GLOBAL INTERPRETATIONS OF
CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES
RLST 206 AND DIV 3845
Feb 15, 2010
Today
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3:10 Contemporary Models for the
Interpretation of Scriptures:
SACRAMENTAL-LITURGICAL
HERMENEUTICS
4:05-4:55 Group Discussions:
Group 1: JOHN Petros Vassiliadis,
Group 2: HEBREWS Stelian Tofanâ,
5:00 Lecture: Classical Models of
Interpretations of Scriptures
John (Petros Vassiliadis, Greece)
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Presenter Taylor Schomp,
Leader Anna Leigh Keith
____Matthew Calderwood__
____Annie Wong
____Mark Wells
____Wendy Aluoh
____Arlonzo Williams
_____Basye Holland
Hebrews (Stelian Tofana, Romania)
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Presenter Anna McReynolds
Leader: Jordan Nelson
_____Chance Dillon
_____Erin Higgins
_____Lakendra Scott
_____Iris Ankrom
_____Adesewa Adelekun
_____Ben Pflederer
Choosing Your Biblical Text For
The Paper DUE Feb 21 by 10am
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Give me 3 ranked choices of biblical texts, not
previously discussed in class
For each choice, tell me in two (2) to three (3)
lines why (the contextual reasons; the issue, the
problem, the concern; Singular; 1 specific
context!) you chose each given text. Why is it
significant for you? Why is it more significant for
you than other texts of the Bible?
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You may use the same context for the 3 texts
In your paper proposal, you will explain in detail what
you intend to do with it
I will tell you by class time what text was assigned
to you (obviously, hopefully your first choice)
Three weeks ago: Contextual
studies may be focused on Inculturation
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all interpretations are “inculturated” =
influenced by the (cultural) context from which
we read. This means that our
Textual Choices are viewed as LEGITIMATE,
= grounded in the text, according to our culture
Theological/hermeneutical choices are viewed
as PLAUSIBLE according to our culture
Contextual Choices are viewed as VALID (=
valuable) according to our culture
Two weeks Ago: Contextual
studies may be focused on Liberation
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Focused on Interpretive Contextual
Choices
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Ethical/moral test: Loving Neighbor
How is this text helpful in a specific lifecontext?
Involves a particular Theologicalhermeneutical choices:
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Scripture as corrective lenses
Last Week: Inter(con)textual
Character of Interpretations
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Contextual studies may be focused on the
Inter(con)textual Character of Interpretations
Focused on Interpretive Theological
/Hermeneutical Choices
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How to make sense of the biblical text?
Issue: PLAUSIBILITY of the text and what it says about
human life.
The Biblical Text Makes Sense if, and if only, we
read it in terms of other texts of our lives and
cultures.
Bible as Scripture read in Worship,
Sacramental-Liturgical Contexts
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Scripture is read by believers
in Sacramental-Liturgical Context
Community Worship Context in which “liturgy” is
rejected for a more informal worship service
(another form of liturgy!)
Personal worship related to individual religious
experience!
Each case includes: “Religious experiences” and
“Rituals” as realities no human (including no
agnostic & no atheist) can escape
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Without a vision of life that frames our lives we cannot live
(and commit suicide when we lose it)
Without rituals this vision of life crumbles
Ritual Theory
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Victor Turner, The Ritual Process:
Structure and Anti-Structure (Lewis
Morgan Lectures) (1969)
Catherine Bell, Ritual Theory, Ritual
Practice (Oxford University Press,
1997). Ritual: Perspectives and
Dimensions. Revised edition. (Oxford
University Press, 2009)
Turner’s view of Ritual
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threefold structure of rituals (e.g. rites of passage):
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a pre-liminal phase (separation),
a liminal phase (transition), and
a post-liminal phase (reincorporation).
Turner: in liminality, individuals are "betwixt and between":
a limbo, an ambiguous period characterized by humility,
seclusion, tests, sexual ambiguity, and communitas (an
unstructured community where all members are equal);
A stage where one’s autonomy as individual is suspended
(heteronomy) and
where rules of society (relationality) are suspended (so the
‘communitas’ of heteronomy):……. enough theory!
Religious Experience and Ritual
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“I Love You” … most powerful three words in the English
language. (This is Valentine’s Day!)
