A Blur of Days | SL 4.2 (December 2022)
In this newsletter
- A Blur of Days
- Work & Ministry Update
- Surrender by Bono
- Humor in Proverbs 30: My Response to Knut Heim
- Pray With Us
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Sunrise from our classroom at William Tennent School of Theology in Colorado.
A Blur of Days
Since returning to our quiet corner of NE England from FL, I really haven't stopped. It's been exhilarating on one level—trans-Atlantic trips each month, teaching courses on Zoom and in-person for Tennent, leading seminars for Durham undergrads, mentoring uni students through our church, academic presentations and meetings. But, to be honest, I'm a bit tired and life has felt very reactive—each day I look at the to-do list and respond to whatever the most immanent deadline is. So, as I leave today for my last trip of the year—I'm heading down to the Dominican Republic to teach a course called "Knowing the Bible's Story" for a wonderful group of long-suffering Haitian expats with Training Leaders International—I'm looking forward to coming home and regrouping.
Earlier this week I sat down with Joel, the student leader at my table for our college bible study. We were talking through Rom 5:1–12. I was struck by vv. 1–5:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
That sequence of growth—from rejoicing in our sufferings, to endurance, to character, to hope—comforted me this week. On Wednesday morning, for example, I woke up feeling unwell and grumpy about the work on my plate, the grey weather, my impending travel. Too much, I thought. I want a break. This is my current "suffering," but it is small-time stuff, and the LORD is suggesting that I rejoice in such sufferings and promising that doing so will build character anchored in hope because we have peace with God in Christ. I have certainly experienced the peace of leaning into this truth this week. There is much in which to rejoice.
And so overall, despite the hectic pace, I've felt a sense of gratitude and accomplishment. For me to have so much meaningful work and teaching to do as I have finished the PhD is a gift. Thank you for being a part of this blur of days—for praying for and supporting this work.
Lecturing on law in the Pentateuch, explaining the imagery from the the Code of Hammurabi.
You are Training Pastors to be Faithful to Scripture & Strengthening the Global Church
- In late October, I taught the Pentateuch course for the third cohort of incoming students at William Tennent School of Theology. It is pure joy to guide a diverse group of students from all ages and walks of life into a deeper encounter with the LORD through Scripture. My approach is always to guide students in deep dives on key texts. I don't want to download content, but to model skills and facilitate an encounter with God. This approach seemed to connect for these students and a few of them expressed genuine appreciation. For my part, I was encouraged by the relationships I formed with this cohort and by several profound and mutually encouraging conversations we had. Thank you!
- Last week I was back in Colorado for the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting. This is the international guild convention for everyone doing academic biblical studies (and related disciplines). Several thousand scholars from all over the world gather for four days of seminars, paper presentations, hobnobbing, and catching up. This year I presented a paper on numerical sayings in Proverbs 30, had several encouraging meetings with friends both old and new, and helped organize a panel called "Does Wisdom have a Sense of Humor?" where I also presented a response. If you're interested, I've included the response below.
- As I send this email, I am on my way back to the Dominican Republic to teach the second course in TLI's nine-course sequence for the Haitian leaders in exile there. The course is called "Knowing the Bible's Story" and it is a basic intro to biblical theology meant to help students understand how all of Scripture fits together and speaks of the gospel of Christ. Our students are under increasing pressure from the Dominican government and are experiencing some genuine discrimination and intimidation. Pray for the training—for the safety of the students and our partners, as well as the content of our teaching. When students come to grasp how all of Scripture tells the story of God's plan of redemption it can be life-changing.
Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.
New memoir by Bono—enjoying it!
Surrender by Bono
So, I realize that U2 is the "cool" thing for Christians to like, and, well, haters gonna hate, but I am (and have been for a long time now) a fan. Yes, in some ways Bono is the goofiest rock star there ever was, but there's something genuine and earnest there, and I can relate to that.
All this to say, I picked up Bono's new memoir, the wonderfully-titled 557-page tome, Surrender, when I was last passing through Heathrow. Despite its length, it reads quickly and Bono's voice connects. It is a loosely structured, slightly dischonologized narrative of Bono's life in U2. It is arranged in 40 chapters corresponding to 40 songs. The songs are not necessarily presented in chronological order, but rather thematically according to their content. For example, songs about his parents that appear on the most recent albums are presented first cause they contain earlier memories. More iconic songs that defined the band's sound and success are presented in sequence in the narrative. Overall the style is episodic and associative while not loosing sight of the bigger picture.
What comes through overall, which I deeply appreciate, is the honest search for personal growth, emotional and spiritual maturity, and genuine relationships. The book is suffused by joy, a willingness to admit weaknesses, and to keep walking—to quote Bono, quoting Eugene Peterson, quoting Friedrich Nietzsche (!), its a long obedience in the same direction.
Here are some facts from the book that I've found particularly interesting and meaningful:
- The members of U2 met at school when they were 14 and 15 in the mid 70s. They have been in a band ever since. The same four friends. No line up changes, no deaths/overdoses, no fallings out—pushing 50 years.
