it, this was the quote from an article on overpopulation:

I love the old biblical statement from Isiah [sic] - 'all flesh is grass'. That's actually a brilliant statement because it summarises the basic truth that we are only here on Earth because we can trap the energy in sunlight and turn it into something of use to us. And the best way of trapping the energy of sunlight, virtually the only way we've got, is to use chlorophyll - the green stuff in plants - to turn the solar energy into a plant which we can eat or harvest and do what we like with. So ultimately our future depends on the ability of the Earth to trap that solar energy, and for a plant to grow, it needs water.

- Professor Roger Short, University of Melbourne

Scientheology involves taking a verse or section of Scripture and applying it through an exlusively scientific lense.

Today's challenge is Revelation 3:16 'So, because you are lukewarm–nethier hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth.'

Will you take up the Scientheology challenge? Can you explain how the thermal qualities of food apply to the Christian life. Perhaps you have knowledge of the mechanisms by which humans expel substances from their mouth.

Paul Williamson on the Problem of the Documentary Hypothesis Theory

I don't think the word 'Theory' should be in that heading.

Anyways, the Documentary Hypothesis hypothesises that the Old Testament (especially the Torah) is basically a collection of potentially related but essentially independent stories which have been brought together by editors (redactors). The different sources who have been brought together have been identified as 'J' (Jahwist) 'E' (Elohist) 'D' (Deuteronomist) and 'P' (Priestly). As a side note, this led to the Jed P. joke in the OT part of my Moore Revue video which I assumed went over most people's heads.

This is what Paul Wiliamson has to say on the theory in our Old Testament 2 lecture notes regarding the promise of land to Israel being both unconditional and provisional in nature.

Those looking at the text through a diachronic lens see the explanation of such a paradox in the editorial layers allegedly underlying the final form of the text.16 All such theories, however, ultimately come up against the insuperable problem of why redactors would wish to combine two antithetic traditions, or qualify the tradition of an unconditional promise on such a selective basis themselves.

In other words, as I've said many times, this theory works on the assumption that the editor was an idiot.

The whole hypothesis arises from the fact that you can see the 'seams' of the editing process. And yet others argue we should worry where we can't see the seams, because it has been edited too well. But you can't have it both ways. If both evidence of multple sources and lack of evidence of multiple sources indicate multiple authorship, what evidence would you need to prove the writing is something close to a single author?

End rant.

We should let more scientists apply the Bible.

This is a quote from an article on overpopulation (apparently there are now 7 billion people in the world).

I love the old biblical statement from Isiah [sic] - 'all flesh is grass'. That's actually a brilliant statement because it summarises the basic truth that we are only here on Earth because we can trap the energy in sunlight and turn it into something of use to us. And the best way of trapping the energy of sunlight, virtually the only way we've got, is to use chlorophyll - the green stuff in plants - to turn the solar energy into a plant which we can eat or harvest and do what we like with. So ultimately our future depends on the ability of the Earth to trap that solar energy, and for a plant to grow, it needs water.

- Professor Roger Short, University of Melbourne

From here.