Posts
11 years ago
Saturday, March 26, 2005
EGLBS Meeting
i received the program for the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society meeting that i'm presenting a paper at on April 7-8 (i'm on page 3, under NEW TESTAMENT 2: Jesus and Gospels). holy cow, i'm feeling a bit intimidated. i thought this would primarily be other students at a similar stage of study as me, but instead it looks as though most of the other presenters are professors. in fact, the professor who supervised my master's thesis at Ashland, John Byron, is one of them! i think i'm going to have to do a little revision and double-checking on my paper in the next week--i think people ask tough questions after you present, and i don't want to look like a complete idiot.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Euthanasia
Okay, maybe it's just because I have a baby on the way that I'm especially sensitive to this, but this euthanasia thing is really pushing my buttons. To give you an idea of where this debate is going, take a look at this exceprt I pulled from Peter Singer’s website (he’s a medical ethicist at Princeton, and bigwig in the euthanasia movement). Is this a bit scary?
http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/faq.html
Q. You have been quoted as saying: "Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Sometimes it is not wrong at all." Is that quote accurate?
A. It is accurate, but can be misleading if read without an understanding of what I mean by the term “person” (which is discussed in Practical Ethics, from which that quotation is taken). I use the term "person" to refer to a being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future. As I have said in answer to the previous question, I think that it is generally a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living. That doesn’t mean that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do. It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents. Sometimes, perhaps because the baby has a serious disability, parents think it better that their newborn infant should die. Many doctors will accept their wishes, to the extent of not giving the baby life-supporting medical treatment. That will often ensure that the baby dies. My view is different from this, only to the extent that if a decision is taken, by the parents and doctors, that it is better that a baby should die, I believe it should be possible to carry out that decision, not only by withholding or withdrawing life-support – which can lead to the baby dying slowly from dehydration or from an infection - but also by taking active steps to end the baby’s life swiftly and humanely.
http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/faq.html
Q. You have been quoted as saying: "Killing a defective infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Sometimes it is not wrong at all." Is that quote accurate?
A. It is accurate, but can be misleading if read without an understanding of what I mean by the term “person” (which is discussed in Practical Ethics, from which that quotation is taken). I use the term "person" to refer to a being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having wants and desires for the future. As I have said in answer to the previous question, I think that it is generally a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living. That doesn’t mean that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do. It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents. Sometimes, perhaps because the baby has a serious disability, parents think it better that their newborn infant should die. Many doctors will accept their wishes, to the extent of not giving the baby life-supporting medical treatment. That will often ensure that the baby dies. My view is different from this, only to the extent that if a decision is taken, by the parents and doctors, that it is better that a baby should die, I believe it should be possible to carry out that decision, not only by withholding or withdrawing life-support – which can lead to the baby dying slowly from dehydration or from an infection - but also by taking active steps to end the baby’s life swiftly and humanely.
Monday, March 21, 2005
it's a girl! (probably)
we had our first ultrasound this morning at UofM... looks like it's probably a girl! we're both incredibly excited, of course. i'm already thinking about what color to paint the walls in the baby room... how awesome; God is good. the whole thing took about 45 minutes--it was a lot more extensive than what I was expecting. seeing the baby in cross-section was a bit unnerving for me... not sure why. maybe just the idea that this life is so small and fragile? i can't wait... a daughter! how amazing.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
a bit colder
well, i think the 'arctic blast' that hit the northeast has made its presence known down here too... temperatues were in the 50's today, instead of 60's and 70's. didn't attempt the water today, but did some jogging on the beach... it's remarkable how much the sand increases the difficulty of running!
i started reading Philip Jenkins' "The Next Christendom"... it's pretty darn interesting... i had no idea there were that many christians in africa. it does explain the presence of so many africans at my seminary (which is anglican)! it's so amazing that christianity has adapted and survived in so many diverse cultures... makes you think there's something 'miraculous' about it!
i'm also still reading clancy's 'teeth of the tiger'... it's pretty interesting, although i don't really find his muslim terrorist characters very believable. it's still fun stuff. also reading the new testament apocrypha... currently working through the gospel material and other sayings sources. some weird stuff going on in those first centuries! wow... makes the latest mind-benders from hollywood seem pretty tame.
decided that i'll wait to get back to michigan to watch 'saw' with jesse... it somehow seems more 'healthy' to watch it with a friend than alone.
so long!
i started reading Philip Jenkins' "The Next Christendom"... it's pretty darn interesting... i had no idea there were that many christians in africa. it does explain the presence of so many africans at my seminary (which is anglican)! it's so amazing that christianity has adapted and survived in so many diverse cultures... makes you think there's something 'miraculous' about it!
i'm also still reading clancy's 'teeth of the tiger'... it's pretty interesting, although i don't really find his muslim terrorist characters very believable. it's still fun stuff. also reading the new testament apocrypha... currently working through the gospel material and other sayings sources. some weird stuff going on in those first centuries! wow... makes the latest mind-benders from hollywood seem pretty tame.
decided that i'll wait to get back to michigan to watch 'saw' with jesse... it somehow seems more 'healthy' to watch it with a friend than alone.
so long!
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
blogging from Jacksonville Beach
well, here we are! i'm writing from Panera Bread here in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
the drive down wasn't too bad... mapquest said 17 hours, but effect of some bad traffic and snow in the appalachians (not to mention a generous number of rest stops) put the trip at about 18.5 hours. needless to say, i was pretty wiped out when we arrived.
i couldn't believe the snow as we drove through virginia! it was pretty bad in the mountains there... strange that it was worse as we drove south! but by the time we came out of the mountains the temperature was up to about 50, and it was great from then on.
can't believe how warm and beautiful it is here! yesterday it was 78 and sunny, and had to actually turn on the air conditioner in the car... how awesome. i've been out in the water just about every day... kayaked the first two days; it's a bit tricky with the waves, but you get used to it. the water is still pretty cold, so the wetsuit i have is really handy. there were quite a few people in the water over the weekend, but today was a bit windy, so not much action... tried some boogey-boarding today, but the waves weren't too good (the broke too quickly)
i watched 'open water' on the drive down--wow, what a great movie! a low-budget indie film, but real sharks and no over-the-top special effects or gore. definitely had me keeping an eye out when i was in the water!
this climate really reminds me of growing up in california... being able to wear shorts and t-shirts just about the whole year-round. man, i do miss the weather...
sure are a lot more older people down here... you really notice it. also, with so many people retired and not working, the traffic is pretty much heavy all day long.
i see a lot more people down here 'living it up', so to speak. rent a little pad a few blocks from the beach. maybe work 25-30 hours a week, spend all the rest of the time on the water, at the clubs, or drinking beer and playing foosball into the wee hours of the morning on the front porch. i guess if i just wanted to relax and enjoy myself, that's one way to go about it!
i'm thinking that the people who remain in the colder climates (e.g. michigan) do so for: a) family & friends, b) career jobs, or c) are really huge hunting or snowmobiling enthusiasts. that seems to sort for a particular kind of person i think... mostly good qualities (except maybe c.)
however, i've noticed that the people down here in the 'south' are a lot more friendly than up north. people say 'thank you' a lot more, and eye-contact with a 'hello' isn't so unusual. reminds me a bit of the characters from 'a streetcar named desire'--the coarse, brutal north and the genteel, refined south (or that's what i remember from high school). i guess the hospitality is a remnant from the old southern culture, but i suppose it will change as more northerners continue to move here.
julie and i watched 'the notebook' last night on DVD. i really liked it... at first it had me rolling my eyes--just a bit too cutsie & cookie-cutter--but by the end i was into it and even got a bit misty-eyed.
i really want to watch 'saw', against all my better judgment. my dad said it was great... this is a dilemma... i know i'll thoroughly enjoy watching it, but i also know i'll end up thinking 'i really didn't need to see that'... alas. what would grace wilson do? i always ask myself that.
well, enough for now... thanks to the free wi-fi here, i'll have a chance to write again soon. hope everyone back home is doing well, and hope things are warming up!
the drive down wasn't too bad... mapquest said 17 hours, but effect of some bad traffic and snow in the appalachians (not to mention a generous number of rest stops) put the trip at about 18.5 hours. needless to say, i was pretty wiped out when we arrived.
i couldn't believe the snow as we drove through virginia! it was pretty bad in the mountains there... strange that it was worse as we drove south! but by the time we came out of the mountains the temperature was up to about 50, and it was great from then on.
can't believe how warm and beautiful it is here! yesterday it was 78 and sunny, and had to actually turn on the air conditioner in the car... how awesome. i've been out in the water just about every day... kayaked the first two days; it's a bit tricky with the waves, but you get used to it. the water is still pretty cold, so the wetsuit i have is really handy. there were quite a few people in the water over the weekend, but today was a bit windy, so not much action... tried some boogey-boarding today, but the waves weren't too good (the broke too quickly)
i watched 'open water' on the drive down--wow, what a great movie! a low-budget indie film, but real sharks and no over-the-top special effects or gore. definitely had me keeping an eye out when i was in the water!
