As promised, here I am, back again this Monday. I’m afraid this will mostly be all about me, and my weekend, and I honestly can’t blame you if you don’t care. I mainly only care about my own. I will say, before I insist my feelings won’t be hurt if you navigate away to something more fun, or interesting, or whatever, that one of the highlights was Sunday Morning, giving the first session in a Bible study course at my church. There were only four people in attendance besides myself, but I thought it went very well. My hope is to make this a workshop that will respectfully challenge and inform most people who come to it, whether they come from a liberal or conservative religious background, or from none at all. The idea is not to settle all the big questions, but to settle what little questions can be settled, and be aware of the rest of them, aware of a diversity of perspectives (fairly presented) of thinking on them, and to be able to responsibly approach these questions and have dialogue with people who may have different answers to them.
Ok, the rest is purely personal, so I fully expect that I’m writing to myself at this point. Saturday morning, I went atop Edler Mountain for a ride along the reservoir road. I got stuck. A car came by – usually this isn’t a big deal, but this time I guess I just panicked – and off I came. There aren’t any climbing on points once you leave the parking lot (in the parking lot, I can back up against a curb to steady the wheel and can get by without a vertical support!) Sometimes, with a determined effort, I can get back on without assistance, but not Saturday. I worked myself to death. Finally a slow bicyclist (the kind who has a small child with her) came by and let me us her bicycle for support and I was off again. I’ll tell ya – a 2 mile ride on rough black-top compares with a 6 mile ride on smooth concrete.
The rest of Saturday was spent mowing grass and working on the Sunday morning project. Sunday morning Sunday School was not what it should have been. Only two students (during the sci-fi cons around town, the church strangely empties), and nothing prepared for them (I cheated them in favor of the Bible class really). Then some other stuff I won’t relate, more mowing – and by the way – is it just my weakness or unwillingness to bleed that makes me unable to put the belt on a self-propelled drive of a lawn mower? Anyway, I pushed it. And last night at the Local to watch the Mollies, with a mostly convalesced shoulder on Michael, my friend, the mandolinist. This was great fun as always, and the last number I stayed for was one I haven’t heard them do before, but that I enjoy when I hear it on Sunday afternoon Celtic music on the radio: Queen of Argyll… great stuff.
Anyway – pretty good weekend. Hope yours was too, as will be all of our weeks ahead.
What are ya’ll studying in your church class?
And don’t feel bad about the lawn mower situation. You should have been a fly on the wall when I changed the blades on my riding mower. I hate doing stuff like that. I don’t mind bleeding and cussing but when it comes to anything mechanical I always flounder.
Well, this first session was an overview of “theories” of the Bible, and the inescapability of using them to approach the book, its history, and its meaning. Two weeks from now, we are going to do a 45-minute run-through of a topic that one could spend months on – apocalyptic writing in the canonical sciptures – from the Old Testament to the words of Jesus in the Gospels to the famous Apocalypse of John aka Revelations. How it can be so tightly condensed and still be informative, interesting, and challenging… I’m not sure yet. I suppose it will be another “overview” type session, and that we will do more detailed studies in the future, but not immediately. The following week will be the controversy you saw me take up on this blog once with a few local conservatives – that of the authorship of the first five books of the Bible – the Torah, or the Pentateuch. I chose this one because – speaking to Unitarians – I don’t think that they will have encountered defenses of the traditional view of Mosaic authorship as rigorous or eloquent even as the commenters who argued against me, so they may be challenged by some of the conservative counter-claims in favor of Mosaic authorship (though I can’t expect them to be any more convinced of it than I am).
After that, I think we are going to change gears and start having one session per month, and I haven’t pre-selected those topics yet, but I plan to do more detailed discussion of the individual books themselves.
Sorry you asked?
I guess I’ll be mowing again tonight with just push power. I don’t have the emotional strength to struggle with that belt again yet.
I didn’t even know the Bible had theories. But the discussions sound like a lot of fun.
And I find it interesting that the Unitarian Church empties during sci-fi week.
I once pushed a self propelled lawn mower without ever puttin’ it in drive. It was kinda like cutting a tree down with a chain saw and neglecting to crank the chain saw.
It ain’t easy but it can be done.
The Bible doesn’t have theories, so much as every person who has ever cracked one open has some kind of theories – formal or informal – about it.
smijer,
Here is Richard Jeni’s quick lesson on the bible for Catholics, if it’s any help. When in doubt, go to comedy.