Threads from Henry's Web

Author: henry

  • President Obama and the Peace Prize

    This is just a quick early reaction, and my reaction is that it is too early to judge President Obama’s impact on world peace. Yet he has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for which nominations were closed two weeks after he took office.

    I want to be clear that what I like most about President Obama is his approach to foreign policy. I think it is much needed. This includes the fact that he has a bipartisan team. One of the key elements of any foreign policy is sustainability and a purely one-party approach isn’t sustainable.

    But I think the single most important element of any policy, provided it is morally and ethically justifiable, is its long term effectiveness. In public policy we seem to want to proclaim a plan for accomplishing something, or sometimes even just the intent to accomplish it, and then act as though we have succeeded.

    It is as though I wrote a new family budget, itemizing savings in various categories, and then started spending the money before I had actually lived on the new budget, and successfully saved the claimed amounts. (Watch as this happens in the health care debate–we’re spending money we imagine we’ll save.)

    In foreign policy, President Obama has declared a new era of engagement with the world, but he has done, as yet, very little actual engaging, and what he has done, has yet to be evaluated. I’m optimistic about many of these things, but optimism isn’t success.

    I think this is very much premature, and is much more of a political message than an award for actual accomplishment. I would hope the president can fill the shoes for which supporters, well-wishers, and starry-eyed dreamers have fitted him, but that would be impossible. Unrealistic expectations beget disappointment. Every stumble–and there will doubtless be some–will now look larger than life. He can now do exceptionally well, and yet be regarded as a failure.

  • Private Censorship?

    While I am an advocate of as open of discussion as possible, I dislike the use of the word “censorship” for the actions of private individuals.

    There are many television shows, for example, that I either dislike or even think are simply bad. I not only don’t watch them, but I will also tell others why I think they are inappropriate and suggest they don’t. The key element of this behavior, however, is that it is private and voluntary. Not only are people free to ignore me, they often do.

    Today there’s an article on Christianity Today about boycotting Bloggingheads. I saw this incident via the blogs as it happened, but didn’t have time to post. I personally think it’s a bit over the top to get that angry about one interview in which an advocate of intelligent design is not fully challenged. I don’t think much of Michael Behe and his views on intelligent design. I don’t think they belong in a science classroom for the simple reason that they are not mainstream science, and we have enough mainstream stuff to teach.

    But in the public square I think the debate is quite appropriate. Scientists are certainly free to stay out of it because they feel it is simply not up to their standards or for whatever reason they prefer. As someone who is not a scientist, but nonetheless encounters this material constantly I am going to study it and publicly discuss it. If I’m going to talk about it I will also encourage people to study what its proponents say for themselves.

    But this is my key point. That is my voluntary decision. It is the voluntary decision of the scientists and science writers (such as Carl Zimmer whose science writing is outstanding) whether or not to support Bloggingheads after they present an interview such as the one with Behe. They’re choice not to support that project is not censorship.

    It seems to me that many people not only want to have their opinion, but they want someone else to finance the publicity. Today there are many ways to publicize a viewpoint. Incidentally, intelligent design advocates are masters of many of those ways, thus their views get publicized in spite of any unwillingness of various outlets to participate. I would contend that this is precisely as it should be.

    On the other hand, censorship by law is another matter. But that is not what is taking place with reference to Bloggingheads. It’s simply private people choosing what they will support and how. And that too is how it should be.

  • Biblical Inspiration Links – 1

    In How has Literal Interpretation Changed, Erik at Fundamentally Changed discusses the ways in which we must reinterpret literal interpretation. I don’t generally like the very idea that interpretation should be literal, but Erik makes some excellent suggestions.

    One of the questions I ask in When People Speak for God is just how Abraham knew it was God speaking when he was told to leave Ur.  But an even better example, is Genesis 22.  James McGrath discusses this in his post In Abraham’s Shoes Without a Bible.  McGrath also brings us an excellent quote on the nature of scripture.  In addition he suggests that the Bible is not even a book.  (You’ll have to read the post to find out what that means.

    One of my key arguments is that almost all of our discussions of the Bible relate ultimately more to authority than to any of the underlying issues such as reliability or inerrancy.  Scot McKnight has two posts thus far on authority, Bible Authority Revisited 1 and 2.