this climate really reminds me of growing up in california... being able to wear shorts and t-shirts just about the whole year-round. man, i do miss the weather...
sure are a lot more older people down here... you really notice it. also, with so many people retired and not working, the traffic is pretty much heavy all day long.
i see a lot more people down here 'living it up', so to speak. rent a little pad a few blocks from the beach. maybe work 25-30 hours a week, spend all the rest of the time on the water, at the clubs, or drinking beer and playing foosball into the wee hours of the morning on the front porch. i guess if i just wanted to relax and enjoy myself, that's one way to go about it!
i'm thinking that the people who remain in the colder climates (e.g. michigan) do so for: a) family & friends, b) career jobs, or c) are really huge hunting or snowmobiling enthusiasts. that seems to sort for a particular kind of person i think... mostly good qualities (except maybe c.)
however, i've noticed that the people down here in the 'south' are a lot more friendly than up north. people say 'thank you' a lot more, and eye-contact with a 'hello' isn't so unusual. reminds me a bit of the characters from 'a streetcar named desire'--the coarse, brutal north and the genteel, refined south (or that's what i remember from high school). i guess the hospitality is a remnant from the old southern culture, but i suppose it will change as more northerners continue to move here.
julie and i watched 'the notebook' last night on DVD. i really liked it... at first it had me rolling my eyes--just a bit too cutsie & cookie-cutter--but by the end i was into it and even got a bit misty-eyed.
i really want to watch 'saw', against all my better judgment. my dad said it was great... this is a dilemma... i know i'll thoroughly enjoy watching it, but i also know i'll end up thinking 'i really didn't need to see that'... alas. what would grace wilson do? i always ask myself that.
well, enough for now... thanks to the free wi-fi here, i'll have a chance to write again soon. hope everyone back home is doing well, and hope things are warming up!
from my dad in Hong Kong
HELLO FROM HONG KONG!!!
It's my first break in the schedule so I'm here in the Youth for Christ offfice trying to squeeze my fingers into one of those tiny little keyboards they make for NORMAL hands. Ouch, I'm cramping up already!!
I got to San Diego Airport late Tuesday afternoon, waited a couple of hours, got on a plane to L.A., then got off cuz mechanical difficulties. An hour and a half later, back on plane, to L.A., and then left for Hong Kong at 11 p.m. Yes, I DID get Bulkhead seat. Still had to park my legs in the aisle. Got run over by the Food Cart about a hundred times, but foot still somewhat attached to my leg.
I really tried to sleep this time. Denny Magnuson, how do you do it?? Overseas seats must be about a foot narrower than domestic. Felt like I was wedged in for 16 hours. Maybe standing on my head would work better.
Arrived in Hong Kong 6:30 a.m., found a Bus into Hong Kong, had 20 min. to unpack and was off to 2 school programs(1000 students), Senior Citizen program(400). How I love the seniors here. I think I high-fived all 400 of them. When I get to be old(another 40 years) I want to be like them!! So full of joy and laughter!! They ooh and ahh at everything I do(I could tie my shoes and get a standing ovation)
Got to bed at 11:30 my first night. Had to force myself to STAY AWAKE all day, even after 18 hours of flying, so I could get on a body time clock. My bed is a little 6 foot bunk bed. Not gonna work. So I piled some mattresses on the floor and gave it a shot. My room is 6'7" wide. I am 6'7" tall. Do the math. Do you really think there that many other 6'7" people in Hong Kong? NOT!!!!
Next day(Thursday. You lose a day going to Hong Kong), I did a high school program, back to Youth for Christ to do a Seniors program, then we did an outdoor program at a Fruit Market, kinda like our Farmers Market. We start doing our magic program, the crowds come, and we share the Gospel with them. Almost thought we were going to cancel, due to the rain.It has been VERY COLD and WET. Haven't seen much sun. And no heat in our little apt. so I just put on everything I own and fight through it. Really funny because at a few of schools I performed in, they had he windows wide open AND THE AIR CONDITIONER ON!!!! You could actually see your breath as you were talking!!! I wonder if they do this to kill off any germs or viruses. Still some concern about the viral problems they had a few years ago.
Friday I ministered again to a Seniors meeting. I had the perfect magic object lesson. I came out with a little teapot, poured me some tea(everyone drinks tea in Hong Kong), talked about how Teapot was specially made for making tea and how were specially planned and created to walk with God and become like Him. I then pulled a 30 foot silk streamer from inside the teapot, taling about the blessings of being "filled" with God. Then I told of how we use the teapot over and over, not throw it away. I actually put the teapot in a paper bag, wadded up the bag and threw it away. The audience went wild!! Wouldn't you, too??
Food has been quite good this trip. We go to a restaurant that has become good friends of the Youth for Christ director,David Chu. They bring us about 12 different dishes of all kinds of real Chinese food(Chicken feet, squid, chicken(sliced up, WITH the bones), and yes, RICE and NOODLES. I've learned to stay away from anything that looks like it's still alive and wiggling. The other stuff has been quite tasty. Not crazy about drinking 15 cups of tea everyday. How about just one Coke, but they're about $3 a bottle. Sometimes after a meal, the couple I'm ministering with(Michael and Jeannie) will sneak out to McDonalds for an ice cream cone. UMMMMM!!!
Today, I am preparing to go to a Phillipine Church to preach. How I love to preach and encourage the people in the churches. They are extremely receptive. This one church last week had a Praise service with Praise dancers that went for 50- minutues before they started the regular part of the service.
My health has been pretty good. Always hard to make adjustments the first 3 days. The cold has caused a little bit of a cold, but I feel strong. Last night, we had 2 Chinese young men over to teach them how to use Gospel magic in their ministry. Finished about midnite. Then yesterday I directed some young leaders in a mime Drama to use in their evangelistic meetings. I hoping we will debut the skit in the next day or 2.
Well, got to get some things together for Phillipine church. There is always very much preparation going on because we have a schedule but we never know when they will throw in another meeting or 2 each day. That's what we're here for, to be "on call" for the Lord. Boy, you really get a perspective for serving the Lord "moment by moment" when you go on the mission field. We may possible get ONE DAY to ourselves to maybe do some sight seeing but that's a big maybe.
Thanks for all our prayers. Thanks again to all the people who made this trip financially possible. Amazing all these years that God always provides every single need, sometimes at the 12th hour. All these years of missions trips teaches one to truly trust in the Lord let go of the worries about finances, health, safety, and open doors.
Love you all.
Mr. Tiny
It's my first break in the schedule so I'm here in the Youth for Christ offfice trying to squeeze my fingers into one of those tiny little keyboards they make for NORMAL hands. Ouch, I'm cramping up already!!
I got to San Diego Airport late Tuesday afternoon, waited a couple of hours, got on a plane to L.A., then got off cuz mechanical difficulties. An hour and a half later, back on plane, to L.A., and then left for Hong Kong at 11 p.m. Yes, I DID get Bulkhead seat. Still had to park my legs in the aisle. Got run over by the Food Cart about a hundred times, but foot still somewhat attached to my leg.
I really tried to sleep this time. Denny Magnuson, how do you do it?? Overseas seats must be about a foot narrower than domestic. Felt like I was wedged in for 16 hours. Maybe standing on my head would work better.
Arrived in Hong Kong 6:30 a.m., found a Bus into Hong Kong, had 20 min. to unpack and was off to 2 school programs(1000 students), Senior Citizen program(400). How I love the seniors here. I think I high-fived all 400 of them. When I get to be old(another 40 years) I want to be like them!! So full of joy and laughter!! They ooh and ahh at everything I do(I could tie my shoes and get a standing ovation)
Got to bed at 11:30 my first night. Had to force myself to STAY AWAKE all day, even after 18 hours of flying, so I could get on a body time clock. My bed is a little 6 foot bunk bed. Not gonna work. So I piled some mattresses on the floor and gave it a shot. My room is 6'7" wide. I am 6'7" tall. Do the math. Do you really think there that many other 6'7" people in Hong Kong? NOT!!!!
Next day(Thursday. You lose a day going to Hong Kong), I did a high school program, back to Youth for Christ to do a Seniors program, then we did an outdoor program at a Fruit Market, kinda like our Farmers Market. We start doing our magic program, the crowds come, and we share the Gospel with them. Almost thought we were going to cancel, due to the rain.It has been VERY COLD and WET. Haven't seen much sun. And no heat in our little apt. so I just put on everything I own and fight through it. Really funny because at a few of schools I performed in, they had he windows wide open AND THE AIR CONDITIONER ON!!!! You could actually see your breath as you were talking!!! I wonder if they do this to kill off any germs or viruses. Still some concern about the viral problems they had a few years ago.