Express a “feeling” … a strong feeling regarding
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This “feeling” is for “us” a reality = Being in Love
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One’s relationship [“I”] to someone else [“you”]
“love” : An intimate relationship that so totally frames who
“I” am, and who “you” are that “we” have a new life
together as “us”.
The really real -- the most real reality
A reality that “happens” in an encounter, a powerful
encounter (“seeing him”; “seeing her” for the first time;
“falling in love”) that transforms our lives
And is reenacted, maintained, and strengthened through
rituals of love.
Autonomy-RelationalityHeteronomy: 3 modes of existence
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We Necessarily Have 3
modes of Existence
Our individual life:
Autonomy
Our life in relation with
others in social
networks & community:
Relationality
Our religious, mystical,
“in love,” proprioceptive
experience(s) (ranging
from infant-mother to
mystical experience)
Heteronomy
Autonomy-RelationalityHeteronomy:
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Coakley, Sarah. “Kenosis and subversion,” pp. 82-111 in
Daphne Hampson, ed. Swallowing a Fishbone? Feminist
Theologians Debate Christianity. London: SPCK, 1996.
Grenholm, Cristina, Motherhood and Love: Finding Space for
Thought Beyond the Gendered Stereotypes of Theology.
Grand Rapids, Mi: Eerdsman, 2011
Hampson, Daphne. “On Autonomy and Heteronomy” pp. 116 in Daphne Hampson, ed. Swallowing a Fishbone?
Feminist Theologians Debate Christianity. London: SPCK,
1996.
Three modes of existence; each can
be the center
Autonomy-Centered = Individual-Centered Life = “I” am
in control
1.
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Relational Life and Heteronomous Life are shaped and defined
by individuals
Relationality-Centered = Community/Society Centered
Life = “the community” is in control
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Individual Life and Heteronomous Life are shaped and defined
by Community/Society
Heteronomy-Centered = Religious Experience Centered
Life
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Individual Life and Relational Life are shaped and defined by
Religious Experience (including Absence of & Negative
Religious Experience)
1. Autonomy-[= Individual]Centered
A.
B.
C.
“I” as a “self” have an identity defined by what “I”
choose to do and not to do; “I” am an “agent”;
autonomy-centered life. knowledge, will, ability
“I” as an “agent” control and shape the networks of
relations in which “I” am involved: = “I” am
responsible for the RELATIONAL networks in
which I participate
“I” am responsible for my religious experience, and
thus control “my” HETERONOMOUS experiences
= e.g., “I” decided to give my life to Christ; “I” fell in
love
2. Relationality-Centered life
A.
B.
C.
“We” as a group have an identity defined by the
network of relations which characterizes our
group; relationality-centered life
“We” are individuals with identities defined by our
place and role in and for our group; autonomous
experiences.
“We” share religious experiences that shape our
life and vocation as a group; communal
heteronomous experiences. “We” (you and I) fell
in love, // to We participate in our community’s
vocation … and community rituals.
3. Heteronomy-Centered life
A.
B.
C.
True religious experience is abandoning or losing
oneself, as individuals and as community, into the
OTHER, and thus submitting to the Other.
heteronomy-centered life.
Our identity as a community, its ideology, and its
relational networks are shaped by our collective
heteronomous experience in rituals, sacraments.
“My” identity as a “self” and “agent,” “my”
autonomy is shaped by my heteronomous
experience in religious experience.
Identity “If you are the Son of God” = 3
Rootproblems: in each case, “I” is not based on
Heteronomy/worshiping God
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AUTONOMY =“I” with an identify = will; knowing what I want
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“Matt 4:2-3 Jesus “was famished… command these stones to
become loaves of bread.“ = this is what your WILL should be
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= your self-centered will is wrong;
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Matthew 4:4 4 But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God.‘” = living by word from God.'“ = Heteronomy =
Will shaped by one’s experience of God
RELATIONALITY: “I” with ideology
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Matt 4:6 throw yourself down; for it is written, God will save you;
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wrong IDEOLOGY: God is at our service (as other people
are)
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Matthew 4:7 7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not
put the Lord your God to the test.'“
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not tempting/testing God = submitting to God . = Heteronomy
Identity “If you are the Son of God” = 3
Rootproblems: in each case, “I” is not based on
Heteronomy/worshiping God
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RELATIONALITY: “I” with power and authority over others
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Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took him to a very high
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world
and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, "All these I will
give you, if you will fall down and worship me.“
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Wrong “Power” “authority” over others gained through
relationality = worshiping idols
Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!