- The same week he joined U2, Bono started dating his now-wife, Ali. They have now been married for 40 years. They have four grown kids. He talks about her with nothing but appreciation and admiration. Name one other rock star marriage like that.
- In 1982, after their first album, they very nearly quit the band because the Edge was convinced that it would be better for them to go into Christian ministry than rock and roll. Their manager (not a Christian) was outraged. So you're telling me, he said, that God wants you to back out of the tour I've booked and the second album you've signed for and that you're contractually obligated to fulfill!? They stayed in the band, because, they admitted, they were all looking for a reason to stay.
- They credit their success as a band to their limits as musicians. The genius is that they crafted a distinctive sound built around their deficiencies. Bono admits he's a baritone who thinks he's a tenor. The Edge came up with a way of appropriating rock and role's blues-based progressions, with a twist—they don't play minor chords (e.g., G, C, D, but NOT Em). Instead, they will build whole songs on one or two chords, normally suspended chords. This approach to chord progressions is what convinced legendary producer Brian Eno to work with them and produce their most iconic albums (The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby).
- A car company once offered them 23 million dollars to use "Where the Streets Have No Name" in a commercial. They declined. Their reason? We have been playing that song for thirty years at nearly every show, says Bono. Wherever we are in the world, no matter how bad of a night we are having, when we play Streets, God walks through the room. If we licensed the song it would become that song from the ———— add.
- The last page of the book is Psalm 40.
It is exceedingly difficult to make art that focuses, unironically, on virtues: truth, goodness, beauty. But this is what U2 has attempted to do. When they were working on "All that You Can't Leave Behind," Brian Eno urged them to strenuously resist being "cool." They wanted to work on the concept of writing simple songs about love and hope that were honest and sincere. The album is a masterpiece, and "Beautiful Day" has truly achieved such a celebration of hope. (It is also decidedly uncool, remember: haters gonna hate.)
Delivering my response paper at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting, "Does Wisdom Have a Sense of Humor?" (Thanks to Will Kynes for taking the photo!)
Humor in Proverbs 30: My Response to Knut Heim
For those who are interested, I thought I would share this response I delivered at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting. It is short and non-technical, so it may prove to be an interesting window on some of my academic work. I was responding to a paper by Professor Knut Heim (Denver Seminary) as part of a panel called "Does Wisdom Have a Sense of Humor?" Prof Heim argued that Agur in Proverbs 30 is a court jester and the whole chapter is a sort of comedy routine with coded critiques of the Israelite monarchy/aristocracy. I agree that Proverbs 30 is amusing, but I understand its humor differently than Prof Heim. Hope you enjoy.
I would like to begin by commending Prof Heim for a bold paper. Frankly, while I would disagree with Prof Heim at many points, I admire and appreciate his willingness to argue a fresh line of interpretation. In my short response today, I will pick up two related points from Prof Heim’s paper: (1.) the role of theory in analyzing biblical humor and (2.) humor’s subversive quality, particularly as reflected in Proverbs 30.
First, Prof Heim helpfully drew our attention to various theories of humor in his introduction. If you wade into the literature on humor theory, you will quickly feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. As E. B. White said, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies.” Perhaps for fear of killing frogs, many biblical scholars who are interested in humor eschew engagement with theory. Isn’t the proof of the pudding rather in the eating than the analysis of the recipe? Well, surely it is, yet there is still an important role for theory in the discussion. Humor is a human universal, and, while senses of humor change drastically from culture to culture, evolutionary psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers have reflected much on the nature of humor and the vital human interests it serves. Arguments informed by judicious engagement with theory will be less subjective and more compelling than those that ignore theory entirely. But a note of caution pertains. Prof Heim mentioned superiority theory, release theory, and incongruity theory, not to mention more recent linguistic approaches. Yet, to the extent that these theories offer competing accounts of the fundamental nature of humor they are mutually exclusive. Some accounts will be more helpful and well-established, others largely discredited. At the moment, there is a broad consensus around the idea that humor is based on the observation of incongruity in the world. Humor is a refining mechanism that sharpens our thinking, reinforces ethical standards, and creates and maintains communities. As such it is a type of play and serves similar social, mental, and developmental functions. Critical engagement with humor theory helps us to discern the presence and purpose(s) of humor in what egyptologist Nikolas Lazaridis has called the “silent corpus” of ancient literature.
Second, I want to affirm Prof Heim’s intuition that there is something subversive, ethical, and humorous at work in Qohelet and Proverbs 30. However, I want to offer a different account of how that subversion is working. For the sake of time, I’ll confine my remarks here to Proverbs 30. In my recently defended PhD dissertation, I developed a close reading of Proverbs 30 as a coherent text unified, among other things, by a sardonic tone and a pervasive sense of humor. Personally, I remain unconvinced that the chapter has a royal background or that Agur himself is best understood as a jester. Instead, I think Agur is the persona of an idiosyncratic, possibly foreign, wise man whose manner of speaking is intentionally quizzical. His opening line, “I am more of a beast than a man” (כי בער אנכי מאישׁ), would likely have read as an ironic and surprising statement coming from a sage. This self-deprecating opening is not a cry of epistemological despair or nihilism (as some have read it); it is tongue-in-check. In v. 3b, he goes on to claim that he does have knowledge of the Holy (ודעת קדשׁים אדע). Although many scholars want to bring the force of the negative (לא) across the caesura to modify דעת, this is not the best analysis. Instead, Agur presents a counter-intuitive claim. He is winking at us.