Friday I ministered again to a Seniors meeting. I had the perfect magic object lesson. I came out with a little teapot, poured me some tea(everyone drinks tea in Hong Kong), talked about how Teapot was specially made for making tea and how were specially planned and created to walk with God and become like Him. I then pulled a 30 foot silk streamer from inside the teapot, taling about the blessings of being "filled" with God. Then I told of how we use the teapot over and over, not throw it away. I actually put the teapot in a paper bag, wadded up the bag and threw it away. The audience went wild!! Wouldn't you, too??
Food has been quite good this trip. We go to a restaurant that has become good friends of the Youth for Christ director,David Chu. They bring us about 12 different dishes of all kinds of real Chinese food(Chicken feet, squid, chicken(sliced up, WITH the bones), and yes, RICE and NOODLES. I've learned to stay away from anything that looks like it's still alive and wiggling. The other stuff has been quite tasty. Not crazy about drinking 15 cups of tea everyday. How about just one Coke, but they're about $3 a bottle. Sometimes after a meal, the couple I'm ministering with(Michael and Jeannie) will sneak out to McDonalds for an ice cream cone. UMMMMM!!!
Today, I am preparing to go to a Phillipine Church to preach. How I love to preach and encourage the people in the churches. They are extremely receptive. This one church last week had a Praise service with Praise dancers that went for 50- minutues before they started the regular part of the service.
My health has been pretty good. Always hard to make adjustments the first 3 days. The cold has caused a little bit of a cold, but I feel strong. Last night, we had 2 Chinese young men over to teach them how to use Gospel magic in their ministry. Finished about midnite. Then yesterday I directed some young leaders in a mime Drama to use in their evangelistic meetings. I hoping we will debut the skit in the next day or 2.
Well, got to get some things together for Phillipine church. There is always very much preparation going on because we have a schedule but we never know when they will throw in another meeting or 2 each day. That's what we're here for, to be "on call" for the Lord. Boy, you really get a perspective for serving the Lord "moment by moment" when you go on the mission field. We may possible get ONE DAY to ourselves to maybe do some sight seeing but that's a big maybe.
Thanks for all our prayers. Thanks again to all the people who made this trip financially possible. Amazing all these years that God always provides every single need, sometimes at the 12th hour. All these years of missions trips teaches one to truly trust in the Lord let go of the worries about finances, health, safety, and open doors.
Love you all.
Mr. Tiny
Thursday, March 03, 2005
florida, here we come!
got a 17-hour drive ahead of me, but shouldn't be too bad... have some books on tape and DVD's to watch (when I'm not driving, of course)...
i'm taking the kayak down, hoping to get out on the ocean a good deal... maybe see some dolphins! i'll upload some pictures when i return.
other than that, just plan on reading a lot of books, getting some sun (hopefully it's warm enough), and doing some jogging. looking forward to it! hope it's warmer here when i return... bye!
i'm taking the kayak down, hoping to get out on the ocean a good deal... maybe see some dolphins! i'll upload some pictures when i return.
other than that, just plan on reading a lot of books, getting some sun (hopefully it's warm enough), and doing some jogging. looking forward to it! hope it's warmer here when i return... bye!
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
my response to his response
Dear Dr. Nolland,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I realize that there were a few questions of yours I did not address. I think that’s partly due to the fact that I don’t have good answers to them yet, but I can tell you what my thinking is at this point.
You observed that I had apparently not made a decision between the historical, sociological and theological methods. The struggle I’ve had with this questions is that there are aspects of each of these methods that I wish to use, but I recognize that the main thrust of my dissertation cannot be along all three lines at once. I know that an investigation of “The function of miracle in Luke-Acts” will be very different from “The function of miracle in the early church.” Maybe I’m simplifying it too much, but it seems that the former is primarily a theological question, whereas the latter is primarily an historical question. Nevertheless, there is going to be some overlap, and even an historical investigation of the miracles (which appears where I’m heading) is going to involve a discussion of their theological significance. The historical miracles are so imbued with theological significance that to do otherwise seems impossible. Also, the main texts I’ll be examining are first and foremost theological works—which makes the distinction even more vague (at least for me).
Miracle-working is in one sense a social behavior, and I’m investigating it within a social institution—the church. In that respect, I don’t think I could do an historical investigation of miracle-working in the early church without involving myself in sociology. Also, it seems to me that much of what is described as “sociological investigation” could just as easily fall under the rubric of good historical investigation. At this point I don’t think my research will be primarily a sociological investigation, as I’ve seen them done (e.g. Malina). Rather, I see the sociological methods being useful in carrying out my historical investigation. I see my project essentially as an historical study of the worldviews, mindsets, aims, intentions and motivations of the early church vis-à-vis miracle-working.
You had also asked about the range of materials I intend to deal with, and whether I will be after a single ‘early church’ view. I’d like to include any data that will allow me to give a more accurate understanding of the historical questions I’m asking. Having said that, it seems impossible for me to explore every ancient text, so I’ll need to pick the most relevant. Given the fact that there will doubtless be variations from church to church, city to city, and decade to decade; maybe I should inquire as to the functions of miracle in the early church? I suppose there is also the issue of what constitutes the “church”—would I include the Gnostics, or the Marcionites, or the Montanists… etc.? At this point I’m inclined to include what would be considered “orthodox” Christianity, but I haven’t really thought through this issue, or how I would defend that choice. Although I personally tend to take a fairly high view of Scripture, I don’t intend to presume this belief in my readers. In other words, I’m not going to presume the Bible is an inerrant source of historical information. I’m not sure if this is answering your question?
Please let me know if there are any questions that I haven’t addressed in my emails. Also, I want to reassure you that these questions of methodology are not occupying all of my research time. I’m continuing to do a lot of reading (including a good amount of primary materials—Apostolic Fathers, Apocrypha, ancient histories, etc.) I’ve also found an excellent resource at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ (The Perseus Digital Library), where I can explore ancient Greek texts--very useful for the examination of word meanings! I’m also taking some advice from Dr. Green and writing brief “reviews” whenever I finish a book or article. I can share these with you if you think it will be helpful.
This dialogue with you is very helpful for me in the formulation and clarification of my thoughts. Thanks.
Blessings,
Don
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I realize that there were a few questions of yours I did not address. I think that’s partly due to the fact that I don’t have good answers to them yet, but I can tell you what my thinking is at this point.
You observed that I had apparently not made a decision between the historical, sociological and theological methods. The struggle I’ve had with this questions is that there are aspects of each of these methods that I wish to use, but I recognize that the main thrust of my dissertation cannot be along all three lines at once. I know that an investigation of “The function of miracle in Luke-Acts” will be very different from “The function of miracle in the early church.” Maybe I’m simplifying it too much, but it seems that the former is primarily a theological question, whereas the latter is primarily an historical question. Nevertheless, there is going to be some overlap, and even an historical investigation of the miracles (which appears where I’m heading) is going to involve a discussion of their theological significance. The historical miracles are so imbued with theological significance that to do otherwise seems impossible. Also, the main texts I’ll be examining are first and foremost theological works—which makes the distinction even more vague (at least for me).
Miracle-working is in one sense a social behavior, and I’m investigating it within a social institution—the church. In that respect, I don’t think I could do an historical investigation of miracle-working in the early church without involving myself in sociology. Also, it seems to me that much of what is described as “sociological investigation” could just as easily fall under the rubric of good historical investigation. At this point I don’t think my research will be primarily a sociological investigation, as I’ve seen them done (e.g. Malina). Rather, I see the sociological methods being useful in carrying out my historical investigation. I see my project essentially as an historical study of the worldviews, mindsets, aims, intentions and motivations of the early church vis-à-vis miracle-working.
You had also asked about the range of materials I intend to deal with, and whether I will be after a single ‘early church’ view. I’d like to include any data that will allow me to give a more accurate understanding of the historical questions I’m asking. Having said that, it seems impossible for me to explore every ancient text, so I’ll need to pick the most relevant. Given the fact that there will doubtless be variations from church to church, city to city, and decade to decade; maybe I should inquire as to the functions of miracle in the early church? I suppose there is also the issue of what constitutes the “church”—would I include the Gnostics, or the Marcionites, or the Montanists… etc.? At this point I’m inclined to include what would be considered “orthodox” Christianity, but I haven’t really thought through this issue, or how I would defend that choice. Although I personally tend to take a fairly high view of Scripture, I don’t intend to presume this belief in my readers. In other words, I’m not going to presume the Bible is an inerrant source of historical information. I’m not sure if this is answering your question?
Please let me know if there are any questions that I haven’t addressed in my emails. Also, I want to reassure you that these questions of methodology are not occupying all of my research time. I’m continuing to do a lot of reading (including a good amount of primary materials—Apostolic Fathers, Apocrypha, ancient histories, etc.) I’ve also found an excellent resource at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ (The Perseus Digital Library), where I can explore ancient Greek texts--very useful for the examination of word meanings! I’m also taking some advice from Dr. Green and writing brief “reviews” whenever I finish a book or article. I can share these with you if you think it will be helpful.