for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only
him.'“
worshiping God alone “falling before God” alone =
Heteronomy
Love and God’s Love:
Kenosis = Heteronomy
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Philippians 2:5-8 Christ Jesus, 6 who,
though he was in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God as something to be
exploited, 7 but emptied [ekenôsen]
himself, taking the form of a slave, being
born in human likeness. And being found in
human form, 8 he humbled himself and
became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross.
Bible as Scripture read in Worship,
Sacramental-Liturgical Contexts
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Sacramental-Liturgical Context in which Scripture is
read by believers:
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Is this Liturgy-Sacrament-Religious Experience:
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Discerning Problems in THIS context
Offering Solutions in THIS context
Helpful? Constructive? life-giving? Life-giving?
Or Deadly? Death-giving? Destructive? Oppressive?
Do not brush aside religious experience and rituals!
Religious experiences and Rituals are realities no
human (also no agnostic & no atheist) can escape
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Without a vision of life that frames our lives we cannot live
(and commit suicide when we lose it)
Without rituals this vision of life cannot be maintained and
crumbles
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Root-Problem
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Root-Problem: NOT a lack of understanding /lack
of knowledge, or wrong knowledge
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Root-Problem IS a lack of faith/vision, or wrong
faith/vision, or inappropriate faith/vision
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A liturgy does NOT presuppose that “People need to
understand, in order that they may believe properly”
A liturgy presupposeS that “People need first to believe, to
have faith, before seeking to understand.”
Solution: having a (good, valid) religious
experience encountering the Divine; God; the Lord;
as a mystery
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Religious Experience as Solution
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Experience of the Mystery
Experience of a mysterious reality which has
power upon me/us = Heteronomy
Being “in Love” = acknowledging the mystery of the
beloved… always beyond what I can know about
her/him… can never be taken for granted; reduced to
something can tell about her [[Valentine’s Day!!!]]
I-Thou relationship = being lost in the other, the
beloved, God
Being “in Love” = completely shape one’s existence,
one’s life, all aspect of one’s life – being under the
spell of the loved one – beyond understanding
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Understanding Religious Experience
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Understanding this Experience of the Mystery
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NOT explaining away this mystery (this is
destroying the mystery = denying this mystery
Denying/ betraying this love relationship;
Denying/betraying the I-Thou relationship
Understanding this Experience of the Mystery
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Fides quaerens intellectum
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Faith seeking understanding
= Acknowledging this experience; Claiming this experience
and its implications; [[not all religious experience is good]]
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Anselm of Canterbury (c1033-1109),
“I do”
“Credo” = ‘I” believe
Explaining this experience to others
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Book of Revelation and Worship: Problem: Is
Worship Helpful? Constructive? Life-giving? Or
Deadly? Death-giving? Destructive? Oppressive?
Root-problem: wrong faith/vision (from the
perspective of the biblical text)
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Worship ministering to death (112-120)
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“What we see depends on where we stand” (112)
following the model of worship on earthly Sphere (worship
of the Beast, of the Roman State)
Worship ministering to life (120-124)
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following the model of worship in the Heavenly Sphere
(throne liturgy in heaven Rev chaps 4-5)
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Reading the book of Revelation in a Liturgical
Context
Revelation-based Worship ministering to death
as a glorification of martyrdom
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= cult of victimhood (passive acceptance of our
economic and political plight as colonized and
oppressed) (113-115)
As total rejection of State:
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African Traditional political leaders are/were not
demonic; but “personified the order of the world and
harmony… for the benefit of humankind’ (115)
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Revelation-based Worship ministering to
death
As separating faith and culture:
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African traditional Culture as a whole is not evil,
pagan; must discern which traditional practices
and symbols are contrary to the gospel and
which are compatible (116-118)
As fostering violence against heretics and
non-believers;
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symbolic, metaphorical violence (in liturgy, in
worship is always very powerful) (118-120)
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
The Power of Liturgy, Ritual
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Liturgy, ritual, and Scripture have power
Because they convey CONVICTIONS to believers
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Convictions = self-evident truth
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Convictions as based on experience of mystery
Not demonstrated truth, not ideas that we accept because they
are backed by evidence
Convictions have power upon us, because
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they impose themselves upon us
Define what is good/euphoric and bad/dysphoric
They drive us to do the most sublime things… or the most evil
things
Symbolic/metaphorical violence = actual violence
Violence in the name of our faith; religious wars; crusades,
Shoah/Holocaust
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Revelation-based Worship ministering to Life: A liturgy
that establishes for believers
the interrelation of spiritual, metaphysical sphere/level and
the human, political sphere/level (120-122)
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Confirms that struggle against evil is taking place also at the
spiritual level
& that “the present victory of God will usher in the universal and
manifest reign of God to be revealed in the future.
