Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About Me
- Fousty
- East Boston, Ma, United States
Girlfriend
Labels
- 02122 (31)
- 02122 Enviroment Food (1)
- Advocacy (1)
- Architecture (10)
- Bacon (1)
- BFJN (1)
- Bible (6)
- Bike (4)
- blogs (2)
- bookmark (1)
- books (4)
- Boston (13)
- Boston Police (2)
- Cabin (3)
- Christian (19)
- Christianity (14)
- Church (20)
- City (4)
- Comic (1)
- Community (5)
- computers (2)
- Culture (4)
- dad (1)
- Education (3)
- Enviroment (16)
- Family (3)
- Food (6)
- fousty (1)
- Friends (2)
- Giving (1)
- Gospel (2)
- Guardian Angles (1)
- Holiness (1)
- Housing (2)
- Iraq (2)
- iTunes (2)
- Jesus (24)
- Justice (14)
- Kingdom of God (2)
- Leadership (1)
- Lent (3)
- life (2)
- Love (2)
- Mac (1)
- money (10)
- Movies (2)
- Nature (1)
- Neighborhood (3)
- Other (1)
- Picture (2)
- Politics (22)
- Poverty (4)
- Racism (3)
- Reality Tv (1)
- redemption (1)
- relationships (3)
- Religon (14)
- Schools (2)
- Simpsons (1)
- Social Justice (2)
- sustainability (1)
- Talk Radio (4)
- tech (2)
- The Poor (8)
- Theology (3)
- TV (2)
- Vacation (2)
- video (15)
- work (1)
- Youth (2)
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(127)
-
▼
March
(16)
- Executive privilege
- The Red Coats are Coming!!!!!
- Boston Police
- Blogging the Bible
- Al Gore Revisited
- Baghdad Violence Map
- Liberation Theology
- Two Worlds
- iRack
- The Great Morl Issues of Our Time?
- Carbon confusion
- Jesus Madlib
- Regrets
- It's not just about pretty buildings
- Modern Day Subway Performers
- Schools in India
-
▼
March
(16)
3 comments:
I don't know...I get the same vibes when I read this that I get when I read philosophers' attempts to craft a theory of aesthetics for music (or pick your own favorite version of someone from "outside" the discipline trying to make analyses about the discipline). I appreciate that they care, but they don't know what the heck they are talking about!
I just feel that, in the interest of making the Bible more "approachable," he resorts to sweeping generalizations that can't be supported. Here for example, when he discusses the tone of Proverbs: The vibe of Proverbs is curious. Most of the Bible is imperious (God) or imploring (us). God gives us His laws, and we're expected to obey them, not debate with Him. He doesn't spend a lot of time discussing what He wants, and neither do His prophets. They command. But Proverbs is different.
In the interest of making Proverbs seem less threatening (yay!), he makes the rest of the Bible seem threatening by default (not so good). And he does so by ignoring the countless times that God implores, pleads with, weeps over, and otherwise tears his heart over His people. Yes, God commands, but not in the distantly imperial way that Plotz suggests.
Anyway, now we all know how *I* feel about Plotz...
True, I woudn't go to Plotz for my theology. But I do find it exciting that the Slate has devoted a writer to the task of blogging through the whole bible.
I do think that there is benifet to "outsiders" commenting on the Bible. For one thing they can give fresh insite on passages that longtime Christians have overlooked. They are also willing to question things. Something that Christians don't do enough. I think if we are willing we might actually learn something new from them, but that means sometimes we have to sift through the bad stuff they write.
I love Plotz's work. Of course, I don't agree with all his interpretations, but I've been following the series for a while, and think it can only be good for "outsiders" to realize that the Bible is not a boring book.
Post a Comment