This dialogue with you is very helpful for me in the formulation and clarification of my thoughts. Thanks.
Blessings,
Don
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
latest email to Dr. Nolland
Dear Dr. Nolland,
Thank you for your last email. It was very thought-provoking! I see now what you meant when you warned me against spending too much time investigating the questions of methodology. I could very easily spend the next 6 years ruminating on the philosophical questions involved here.
However, I wanted to at least make another go at giving you an idea of the direction I want to go in, and why. Here are my thoughts, and my answers to some of your questions.
--------------
I’ve stated my research question as an exploration of “the function of miracle in the early church.” The reason I wish to examine this subject is that I think it can shed light on several other questions which are pertinent to the church today. For example: “Was miracle-working limited to Jesus and the Apostles, or was it intended for disciples of all ages?”; “Was the purpose of miracle-working to authenticate the gospel, or is it part and parcel of kingdom proclamation (or both)?”; and then there are innumerable correlated questions related to healing, exorcism, and the nature miracles. I believe that understanding the function of miracle in the early church would be invaluable in answering these questions.
I say “function” because I’m looking not simply at whether they happened, where they happened, when they happened, etc. Beyond these issues I’d like to get at why they happened. I’m interested in their purpose—what the intent was of those who did miracles, and their effect on those who observed or were otherwise impacted by them. For example, taking the healing miracles: was their primary function that of health-care for the believing community, or were they primarily an evangelistic tool aimed at the non-believing world?
In using the word “miracle” I run into a problem, as this particular word was not in existence at the time. Furthermore, there are several Greek words translated “miracle” (or a closely related idea) in the English Bible, namely dunamis / dunameis, semeion, ergon, and teras. I think it is fair to say that, while the subjects of my inquiry did not have a single term which corresponds directly to our word, I can argue for a category of related ancient phenomena which can be referred to as “miracle”. This does not mean that my first century audience would understand exactly what I mean by “miracle”, because I believe there are significant differences between our idea of the “miraculous” and theirs. But, I think they would recognize a meaningful affinity between the things we regard as miracles: healings, exorcisms, nature miracles, etc. In some way these kinds of things were apparently regarded as “spectacular,” if 1 Corinthians 14 (among many other texts) is any evidence. (In answer to one of your questions, I am inclined to include exorcisms within this category because they seem to share so many characteristics with the other “miracles”, especially the other healings. I don’t have a good reason at this point to exclude them.)
Were the witnesses amazed and astounded by Jesus’ miracles for the same reasons a modern person would be? An exploration of their cosmological worldview will be useful; modern people tend to think of a miracle as something that violates the “laws of nature,” or involves something “supernatural.” The miracles must have been amazing at least partly because “that’s not the sort of thing one sees every day”; they were “other than normal.” However, there are certainly non-ordinary things a first-century person would not have classified as a “miracle.” Beyond this, I’ll need to explore their understanding of nature vs. “super-nature” and their understanding of cause and effect.
I have chosen to limit my inquiry to “the early church.” I haven’t clearly defined this period yet, but I think it would need to begin with the earthly ministry of Jesus. I certainly need to examine the miracle-working of Jesus and the earliest disciples in the Gospels, as it seems to establish the starting point from which I’d trace any sort of developmental trajectory. The first point along the trajectory would be the miracle working of the Apostles (and others) immediately following Pentecost, as recorded chiefly in Acts. The end-date of my inquiry is harder to decide upon. I would want to at least include evidence from the earliest post-Apostolic period, as this would be important in answering the questions involved in the cessation debate. In terms of texts, I would certainly include at least one Gospel and Acts—which argues for choosing Luke-Acts as my primary text. I’d most likely want to include 1&2 Corinthians as well, given its discussion of the miraculous charismata. Finally, I’d need to choose something from the post-Apostolic period: perhaps an early church Father or one of the Apocryphal works? The question of including non-biblical sources is something I haven’t worked out yet. I would want to include them as much as is feasible, as their perspective would be helpful in establishing a more credible historical argument. At least, I would need a good reason to exclude them, if I’m hoping to do “historical” investigation. This gets into some questions of methodology, which I’ll try to discuss now.
In terms of my language, I should probably clarify what I mean when I say “historical,” “sociological,” and “theological.” I am still learning how these methods are used and how they’re distinct from one another. By “historical criticism” or “historical method” I mean that sort of investigation which deals with the historical setting of the relevant documents: the time & place they were written, their sources, the events, dates, persons, and places mentioned in the text. The goal of this method being to write a chronological narrative of the pertinent events, revealing their nature and interconnection.
On the one hand, my investigation of “the function of miracle in the early church” is by definition a historical investigation, because I am interested in “what actually went on” as opposed to simply what those who produced the written sources wanted to report. I would like to know (as much as is possible) the historical questions of who worked miracles, what sort of miracles they worked, what their goals and aims were in miracle-working (this is at least partially a historical question), and what the effect was on the church of such miracle-working. Of course, the problem is that all I have in terms of evidence are those very written sources. I don’t, however, think this is an insurmountable problem.
From my reading it seems that this sort of investigation can get bogged down in questions of what constitutes “objective” history versus subjective interpretations by particular authors. I particularly like what I’ve read of N.T. Wright on this subject, and his proposed critical-realist approach. I believe this critical-realist approach has great promise for my line of inquiry. It allows me to explore the historical questions related to miracle-working (in particular their meaning, function, and significance within a given worldview) without being paralyzed by the problems related to the source texts (e.g. authorial intent, bias, subjectivity). I realize that I will have to address the fact that each author had a goal in mind in writing the text, beyond simply recording historical facts. Nevertheless, I should be able to propose a reasonable hypothesis that “fits” the relevant data and makes sense of the evidence.
In asking about goals, aims, and intentions, I think my exploration begins to take me into the realm of sociology and anthropology. In my last email I mentioned the “sociological” approach. By “sociological interpretation” I mean trying to reconstruct the “social world” of early Christianity vis-à-vis miracle-working. What were the symbols, rituals, and language used that gives us some insight into what their experience of miracle-working was like? Given their social world, what significance might the miracles have had that is not readily apparent to us? In terms of “ritual,” what is the significance of laying-on-of-hands, the “name of Jesus,” or anointing oil? How do we understand the significance of Peter’s shadow?
Much of what I’ve examined that explores questions from a sociological approach involves the creation of social “models,” and then the application of these models to the biblical setting. This seems to be what distinguishes this method from that which is just a good investigation into the “historical setting.” In my study there could be some value in exploring the function of miracle in other cultures (both ancient and modern), and applying these insights. Of course, the challenge will be to find situations with enough similarities to the one I’m examining that I can draw useful conclusions.
Finally, I take “theological interpretation” to mean describing what the biblical texts (or events) meant to their original hearers/readers. This approach has some overlap with the sociological and historical approaches (in the same way that society, history and theology overlap). In this study, I imagine the question will be how the miracles fit within the larger themes of the New Testament (and the Old Testament). After all, any question of “function” seems to imply that there is some purpose within a larger whole. To begin with, what was the function (or purpose) of Jesus’ miracles in his earthly ministry? At some point I’ll need to address a question that you raised in one of our earlier meetings: how do we reconcile Jesus’ suffering and death with his miracle-working? And, how do you make sense of miracle-working power in an early church where persecution and martyrdom were so common (and so effective in the larger goal of spreading the gospel)?
Thank you for your last email. It was very thought-provoking! I see now what you meant when you warned me against spending too much time investigating the questions of methodology. I could very easily spend the next 6 years ruminating on the philosophical questions involved here.
However, I wanted to at least make another go at giving you an idea of the direction I want to go in, and why. Here are my thoughts, and my answers to some of your questions.
--------------
I’ve stated my research question as an exploration of “the function of miracle in the early church.” The reason I wish to examine this subject is that I think it can shed light on several other questions which are pertinent to the church today. For example: “Was miracle-working limited to Jesus and the Apostles, or was it intended for disciples of all ages?”; “Was the purpose of miracle-working to authenticate the gospel, or is it part and parcel of kingdom proclamation (or both)?”; and then there are innumerable correlated questions related to healing, exorcism, and the nature miracles. I believe that understanding the function of miracle in the early church would be invaluable in answering these questions.
I say “function” because I’m looking not simply at whether they happened, where they happened, when they happened, etc. Beyond these issues I’d like to get at why they happened. I’m interested in their purpose—what the intent was of those who did miracles, and their effect on those who observed or were otherwise impacted by them. For example, taking the healing miracles: was their primary function that of health-care for the believing community, or were they primarily an evangelistic tool aimed at the non-believing world?
