Bit of a bust up at our new Theology Discussion Group last night.
Twenty-five minutes of Burton Dasset complaining about poor referencing in our source. To be honest I reckon he'd still be going if we hadn't taped him into that shopping trolley and pushed him in the brook.
All over the "sheer laziness of just saying 'there is a place where someone has testified'. No author? No page number? No edition? No date?"
And yes. I accept that the author totally failed to follow acceptable academic standards in referencing. But they still wrote the Letter to the Hebrews, so you've gotta cut some slack.
And now I think about it - isn't it astonishing the way that so many things- Isaiah's promise that Israel will be a light to the nations; Jesus being called to both the Children of Israel and to heal f he Syro-Phoenecian girl; Paul's understanding of the complimentary calling he and Peter have to Jews and Gentiles; the leaves of the Tree of Life being to heal all nations- these are canonically swept up in the titles of the books of the New Testament. The individual testimonies of the evangelists and of John the Elder; the letters to Hebrews and the people of the Greek world; the micro-levels of attention to the individuals Philemon, Titus and Timothy. Just the names of the books reflect the comprehensiveness and yet specificity of God's love. Truly we have all passed through the waters.
Speaking of which, can someone nip down to the brook? I've just realised we never let Burton out.
"New Theology" discussion group? When we were younger Blackwell's Norrington room balcony used to have a huge banner over it advertising "Second-hand Theology". The sort that needs references is, I always presumed, second-hand; as opposed to the "strangely warmed" kind.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of new theology as opposed to old theology and the very many types of theology, particularly pushed today of Contextual Theology are not that new. Theology started with creation, which is now, many thousands of years later, suddenly becoming focused in the fashionable "Kingdom Theology" or the Theology of Creation as I have heard it described is all very confusing for us poor guys grounded in one particular theology, Practical Theology in our training for ministry. We need to be liberated so, perhaps I will now study a bit of Liberation Theology to find some was out of the maze.
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