Christ as the conqueror of all visible and invisible forces
= Christus Victor ( 1931 Gustaf Aulén) (122-123):
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“The greatest need among African is to see, to know, and to
experience Jesus Christ as the victor over the powers and forces
from which Africa knows no means of deliverance” (Mbiti, 123)
“The death of Christ has to do with much more than just the
spiritual salvation of the soul” (123)
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Revelation-based Worship ministering to
Life: A liturgy that establishes for
believers
A holistic vision of all of life (122):
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“the African person is not an individual, for
personality is defined by relationship” (122)
Seeing oneself as having an intrinsic
relation to other humans, to sky, to earth,;
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“I am because we are; and because we are, I
am”
Sacramental-Liturgical Context:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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A liturgy that establishes for believers that
“Human beings cannot be fully saved’
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Saved from evil powers of all kinds
unless the co-determinates of authentic human
life are simultaneously saved.” (122)
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I am saved if, and if only, other people and the creation
are also saved
see Rom 8:21 “the creation itself will be set free from its
bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory
of the children of God”
Liturgical Hermeneutics:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Revelation-based Worship as Liturgy in
the Presence of God A liturgy that is
A worship of a living God, a world who still
acts in this world and in the present
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“Hence, miracles are nothing extraordinary”
(123)
the African sense of cosmic oneness, which
includes God as the origin of the life force (124)
Liturgical Hermeneutics:
Nigeria: Chukwuma Okoye
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Revelation based Worship as Liturgy in the
Presence of God A liturgy that is
A worship of a living God, “who lowers God’s self to
human, and a renewed earth becomes the Holy of
Holies” (124)
“”Worship transmutes into the beatific vision”
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Beatific vision in the Present: the immediate
apprehension of God's self = entering into the very
embrace of God
not after death as In Western medieval theology
In the present worship…. In the liturgy
Petros Vassiliadis, Greek Orthodox
Church
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I will interpret John’s Gospel from the lifecontext of both post-modernity and Eastern
Christianity.
Post-modernity has challenged the priority of
the texts over experience,
in the context of Eastern Christianity, postmodernity has even challenged the priority of
faith over the eucharistic communion
experience of the Kingdom of God.
A eschatological-eucharistic communion
experience
Petros Vassiliadis
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The ritual (be it in a social setting or in
an actual liturgical setting) gave rise
to the story [the Gospel of John;
other Gospels]
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Rather than the opposite.
Christianity started around a table, a
normal messianic Jewish banquet,
meant as a foretaste of the coming
Kingdom of God,
STELIAN TOFANĂ
School of Orthodox Theology, Romania
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I write this commentary from a didactic and sacerdotal
context…
As an orthodox priest, its [Hebrews’s] content is part of
the mystical reality I experience in every holy liturgy,
at the altar on which Christ sacrifices himself
continuously for each person, being there in a
sacrificial state forever.
So I read Hebrews from the liturgical context of a
permanent sacerdotal relation with the eternal high
priest—Jesus Christ—in his continuous sacrifice for
God’s people. This liturgical context encompasses
heaven and earth, and thus daily life in society and in
the natural world, where Jesus Christ, the high priest,
offers his continuous sacrifice.
= mystery of the incarnation continues
Mystical Reality
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The Orthodox Church views the Bible +
Ecumenical Councils + liturgy + icons as
integral parts of an indivisible whole: Holy
Tradition.