In using the word “miracle” I run into a problem, as this particular word was not in existence at the time. Furthermore, there are several Greek words translated “miracle” (or a closely related idea) in the English Bible, namely dunamis / dunameis, semeion, ergon, and teras. I think it is fair to say that, while the subjects of my inquiry did not have a single term which corresponds directly to our word, I can argue for a category of related ancient phenomena which can be referred to as “miracle”. This does not mean that my first century audience would understand exactly what I mean by “miracle”, because I believe there are significant differences between our idea of the “miraculous” and theirs. But, I think they would recognize a meaningful affinity between the things we regard as miracles: healings, exorcisms, nature miracles, etc. In some way these kinds of things were apparently regarded as “spectacular,” if 1 Corinthians 14 (among many other texts) is any evidence. (In answer to one of your questions, I am inclined to include exorcisms within this category because they seem to share so many characteristics with the other “miracles”, especially the other healings. I don’t have a good reason at this point to exclude them.)
Were the witnesses amazed and astounded by Jesus’ miracles for the same reasons a modern person would be? An exploration of their cosmological worldview will be useful; modern people tend to think of a miracle as something that violates the “laws of nature,” or involves something “supernatural.” The miracles must have been amazing at least partly because “that’s not the sort of thing one sees every day”; they were “other than normal.” However, there are certainly non-ordinary things a first-century person would not have classified as a “miracle.” Beyond this, I’ll need to explore their understanding of nature vs. “super-nature” and their understanding of cause and effect.
I have chosen to limit my inquiry to “the early church.” I haven’t clearly defined this period yet, but I think it would need to begin with the earthly ministry of Jesus. I certainly need to examine the miracle-working of Jesus and the earliest disciples in the Gospels, as it seems to establish the starting point from which I’d trace any sort of developmental trajectory. The first point along the trajectory would be the miracle working of the Apostles (and others) immediately following Pentecost, as recorded chiefly in Acts. The end-date of my inquiry is harder to decide upon. I would want to at least include evidence from the earliest post-Apostolic period, as this would be important in answering the questions involved in the cessation debate. In terms of texts, I would certainly include at least one Gospel and Acts—which argues for choosing Luke-Acts as my primary text. I’d most likely want to include 1&2 Corinthians as well, given its discussion of the miraculous charismata. Finally, I’d need to choose something from the post-Apostolic period: perhaps an early church Father or one of the Apocryphal works? The question of including non-biblical sources is something I haven’t worked out yet. I would want to include them as much as is feasible, as their perspective would be helpful in establishing a more credible historical argument. At least, I would need a good reason to exclude them, if I’m hoping to do “historical” investigation. This gets into some questions of methodology, which I’ll try to discuss now.
In terms of my language, I should probably clarify what I mean when I say “historical,” “sociological,” and “theological.” I am still learning how these methods are used and how they’re distinct from one another. By “historical criticism” or “historical method” I mean that sort of investigation which deals with the historical setting of the relevant documents: the time & place they were written, their sources, the events, dates, persons, and places mentioned in the text. The goal of this method being to write a chronological narrative of the pertinent events, revealing their nature and interconnection.
On the one hand, my investigation of “the function of miracle in the early church” is by definition a historical investigation, because I am interested in “what actually went on” as opposed to simply what those who produced the written sources wanted to report. I would like to know (as much as is possible) the historical questions of who worked miracles, what sort of miracles they worked, what their goals and aims were in miracle-working (this is at least partially a historical question), and what the effect was on the church of such miracle-working. Of course, the problem is that all I have in terms of evidence are those very written sources. I don’t, however, think this is an insurmountable problem.
From my reading it seems that this sort of investigation can get bogged down in questions of what constitutes “objective” history versus subjective interpretations by particular authors. I particularly like what I’ve read of N.T. Wright on this subject, and his proposed critical-realist approach. I believe this critical-realist approach has great promise for my line of inquiry. It allows me to explore the historical questions related to miracle-working (in particular their meaning, function, and significance within a given worldview) without being paralyzed by the problems related to the source texts (e.g. authorial intent, bias, subjectivity). I realize that I will have to address the fact that each author had a goal in mind in writing the text, beyond simply recording historical facts. Nevertheless, I should be able to propose a reasonable hypothesis that “fits” the relevant data and makes sense of the evidence.
In asking about goals, aims, and intentions, I think my exploration begins to take me into the realm of sociology and anthropology. In my last email I mentioned the “sociological” approach. By “sociological interpretation” I mean trying to reconstruct the “social world” of early Christianity vis-à-vis miracle-working. What were the symbols, rituals, and language used that gives us some insight into what their experience of miracle-working was like? Given their social world, what significance might the miracles have had that is not readily apparent to us? In terms of “ritual,” what is the significance of laying-on-of-hands, the “name of Jesus,” or anointing oil? How do we understand the significance of Peter’s shadow?
Much of what I’ve examined that explores questions from a sociological approach involves the creation of social “models,” and then the application of these models to the biblical setting. This seems to be what distinguishes this method from that which is just a good investigation into the “historical setting.” In my study there could be some value in exploring the function of miracle in other cultures (both ancient and modern), and applying these insights. Of course, the challenge will be to find situations with enough similarities to the one I’m examining that I can draw useful conclusions.
Finally, I take “theological interpretation” to mean describing what the biblical texts (or events) meant to their original hearers/readers. This approach has some overlap with the sociological and historical approaches (in the same way that society, history and theology overlap). In this study, I imagine the question will be how the miracles fit within the larger themes of the New Testament (and the Old Testament). After all, any question of “function” seems to imply that there is some purpose within a larger whole. To begin with, what was the function (or purpose) of Jesus’ miracles in his earthly ministry? At some point I’ll need to address a question that you raised in one of our earlier meetings: how do we reconcile Jesus’ suffering and death with his miracle-working? And, how do you make sense of miracle-working power in an early church where persecution and martyrdom were so common (and so effective in the larger goal of spreading the gospel)?
Saturday, February 19, 2005
we're having a baby!
...just wanted to share the happy news: julie and i are expecting our first child in August (around the 15th). yeah! we're very excited, and just shared the news with the church.
i celebrated my birthday (32 yrs old) yesterday (feb 21). i went to dinner with my beautiful wife Julie at Mediterrano (excellent food!). they have the best olive oil around. afterward i went to Conor O'Neill's, an Irish pub in the downtown area. had a great time playing Poker with friends. apparently it is NOT okay to play Poker with chips in public, contrary to what i was led to believe when i made the reservation. so, Jesse and i had to run to the local Starbuck's to find something we could use as a substitute... we ended up playing poker with cofee stirrers as our poker chips! i had fun... i think most of the other guys did too, but i can tell not everyone is quite as enthusiastic about poker as i am--also, the food and drinks there are pretty expensive.
i'm really enjoying my life these days... i'm finding a new sort of peace in being who i am and where i'm at. not to say there aren't challenges; but i'm not experiencing any of the gut-wrenching angst or uncertainty that had plagued me during adolescence and my twenties. maybe it has anything to do with declining testosterone levels--or maybe the 10 years since my mother's death have created something of a 'buffer' between me and that place--and the fact that my life has been pointed toward (roughly) Jesus for many years now, and i think i've been moving in that direction...
well, gotta go to work... long day ahead!
i celebrated my birthday (32 yrs old) yesterday (feb 21). i went to dinner with my beautiful wife Julie at Mediterrano (excellent food!). they have the best olive oil around. afterward i went to Conor O'Neill's, an Irish pub in the downtown area. had a great time playing Poker with friends. apparently it is NOT okay to play Poker with chips in public, contrary to what i was led to believe when i made the reservation. so, Jesse and i had to run to the local Starbuck's to find something we could use as a substitute... we ended up playing poker with cofee stirrers as our poker chips! i had fun... i think most of the other guys did too, but i can tell not everyone is quite as enthusiastic about poker as i am--also, the food and drinks there are pretty expensive.
i'm really enjoying my life these days... i'm finding a new sort of peace in being who i am and where i'm at. not to say there aren't challenges; but i'm not experiencing any of the gut-wrenching angst or uncertainty that had plagued me during adolescence and my twenties. maybe it has anything to do with declining testosterone levels--or maybe the 10 years since my mother's death have created something of a 'buffer' between me and that place--and the fact that my life has been pointed toward (roughly) Jesus for many years now, and i think i've been moving in that direction...
well, gotta go to work... long day ahead!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
this week
i agree... titles for blog entries are pointless!
i'm looking forward to our upcoming florida vacation... we're leaving in March for 2 weeks in Jacksonville Beach. i'm planning on taking my kayak down, so should have a lot of fun out on the waves... hope i see some dolphins! hope i don't see any sharks!
i get to preach this weekend, so it's always a little more busy for me... i'm going to be preaching on the fatherhood of god, which is an interesting topic for me to consider. :) i feel pretty good about it, but ask me again Friday night.
on april 7-8 i get to present a paper at the annual meeting of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society, in Wheeling, WV. I'll be presenting a paper based on my study of the story of the hemorrhaging woman in the synoptic gospels (which was one of the elements of my master's thesis). very fun! my first paper presentation. i'll also be submitting it to a couple of journals... see if they'll publish it.
my birthday is coming up, on monday, feb 21. i'm really looking forward to it! hope to spend some time with friends...
i'm looking forward to our upcoming florida vacation... we're leaving in March for 2 weeks in Jacksonville Beach. i'm planning on taking my kayak down, so should have a lot of fun out on the waves... hope i see some dolphins! hope i don't see any sharks!
i get to preach this weekend, so it's always a little more busy for me... i'm going to be preaching on the fatherhood of god, which is an interesting topic for me to consider. :) i feel pretty good about it, but ask me again Friday night.
on april 7-8 i get to present a paper at the annual meeting of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society, in Wheeling, WV. I'll be presenting a paper based on my study of the story of the hemorrhaging woman in the synoptic gospels (which was one of the elements of my master's thesis). very fun! my first paper presentation. i'll also be submitting it to a couple of journals... see if they'll publish it.
my birthday is coming up, on monday, feb 21. i'm really looking forward to it! hope to spend some time with friends...