I read vv. 4–10 as sincere, although they continue to be ironic and surprising. Verses 7–9 are best understood as a model prayer, a sort of set piece for the student to learn from. Starting in v. 11, however, Agur begins a sardonic take-down of pride and greed. In contrast to the animal-like humility he has been modeling for us, the ungrateful generation is downright beastly. Considering themselves “pure” (טהור) their “exit,” a euphemism for the anus, is streaked in filth (מצאתו לא רחץ, v. 12). But their eyes are too far up in the air to notice (v. 13). Christopher Hays has pointed out that demons, the dead, and the suffering are sometimes described with animal characteristics—one such characteristic being familiarity with excrement—as in the Babylonian text, “The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer:” “I spend the night in my dung like an ox. / And wallow in my excrement like a sheep.” I think Agur has turned such an image into an insult. In v. 17 this ungrateful generation comes to a grisly end. The eye that was raised so high in v. 13, not seeing fit to honor father and mother, is retributively carved out by ravens and vultures. While this is a chilling image, we cannot discount humor entirely. One of the most common causes of laughter in the Old Testament is the destruction of the wicked; as Wisdom says, “I also will laugh at your calamity; / I will mock when panic strikes you” (Prov 1:26). While violence and mockery may not obviously appear funny to modern sensibilities, the poetic justice and graphic imagery of v. 17 have something in common with the climax of a Quentin Tarantino film. The ultra-violent slaughter of slave-owners at the hands of slaves in Django Unchained or Hitler and his cronies at the hands of a squad of Jewish soldiers in Inglorious Basterds typically garner roars of laughter.
Following on from v. 17, Agur’s numerical sayings in vv. 18–31 have a playful, witty quality to them. Their overarching theme is the absurdity of greed and pride, and, while I wouldn’t call them jokes, they often incorporate humor in their rhetoric. The one saying that reads straight—and the only thing that Agur calls “wisdom” in the whole chapter—is the description of four small beasts in vv. 24–28. But the irony continues, because these animals find success despite and indeed through their weaknesses. Not so the four more powerful beasts lampooned in vv. 29–31. The lion, rooster, goat, and king are said to “walk well” (מיטבי לכת). Certainly, when one pictures these four there is a bit of a swagger. In the case of the lion, this swagger is backed up by the fact that he is “champion among the beasts.” It is not clear, however, that the rooster and goat constitute a comparable threat. In fact, James Aitken argues concerning Greek Proverbs that the words for rooster (ἀλέκτωρ) and goat (τράγος) are freighted with negative connotations, and that collocating these creatures with the king may amount to “an implied criticism” since there is a “diminuendo” from the lion to the rooster and the goat. I would bolster Aitken’s suggestion with the further observation that the living creatures of Ezekiel 1 correspond to the same four categories as Prov 30:29–31: wild beasts (lion), birds (eagle), domestic beasts (ox), and human beings. Suitable companions for the lion and king, then, are the eagle and ox—all masters of their domains. The rooster and the goat, then, may be functioning as amusing foils for the lion and king. The king imagines himself alongside the lion, but is he rather suffering from delusions of grandeur strutting around the barnyard? Admittedly, there are several textual difficulties in this verse that preclude certainty, but the arresting combination of images suggests parody. In sum, from the begining to the end of his collection, Agur employs the subversive power of humor to mock pride and greed, suggesting with heavy irony that it is in fact the lowley and humble who are truly wise. Humor is the perfect vehicle for this message because it pulls apart our norms and expectations to reveal submerged truths about human experience. Humor is powerful and subtle; it can soften you toward virtue or vice. It can make you look at yourself in a new light.
To my mind, then, Prof Heim’s analysis of Qohelet and Agur suffers under Occam’s razor. However, Prof Heim is right to turn to the subversive nature of humor to help explain some of the most “underdetermined” and “enigmatic features” in these texts. What we must continue to do is drive toward the vital human interests that humor serves and offer close readings of texts that are broadly informed by humor theory. I doubt we will be convincing on the issue unless we can show that a text is plausibly humorous and also suggest why.
The after class discussions at Tennent are one of the highlights.
Pray With Us
- Pray for my week in the Dominican Republic, teaching biblical theology for our Haitian students. They are facing many intense challenges in order to attend the training. Pray that the story of the gospel in Scripture would comfort them. Pray for their safety and long-term security.
- Pray especially for Pastor Garry, who is not sure how long he can stay in the Dominican Republic to lead this ministry. Pray for wisdom, guidance, and security for his family.
- Pray for me, Meghan, and the girls, that we would be well, that we would have a deeply refreshing Christmas season, and that we would be recharged for life and ministry in the New Year.