Liturgy and iconography are not seen as only
teaching tools or ‘decoration’ that can be thrown
away. Rather, they are sacramental POINTS OF
CONTACT between God and human,
made directly possible through God the Son’s
becoming human
An Orthodox church has been described as
‘heaven on earth’, and that is exactly what it is: a
place where heaven and earth meet.
Mystical Reality: Bible
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Bible = Word of God
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NOT the Word of God is the
content/teaching of the Bible;
Bible = “Logos,” incarnated Logos:
a mystery
Incarnation as “mystery”
Mystical Reality: Bible
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Holy Bible = Sacred Book
Book through which one encounters
the Divine/God
Remember: Pharisees/Rabbis “Where
two or three are gathered and exchange words of
Torah, the Shekinah is among them” (see also Matt
18:20 = “For where two or three are gathered in my
name, I am there among them.“)
Divine Liturgy: St. Athanasius
c.295-373
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“You will see the Levites [i.e. deacons] bringing the
loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table.
So long as the prayers and invocations have not yet
been made, it is mere bread and a mere cup.”
“But when the great and wondrous prayers have been
recited, then the bread becomes the body and the
cup the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ...”
“When the great prayers and holy supplications are sent
up, the Word descends on the bread and the cup,
and it becomes His body.
—Athanasius, from his Sermon to the Newly
Baptized PG 26, 1325,
ICON (Iconostasis)
Icon: Theotokos (Russia)
Icon: Theotokos (Russia)
CHURCH
for Eastern Orthodox
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The Church is NOT a “community” of
believers… a gathering of believers
The Church is the BODY OF CHRIST …
and thus it manifests (or should)
The presence of God in the world
It is HOLY
Sacramentalization of Society
Sacramentalization of the World
John (Petros Vassiliadis, Greece)
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Presenter Taylor Schomp,
Leader Anna Leigh Keith
____Matthew Calderwood__
____Annie Wong
____Mark Wells
____Wendy Aluoh
____Arlonzo Williams
_____Basye Holland
Hebrews (Stelian Tofana, Romania)
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Presenter Anna McReynolds
Leader: Jordan Nelson
_____Chance Dillon
_____Erin Higgins
_____Lakendra Scott
_____Iris Ankrom
_____Adesewa Adelekun
_____Ben Pflederer
Pharisees and Apocalyptic
Models
See Early Jewish Hermeneutics in Palestine
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Pharisees = One Covenant
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Apocalyptic = New Covenant
(people still in bondage)
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Election: complete = everything
has been revealed on Mount
Sinai (Oral and Written Torah)
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Haggadah: Closed sacred
history; Liturgy; interpreting
Scripture by Scripture (Midrash)
Election: God is electing,
choosing a remnant/a new faithful
people = new interventions of
God
Typology; Prophecy are fulfilled
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Halakah: needs to be
reinterpreted again and again
(Mishnah, Talmud, constantly
interpreted in terms of social,
cultural situation)
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Haggadah = Open sacred history,
ongoing activity of God ,
establishing and reestablishing
the covenant through
choosing/calling a new people,
through interventions of power
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Halakah = Very strict; AS BY
PRIEST IN THE TEMPLE
Deadly Letter of Scripture and
Life Giving Spirit of Scripture
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2 Corinthians 3:6-7 [Paul and others are] ministers
of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the
ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets…
3:14-17 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to
this very day, when they hear the reading of the old
covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in
Christ is it set aside. 15 Indeed, to this very day
whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds;
16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is freedom.
Formula Quotation: fulfilling prophecy:
Jesus = the child who was sign of
liberation
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Matthew 1:22-23 All this took place to fulfill what had
been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23
"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God
is with us." = Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 7:14 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give
you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and
shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. … 16
For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good, the land before whose two kings
you are in dread will be deserted. 17 The LORD will
bring on you and on your people and on your
ancestral house
Formula quotation; Fulfilling
Unknown Prophecy
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Matthew 2:23 There he made his
home in a town called Nazareth, so
that what had been spoken through
the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will
be called a Nazorean."
Formula quotation: Jesus Fulfills
the Type David and Abraham
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Matthew 1:1 1:1 An account of the
genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the
son of David, the son of Abraham.
Etc. etc.
= Jesus Fulfills the Types, David,
Abraham, etc. etc.