Friday, February 11, 2005
phyllis tickle weekend
i went and saw phyllis tickle last night at first united methodist church... it was a 'dialogue' with David Crum, a religious writer for the Free Press. wow! i was blown away by Mrs. Tickle. she is extremely well-read, insightful, perceptive, and lively! You'd never guess she was 70.
very difficult to pigeon-hole her as far as the usual categories go! (which illustrates her point precisely)... some of her earlier comments (esp. physical resurrection of the body) had her firmly in the Evangelical world (as i think of it, a-la Wright)... and then other comments reminded me more of Marcus Borg (i think). definitely had me thinking! She's definitely a Jesus-follower.
she's speaking at all 3 of our weekend celebrations... how fun!
very difficult to pigeon-hole her as far as the usual categories go! (which illustrates her point precisely)... some of her earlier comments (esp. physical resurrection of the body) had her firmly in the Evangelical world (as i think of it, a-la Wright)... and then other comments reminded me more of Marcus Borg (i think). definitely had me thinking! She's definitely a Jesus-follower.
she's speaking at all 3 of our weekend celebrations... how fun!
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
my meetings with Dr. Green
First we discussed the list of questions I emailed to Drs. Green and Nolland. The questions were too varied and broad for a single dissertation, so we started to boil it down in terms of what kind of inquiry I wanted to make: Historical? Sociological? Theological?
My proposed question was this: What was the function of miracle in the early church? I’m particularly interested in this topic because it has implications for how we understand the role of miracles (healing, prophecy, etc.) in the church today.
I realize that a purely historical inquiry is not what I want to do. I am not asking the historical question: ‘did Jesus perform miracles?’ or ‘did the disciples perform miracles?’ I will be concerned only with how they were remembered, as recorded in our written sources (especially the NT). Also, I will not be exploring the philosophical question ‘are miracles possible?’ However, I believe I need to somehow respond to the argument that miracle-working (as recorded in the NT) is to be rejected a priori as ahistorical and impossible, and as the invention/addition of later author(s). I can best do this by clearly arguing that Jesus and the disciples were widely remembered as miracle-workers, and not just by the church.
At the outset I will need to define what I mean by ‘miracle.’ I will do this by first exploring the language used in my relevant texts (Greek); and its relevant words, namely: dunamis, semeion, ergon, and teras. Secondly, I think it will be helpful to somehow explore the ways in which these concepts are different than the modern, Western idea of ‘miracle’. This will entail some analysis of the symbolic universe(s) and worldview(s) in the first-century Greco-Roman world, as well as some linguistic exploration (what do these four words mean).
I have not clearly defined what I mean by ‘the early church.’ At the heart of my question is this: what was Jesus’ (or Paul’s, or Luke’s) intention regarding the function of miracle-working in the church? I’ll be examining both what these three (and others) said directly about the subject, as well as the evidence for the actual occurrence of miracle-working in the church. For this reason, I believe the earlier witnesses will be more helpful in answering this question than the later. At this point I’m inclined to limit my inquiry to the first and second centuries. The most promising texts, in terms of miracle-working, seem to be: Luke-Acts, 1&2 Corinthians, and the Apocryphal Acts. This is an area where I will need to do a lot more reading of primary sources (e.g. the Church Fathers, the Apocryphal works, other 1st/2nd century literature).
I will not mainly be focused on whether our written sources accurately reflect actual historical events. I will be examining the miraculous ‘as recorded by the author of Luke-Acts’ or ‘as recorded by Paul’. This is perhaps where my study will differ from that of John Meier’s in The Marginal Jew, in which he analyzed the probability that each particular story was historical.
Because I am limiting my investigation to these particular texts, I will not be exploring the function or role of miracle in other biblical texts (e.g. OT), except insofar as they shed light on my topic. Having said that, it does seem that some investigation of OT miracle-workers (namely Elijah/Elisha and Moses) will be called for, as they are clearly alluded to by Luke and Paul.
My first step ought to be an exploration of the relevant literature that deals specifically with this topic (e.g. Kee, Pilch, Twelftree). I will then seek to ‘carve out my own space’, and discover where I can make a new contribution, or ask different questions.
Dr. Green invited me to consider presenting a paper at one of their fortnightly meetings of graduate students (perhaps this fall).
My proposed question was this: What was the function of miracle in the early church? I’m particularly interested in this topic because it has implications for how we understand the role of miracles (healing, prophecy, etc.) in the church today.
I realize that a purely historical inquiry is not what I want to do. I am not asking the historical question: ‘did Jesus perform miracles?’ or ‘did the disciples perform miracles?’ I will be concerned only with how they were remembered, as recorded in our written sources (especially the NT). Also, I will not be exploring the philosophical question ‘are miracles possible?’ However, I believe I need to somehow respond to the argument that miracle-working (as recorded in the NT) is to be rejected a priori as ahistorical and impossible, and as the invention/addition of later author(s). I can best do this by clearly arguing that Jesus and the disciples were widely remembered as miracle-workers, and not just by the church.
At the outset I will need to define what I mean by ‘miracle.’ I will do this by first exploring the language used in my relevant texts (Greek); and its relevant words, namely: dunamis, semeion, ergon, and teras. Secondly, I think it will be helpful to somehow explore the ways in which these concepts are different than the modern, Western idea of ‘miracle’. This will entail some analysis of the symbolic universe(s) and worldview(s) in the first-century Greco-Roman world, as well as some linguistic exploration (what do these four words mean).
I have not clearly defined what I mean by ‘the early church.’ At the heart of my question is this: what was Jesus’ (or Paul’s, or Luke’s) intention regarding the function of miracle-working in the church? I’ll be examining both what these three (and others) said directly about the subject, as well as the evidence for the actual occurrence of miracle-working in the church. For this reason, I believe the earlier witnesses will be more helpful in answering this question than the later. At this point I’m inclined to limit my inquiry to the first and second centuries. The most promising texts, in terms of miracle-working, seem to be: Luke-Acts, 1&2 Corinthians, and the Apocryphal Acts. This is an area where I will need to do a lot more reading of primary sources (e.g. the Church Fathers, the Apocryphal works, other 1st/2nd century literature).
I will not mainly be focused on whether our written sources accurately reflect actual historical events. I will be examining the miraculous ‘as recorded by the author of Luke-Acts’ or ‘as recorded by Paul’. This is perhaps where my study will differ from that of John Meier’s in The Marginal Jew, in which he analyzed the probability that each particular story was historical.
Because I am limiting my investigation to these particular texts, I will not be exploring the function or role of miracle in other biblical texts (e.g. OT), except insofar as they shed light on my topic. Having said that, it does seem that some investigation of OT miracle-workers (namely Elijah/Elisha and Moses) will be called for, as they are clearly alluded to by Luke and Paul.
My first step ought to be an exploration of the relevant literature that deals specifically with this topic (e.g. Kee, Pilch, Twelftree). I will then seek to ‘carve out my own space’, and discover where I can make a new contribution, or ask different questions.
Dr. Green invited me to consider presenting a paper at one of their fortnightly meetings of graduate students (perhaps this fall).