    Peter Enns announces an interesting event.  It’s tomorrow and Saturday, but if you live around Rye, NY, it would be worth going.

    Finally, three different views on inerrancy.  Jeremy Pierce thinks the doctrine of inerrancy is much broader than many people believe.  He’s right, though sometimes I think the concept of inerrancy has be so broadened as to lack any meaning. James McGrath, on the other hand, thinks inerrancy may be somewhere around its last gasp.  As one who doesn’t like the doctrine of inerrancy, I think McGrath may be a bit optimistic.

    On the other hand, John Hobbins thinks that one can breathe new life into the doctrine, and in fact compares creating a doctrine of scripture without it to creating a doctrine of salvation without the concept of grace.

    Yep!  I’m guessing this debate will still be quite heated for some time to come!

  • Giving Away a copy of Preserving Democracy

    … on the Energion.com eZine, which is currently in development. But I’m trying to bring a few people over there, so a copy of Preserving Democracy will be given to a randomly selected commenter who writes a relevant comment.

    In mid-October I will be changing the topic to science education, and offering a $10 B&N gift card. The Energion.com eZine will go into full production in January 2010, but even now I am paying for a few articles and offering a few prizes.

    I now return you to the normal, more personal, content of this blog.

  • Blogs in Tenure Applications Etc

    There has been a good deal of discussion of this around the blogosphere, related to graduate school and job applications as well. Nels P. Highberg provides an interesting example at ProfHacker. (HT: Exploring Our Matrix)

  • Christian Carnival CCXCVII Posted

    … at Thinking Christian.  Enjoy!

  • Literal and Figurative in Genesis 3

    I have been reminded several times recently in private conversations of just how inadequate the literal to figurative continuum is in discussing how we understand scripture.

    Bruce Alderman has written an interesting article on the number of things we take as figurative in Genesis 3, and then asks:

    Why is it that so many Christians who have no problem reading Genesis 3 metaphorically, can’t do the same with Genesis 1 and 2?

    While I agree with Bruce on the need to read these chapters largely figuratively, it is important to note another factor.  One can read something both historically and figuratively.  I have mentioned here before teaching one of the first classes I taught in a United Methodist church, and it was on Genesis 1-11.  To my right sat a theistic evolutionist; to my left a young earth creationist.  When we discussed Genesis 3, both were able to agree on the figurative meanings (though I could do some arguing!), but one saw historical events behind the figures, while the other did not.

    But even here you have to ask what historical events might be referred to as a figure.  Let’s consider the parable of the trees (Judges 9:8-15).  Here we have definite reference to historical events, but in a general and figurative way.  In Genesis 3, I don’t regard there as being much history behind the figures, but it is quite possible to read it figuratively with a one-on-one correspondence between the characters and something real.  For example, many readers would take the snake as a symbol pointing to Satan who then acts in tempting a historical Eve who speaks to a historical Adam.  There would be an interplay between historical and figurative elements.

    But at the other end of the spectrum there are historical events that are narrated for figurative reasons.  The Exodus is certainly treated as a literal event in scripture, yet it is related with meanings well beyond any historical events.  For something will less controversy, take the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon.  Here we have broad consensus that the events are historical, yet they are not narrated to answer the question:  What happened in the early 6th century BCE?  Rather, they are narrated to point to spiritual things, first in the life of Israel, then more distantly in New Testament reading.

    It seems to me that both “we don’t take it literally”, and “we do take it literally” are very inadequate statements.

  • Saturn has a Huge Ring

    I rarely post just images, but this came in via one of my NASA subscriptions today. Head on over and take a look. And if you don’t subscribe to their news and/or images, consider subscribing. Their material is a great pleasure.

    Artists Impression of Saturns Huge Ring
    Artist's Impression of Saturn's Huge Ring

    Click on the image to get further information, including a link to download the full size image. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Keck, public domain.)

  • Biblical Studies Carnival XLVI Posted

    … at Hebrew and Greek Reader.

  • And the winner is …

    [Drum roll please]

    Commenter Melinda Lancaster who edged out the runner up by a single point.

    The way I judged this was by by getting two other people, who will remain anonymous, to rank the entries from 1 to 4. Then I ranked them myself. I then combined the three ranks, and the result is what it is!

    All the suggestions were good, and I hope you will check out the original post for ideas on how you might use the Mosaic Bible in devotional study.