= in Jesus the “types” of scripture are
fulfilled
Formula quotation: Jesus
fulfills the Type Israel
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Matthew 2:14-15 Then Joseph got up, took
the child and his mother by night, and went
to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the
death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had
been spoken by the Lord through the
prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my
son."
Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I
loved him, and out of Egypt I called my
son.
Formula quotation: Jesus
fulfills the Type Israel
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Matthew 4:1-2 Then Jesus was led
up by the Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted
forty days and forty nights, and
afterwards he was famished.
Jesus: Fulfilling the Type
Moses
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Matthew 5:1-2 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went
up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples
came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught
them, saying:
Sermon on the Mount = New Law
18:20 = Jesus = Torah = Presence of God “For
where two or three are gathered in my name, I am
there among them."
Everything has been revealed in Jesus
28:20 teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age."
Christian Haggadah
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Sacred History = re-opened (as in Apocalyptic) =
new covenant in Jesus = New Moses
Jesus = New Israel
Jesus = new liberation from oppression
Commission of disciples: Matthew 28:18-20
Sacred History = closed again = everything is
revealed in Jesus
Being disciples = following Jesus, reentering the
story, imitating Jesus, teaching what he taught them
Matthew 28:18-20
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18
And Jesus came and said to them, "All
authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything that I
have commanded you.
And remember, I am with you always, to the
end of the age."
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = Halakah
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Matthew 3:13-15 Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John
would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But
Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is
proper for us in this way to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he consented.
Matthew 4:3-4 The tempter came and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God, command these stones
to become loaves of bread." 4 But he answered, "It
is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = New Halakah
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Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come to
abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to
abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until
heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not
one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all
is accomplished.
Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that it was said
to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder';
and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'
22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a
brother or sister,
Jesus as Fulfilling “all
righteousness” = New Halakah
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Matthew 5:38-39 38 "You have heard that it was
said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' [Ex
21:24] 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an
evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn the other also;
Matthew 5:43-44 43 "You have heard that it was
said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.' [Lev 19:18] 44 But I say to you, Love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Paul
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1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be unaware,
brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under
the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in
the sea,
3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they
drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the
rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of
them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as types [often
translated “examples”] for us, so that we might not
desire evil as they did.
1 Cor 10:1ff
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Exodus 14:22 Israelites went into the sea on dry
ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right
and on their left.
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Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am
going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day
the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.
In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my
instruction or not.
Abraham, as “type” of
believers
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Galatians 3:6-9 Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was
reckoned to him as righteousness," 7 so, you see, those who
believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8 And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by
faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
"All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." 9 For this reason,
those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.
[see also Romans 4]
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What is the “gospel”?
1) = the fulfillment of the type Abraham in the
believers’ life;
2) = a promise fulfilled in the present
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Abraham = allegory =
typology of his two sons
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Galatians 4:22-28 For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free
woman. 23 One, the child of the slave, was born according
to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was
born through the promise. 24 Now this is an allegory:
these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is
Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. 25
Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the
present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
26 But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem
above; she is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is
written, "Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no
children, burst into song and shout, you who endure no
birth pangs; for the children of the desolate woman are
more numerous than the children of the one who is
married." 28 Now you, my friends, are children of the
promise, like Isaac.
1 Thessalonians
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1:4 For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by
God, that he has chosen you,
5 because our message of the gospel came to you
not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy
Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what
kind of persons we proved to be among you for
your sake.
6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
for in spite of persecution you received the word
with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit,
7 so that you became an type (trans. Example) to
all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
1 Thessalonians
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1 Thessalonians 2:14 14 For you,
brothers and sisters, became
imitators of the churches of God in
Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you
suffered the same things from your
own compatriots as they did from the
Jews,
Summary
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Matthew
Pharisaic/Rabbinic
Model BUT
Haggadah: Closed
sacred history Jesus and
new covenant, etc
replace Moses and Mt
Sinai and the Covenant
on Mt Sinai by.
Halakah: needs to be
reinterpreted again and
again, as counterculture
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Paul
Apocalyptic model BUT
Haggadah = Open
sacred history, ongoing
activity of God ,
establishing and
reestablishing the
covenant through
choosing/calling a new
people, through
interventions of power
Halakah: in the world,
because you cannot be
separated from the world.