Monday, February 07, 2005
fun stuff
i'm writing from wilmore, kentucky... at asbury theological seminary. i'm here for meetings with my US advisor, Joel Green. i woke up at 3:45, left at 4:30, and arrived here at about 10:30. very tired! it wasn't a bad drive... mostly good traffic, except a bit around Cincy.
my 11am meeting with Dr. Green was great... he's very differnt from Dr. Nolland, my UK advisor. Dr. Nolland is a man of few words and very much hands-off when it comes to direction. Dr. Green is more talkative, and much more hands-on (offers more suggestions, advice, asks a lot of questions... etc.) it's cool to have both...
we met for about an hour and a half... very productive. boiling my dissertation questions and scope down to a more manageable level... going to mostly focus on the extant literary evidence rather than doing a more historical approach. i want to get more into theology than just doing a pure historical recreation.
asbury is a lot like ashland... very small town (about 4000), not too far from Lexington. Green lives in Lexington... bet most of the staff does. not much here! very beautiful though.
another little cool thing... is sent an email to NT Wright, and he replied! a rather brief reply, but still very nice... i let him know how much i (and the other pastors) appreciated his work, and also asked him some questions about 'miracles'.
well, will update y'all later... i'm going to do some reading and then hit the sack. oh, yeah, i signed-up on audible.com... very cool, because i have a free trial... i listened to The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb on the way down (at least 4 hours of it). it's a big history of western philosophy... very good! i've burned it to CD, so anyone can borrow it when i'm done.
i'm also enjoying Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger. another good book everyone should read: How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler (i think)... very excellent.
my 11am meeting with Dr. Green was great... he's very differnt from Dr. Nolland, my UK advisor. Dr. Nolland is a man of few words and very much hands-off when it comes to direction. Dr. Green is more talkative, and much more hands-on (offers more suggestions, advice, asks a lot of questions... etc.) it's cool to have both...
we met for about an hour and a half... very productive. boiling my dissertation questions and scope down to a more manageable level... going to mostly focus on the extant literary evidence rather than doing a more historical approach. i want to get more into theology than just doing a pure historical recreation.
asbury is a lot like ashland... very small town (about 4000), not too far from Lexington. Green lives in Lexington... bet most of the staff does. not much here! very beautiful though.
another little cool thing... is sent an email to NT Wright, and he replied! a rather brief reply, but still very nice... i let him know how much i (and the other pastors) appreciated his work, and also asked him some questions about 'miracles'.
well, will update y'all later... i'm going to do some reading and then hit the sack. oh, yeah, i signed-up on audible.com... very cool, because i have a free trial... i listened to The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb on the way down (at least 4 hours of it). it's a big history of western philosophy... very good! i've burned it to CD, so anyone can borrow it when i'm done.
i'm also enjoying Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger. another good book everyone should read: How to Read a Book, by Mortimer Adler (i think)... very excellent.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Dad's trip to Hong Kong
I received this email from my dad, regarding his upcoming mission trip to Hong Kong:
-------------
Hi Prayer Supporters,
Wow! Time is flying! I leave in about 3 weeks and still so much planning and preparation to do for Ministry in Hong Kong. With our Gospel Magic presentations it's usually a practice of "Pack Small, Play Big". That's a challenge. Many of our audiences are over a 1000 people and they have to be able to see what we are doing without binoculars. I'm sure we will use alot of colorful silk magic, ropes, sponge balls, stuff that we can cram into suitcases. But I still have to be able to take a table that will set up quickly, look very professional and be big enough for all to see. Looks like it will be a carry-on case with a tripod that can screw into the bottom.
You can imagine what we go through when we are going through CUSTOMS!!! Lots of weird things the inspectors are looking at. They usually take our magic out of the containers and are totally confused. We have to patiently explain that "No, sir, this is a TOY gun, nothing real, we are magicians". That sometimes makes them all the more suspicious!! Pray that we will get all of our "props" through customs, going and coming.
I received a "TENTATIVE" Outreach Ministry Schedule. Already FIFTY meetings in a three week period. So this will probably change to ONE HUNDRED meetings by the time we arrive in Hong Kong. ALREADY 16 Shopping Center Malls!! And these are not strip malls we are talking about but 6 or 7 floors of stores, malls as big or bigger than anything you've seen in the States. So we are talking of THOUSANDS of people in these malls, and we will be doing an HOUR program, presenting God's saving Love to them.
One huge challenge in Hong Kong is reaching the ELDERLY. The government has placed the care of most of their elderly in the hands of churches, so the people we are ministering with, YOUTH FOR CHRIST, has stepped in and taken on a huge part of this responsibility. Isn't that something- HONG KONG YOUTH FOR CHRIST reaching out to thousands of seniors every week with the Gospel. So many of them sit all day long without anything to do. So the people we are ministering with have opened a huge part of the multilevel building they are in(7000 sq. feet of office space that just opened up)and transformed it into a Senior Citizen Outreach Center, where seniors could come and go all day long and experience the Gospel in many different ways. I will be doing MANY Senior Citizen programs and they just love the color and excitement of hearing the Gospel through magic, music, puppets and comedy. Pray for all the Seniors who will find Christ as Savior and for their nurturing.
Our schedule shows, in addition to the Shopping Malls and Senior Citizen centers, many churches, schools(from nursery to High School and Tech Schools) and Fruit Market parks(lots of outdoor veg. and fruit markets). And I'm sure there will be a few jails or prisons and possibly some civic events(dinners, concerts, etc.) And then the Gospel magic classes we will teach to help Chinese young people reach out to their own.
Whew! I'm exhausted!! I'm taking lots of power bars(are there any that are flavorful?)and vitamins. We're talking 5-6 meetings a day, all the bus and subway travel, setting up and taking down our programs. But I can't wait!! I'm excited, God is excited, all the pastors and Christian workers in Hong Kong are excited. I hope you are excited too!!
Some of you have asked about how to give to this ministry. Denny and Karen Magnuson of World Sports Network(WSN), a wonderful Sports Ministry Outreach to all the world, have graciously allowed me to have my supporters make out check to and send their support to:
World Sports Network(WSN)
3199 Fryden Court
San Diego, Ca. 92117
Just note that support is for Don Bromley ministering in Hong Kong.
Well, I'll let you all go for now. Probably one more newsletter before and then some newsletters from Hong Kong.
Love you all!!
Don "Mr. Tiny" Bromley
dbromtinyusa@netscape.net
-------------
Hi Prayer Supporters,
Wow! Time is flying! I leave in about 3 weeks and still so much planning and preparation to do for Ministry in Hong Kong. With our Gospel Magic presentations it's usually a practice of "Pack Small, Play Big". That's a challenge. Many of our audiences are over a 1000 people and they have to be able to see what we are doing without binoculars. I'm sure we will use alot of colorful silk magic, ropes, sponge balls, stuff that we can cram into suitcases. But I still have to be able to take a table that will set up quickly, look very professional and be big enough for all to see. Looks like it will be a carry-on case with a tripod that can screw into the bottom.
You can imagine what we go through when we are going through CUSTOMS!!! Lots of weird things the inspectors are looking at. They usually take our magic out of the containers and are totally confused. We have to patiently explain that "No, sir, this is a TOY gun, nothing real, we are magicians". That sometimes makes them all the more suspicious!! Pray that we will get all of our "props" through customs, going and coming.
I received a "TENTATIVE" Outreach Ministry Schedule. Already FIFTY meetings in a three week period. So this will probably change to ONE HUNDRED meetings by the time we arrive in Hong Kong. ALREADY 16 Shopping Center Malls!! And these are not strip malls we are talking about but 6 or 7 floors of stores, malls as big or bigger than anything you've seen in the States. So we are talking of THOUSANDS of people in these malls, and we will be doing an HOUR program, presenting God's saving Love to them.
One huge challenge in Hong Kong is reaching the ELDERLY. The government has placed the care of most of their elderly in the hands of churches, so the people we are ministering with, YOUTH FOR CHRIST, has stepped in and taken on a huge part of this responsibility. Isn't that something- HONG KONG YOUTH FOR CHRIST reaching out to thousands of seniors every week with the Gospel. So many of them sit all day long without anything to do. So the people we are ministering with have opened a huge part of the multilevel building they are in(7000 sq. feet of office space that just opened up)and transformed it into a Senior Citizen Outreach Center, where seniors could come and go all day long and experience the Gospel in many different ways. I will be doing MANY Senior Citizen programs and they just love the color and excitement of hearing the Gospel through magic, music, puppets and comedy. Pray for all the Seniors who will find Christ as Savior and for their nurturing.
Our schedule shows, in addition to the Shopping Malls and Senior Citizen centers, many churches, schools(from nursery to High School and Tech Schools) and Fruit Market parks(lots of outdoor veg. and fruit markets). And I'm sure there will be a few jails or prisons and possibly some civic events(dinners, concerts, etc.) And then the Gospel magic classes we will teach to help Chinese young people reach out to their own.
Whew! I'm exhausted!! I'm taking lots of power bars(are there any that are flavorful?)and vitamins. We're talking 5-6 meetings a day, all the bus and subway travel, setting up and taking down our programs. But I can't wait!! I'm excited, God is excited, all the pastors and Christian workers in Hong Kong are excited. I hope you are excited too!!
Some of you have asked about how to give to this ministry. Denny and Karen Magnuson of World Sports Network(WSN), a wonderful Sports Ministry Outreach to all the world, have graciously allowed me to have my supporters make out check to and send their support to:
World Sports Network(WSN)
3199 Fryden Court
San Diego, Ca. 92117
Just note that support is for Don Bromley ministering in Hong Kong.
Well, I'll let you all go for now. Probably one more newsletter before and then some newsletters from Hong Kong.
Love you all!!
Don "Mr. Tiny" Bromley
dbromtinyusa@netscape.net
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
snowy in ypsilanti
well, there's still about a foot of snow on the ground around my house... it's not really a problem though, because i was able to borrow my neighbor's snow-blower to clear our shared driveway and sidewalks. it's a little 2-stroke engine, so it wasn't the easiest to use, but worked fine. my father-in-law just gave me his old snowblower, which is a much more substantial machine... should make it an easier job. i even thought about making a few extra bucks clearing driveways and sidewalks in our neighborhood... but julie reminded me that there's already a guy who does it, and he probably needs the money more than i do.
i remember growing up in california... snow was pretty exciting. when we'd drive to the mountains (the sierra-nevada range) to go skiing, it would always be a big deal to see the first snow. i even remember the first time i acutally saw snow falling... i was probably 10 or so. i was really surprised at how grey the sky was... for some reason i was expecting everything to be really white and bright, like snow is on the ground.
one thing i really like about this crappy weather is how much it makes me look forward to spring and summer. and, it sort of separates one year off from the next... when the weather is always the same you lose track of that sense of time passing. i can also see why the holidays originated around the changing of seasons... without the changing seasons, what's there to celebrate?
having said, that, i'm really looking forward to flordia in march! :)
i remember growing up in california... snow was pretty exciting. when we'd drive to the mountains (the sierra-nevada range) to go skiing, it would always be a big deal to see the first snow. i even remember the first time i acutally saw snow falling... i was probably 10 or so. i was really surprised at how grey the sky was... for some reason i was expecting everything to be really white and bright, like snow is on the ground.
one thing i really like about this crappy weather is how much it makes me look forward to spring and summer. and, it sort of separates one year off from the next... when the weather is always the same you lose track of that sense of time passing. i can also see why the holidays originated around the changing of seasons... without the changing seasons, what's there to celebrate?
having said, that, i'm really looking forward to flordia in march! :)
Monday, January 17, 2005
Sunday, January 16, 2005
color photo of my crack
here's what I've been working on this past week... see the vertical crack running down the pipe? every time we used the upstairs bathroom, water (and other stuff I'm sure) leaked out of the crack, ran down the pipe, and dripped all over the basement floor. had to tear out a section of the kitchen wall and ceiling to access the pipe, tear it out (a big job... cast iron is incredibly hard and heavy... much harder than normal steel, but more brittle) then i replaced everything with PVC, all the way from the basement to the roof.
pictures!
Here are some pictures you might be intereted in checking out (click on 'slideshow' to see my comments):
Trip with Dad to England/Ireland, November, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.by5n1kul&x=0&y=-af090k
Bromley Family Reunion, August, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.bqh899pp&x=0&y=-wykwe5
Chilimigras Christmas, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.4hooaeb1&x=0&y=-h6l92e
Trip with Dad to England/Ireland, November, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.by5n1kul&x=0&y=-af090k
Bromley Family Reunion, August, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.bqh899pp&x=0&y=-wykwe5
Chilimigras Christmas, 2004
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=dec5uxx.4hooaeb1&x=0&y=-h6l92e
Monday, November 22, 2004
i'm back!
got back from England on Friday night. let's see... picking up from where i left off:
the second meeting with Nolland went very well. i'm really encouraged... my next step is to learn a little bit more about research methodologies. then i'm going to be exploring the book of Acts, and see how it provides a hermeneutical window on the book of Luke, and its depiction of the miraculous. looking like my dissertation is going to focus on the meaning/significance of miracle in early Christianity.
after Bristol we caught a bus to Birmingham, and then on to Holyhead, where we picked up our ferry. on the way out of Birmingham our bus clipped another bus, so we ended up waiting there for about 45 minutes before we got underway. then we encountered a ginormous (gigantic-enormous) traffic jam on the way to Holyhead, and ended up arriving over 2 hours late! needless to say, we had missed our ferry, so had to catch another. ended up arriving in Dublin at around 10pm.
Dublin is *CRAZY* on Saturday nights, especially in the Temple Bar area. not sure if i've ever seen quite so many people packed into a few square blocks. wow! our hostel was right in the middle of it, literally next door to one of the more popular pubs. our room was tiny, and packed with 10 beds (5 bunks). i was very disappointed at how small the room was... but that wasn't the worst part; we must have been in the noisiest street in Ireland. i kidd you not, at around 1am in the morning there was someone smashing beer bottles right outside our window, for about 30 minutes. he must have been recycling or something. then at 6am they were stacking metal beer kegs right down the street.... not even ear plugs can block that.
we did some sightseeing around Dublin... the zoo, Trinity College, St. Patrick's, etc. after a couple days of this it was time to leave. headed back to Bristol to spend the night, and then off to London.
London was fantabulous. my favorite city in the world. we arrived in the afternoon, and our first task was to ride the London Eye... a gigantic ferris wheel (kind of). that was a lot of fun... great way to see the city. after that we headed to Leicester Square, where they do all the movie premiers. got to see Tom Hanks (from about 50 yards) for his premier of Polar Express. then we went to go watch a movie... this is funny; we wanted to see 'After the Sunset', the new Pierce Brosnan movie... we got confused and ended up in 'Before Sunset' by accident, an independent film with Ethan Hawke. the entire movie is a single dialogue... i kinda enjoyed it, but was definitely not what my dad was looking forward to. oh well.
the next day my dad and i headed out to Wimbledon. he's a huge tennis fan, so it was cool to see Center Court and all. then we stopped by the British Museum and saw a cool 3-D presentation on a mummy... very nice... i love that museum. ate lunch at a nice pub. then off to St. Paul's Cathedral. this was the highlight of the day... we climbed over 800 steps to get to the top, and had an amazing view of the city. i can't believe they built this thing 300 years ago... Unbelievable. people are amazing. after the cathedral we tried to make it to the Tower of London, but we were too late... it looked really cool... next time i guess.
the flight back was OK. i had exactly the same seat as i did on the way over. watched 'Little Black Book', which sucked. read a lot of an N.T. Wright book i'm working on.
the second meeting with Nolland went very well. i'm really encouraged... my next step is to learn a little bit more about research methodologies. then i'm going to be exploring the book of Acts, and see how it provides a hermeneutical window on the book of Luke, and its depiction of the miraculous. looking like my dissertation is going to focus on the meaning/significance of miracle in early Christianity.
after Bristol we caught a bus to Birmingham, and then on to Holyhead, where we picked up our ferry. on the way out of Birmingham our bus clipped another bus, so we ended up waiting there for about 45 minutes before we got underway. then we encountered a ginormous (gigantic-enormous) traffic jam on the way to Holyhead, and ended up arriving over 2 hours late! needless to say, we had missed our ferry, so had to catch another. ended up arriving in Dublin at around 10pm.
Dublin is *CRAZY* on Saturday nights, especially in the Temple Bar area. not sure if i've ever seen quite so many people packed into a few square blocks. wow! our hostel was right in the middle of it, literally next door to one of the more popular pubs. our room was tiny, and packed with 10 beds (5 bunks). i was very disappointed at how small the room was... but that wasn't the worst part; we must have been in the noisiest street in Ireland. i kidd you not, at around 1am in the morning there was someone smashing beer bottles right outside our window, for about 30 minutes. he must have been recycling or something. then at 6am they were stacking metal beer kegs right down the street.... not even ear plugs can block that.
we did some sightseeing around Dublin... the zoo, Trinity College, St. Patrick's, etc. after a couple days of this it was time to leave. headed back to Bristol to spend the night, and then off to London.
London was fantabulous. my favorite city in the world. we arrived in the afternoon, and our first task was to ride the London Eye... a gigantic ferris wheel (kind of). that was a lot of fun... great way to see the city. after that we headed to Leicester Square, where they do all the movie premiers. got to see Tom Hanks (from about 50 yards) for his premier of Polar Express. then we went to go watch a movie... this is funny; we wanted to see 'After the Sunset', the new Pierce Brosnan movie... we got confused and ended up in 'Before Sunset' by accident, an independent film with Ethan Hawke. the entire movie is a single dialogue... i kinda enjoyed it, but was definitely not what my dad was looking forward to. oh well.
the next day my dad and i headed out to Wimbledon. he's a huge tennis fan, so it was cool to see Center Court and all. then we stopped by the British Museum and saw a cool 3-D presentation on a mummy... very nice... i love that museum. ate lunch at a nice pub. then off to St. Paul's Cathedral. this was the highlight of the day... we climbed over 800 steps to get to the top, and had an amazing view of the city. i can't believe they built this thing 300 years ago... Unbelievable. people are amazing. after the cathedral we tried to make it to the Tower of London, but we were too late... it looked really cool... next time i guess.
the flight back was OK. i had exactly the same seat as i did on the way over. watched 'Little Black Book', which sucked. read a lot of an N.T. Wright book i'm working on.
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