Yes, absolutely Andrew. You cited an excellent example of the unheard voice in 1 Samuel 18. Where might we listen for the unheard voice of the Forgiving Victim in the stoning of Achan? Somehow Joshua and the Israelites’ belief in their own goodness survived the stoning, preventing them from including Achan’s perspective in their account of the…[Read more]

Imagine that the story you identified in Unit 2, “Reading Scripture through new eyes” was one of the stories that Jesus interpreted on the road to Emmaus. Where might you listen for the unheard voice of the Forgiving Victim in that story?
As for where we might listen for the unheard voice in 1 Samuel 18, it doesn’t seem possible to hear forgi…[Read more]

Peter, welcome to the Forum. Yes, indeed, James’ thinking on the ‘social other’ is life changing: “The social other is everything in the world that is other than ‘me’. It is prior to us and includes other people, the climate, the weather, the country, the geography, the atmosphere, the agriculture that enables food to be grown and so on. God…[Read more]

I enjoyed this presentation by James. Coming from a social science background I had got used to taking that reflexive stance and listening to James made me revisit it again – how much of my ways of thinking feeling and acting have been influenced by ‘the social other’ I asked myself again, the answer being – a lot!. I had forgotten how important…[Read more]

As Part Two looks intensely at the Bible, it can be difficult to find our way into these texts because of the linguistic and cultural issues that separate us from the ancient world. What you have described here as making you queasy or uncomfortable is an excellent example. As James puts it, we can feel as if we’ve stumbled into the middle of a…[Read more]

To begin this process of discovery, share an Old Testament story that has made you queasy or uncomfortable and explain why.
1 Samuel 17 is the story of David and Goliath. Chapter 18 begins with Saul’s son Jonathan being quite taken with David and his military exploits. Saul is galled and anxious that another should be more highly lauded in I…[Read more]

Exactly.

Yes, I do suppose that the single mediator who formulates Jesus’ desires at every turn is the one he calls Abba (and the creed calls Father almighty maker of heaven and earth).

And, yes, it is certainly worth pointing out that Jesus is never indifferent to the crowds—even if he is impervious to what Andrew Marr calls their “mimetic res…[Read more]

I like the way that you describe the fickleness of the mimetic crowd and the obvious detachment of Jesus who neither protests nor acquiesces. As you say, he is fully human and fully mimetic, but perhaps he is modelling the Father? What do you think? Apropos, the thought that jumped to mind as I read your thoughts, is that so much mimetic…[Read more]

Share ways in which you have noticed the content, questions or insights from the previous Module showing up in your lives.
Someone was speaking persuasively at church this Sunday about how “The Triumphal Entry” might be bit of a misnomer for Christ’s arrival to Jerusalem before the Passion. The crowd had a triumphalist understanding of what Jesus…[Read more]

Andrew, you say “I think there is kind of martyrdom saga that is used as mortar to repair cracks of what passes as theology in my churchy circles” Yes, I think that this also tends to encourage an attitude where we go looking for suffering, when in effect Jesus tells us that “I have come that you will have life in all its fullness”. We should…[Read more]

We typically star in our own life narratives. Conclude Part 1 of Jesus the Forgiving Victim by imagining yourself as a bit player inside someone else’s story. In this story, the protagonist is the presence of the risen and Forgiving Victim. What might your part in the story be?
If the protagonist is a victim who forgives, then it would appear t…[Read more]

Yes exactly, Andrew, “Luke gave us the structure of a living interpretive presence.” I think what James is telling us is that, Luke portrays Jesus, the definitive interpreter, as an outsider who must first induce the “insiders” to stop squabbling with each other and instead to begin to try and tell their story. It is through their failed telling…[Read more]

Do you wish that Luke had included everything that Jesus told the disciples on the Emmaus road?
Honestly, I am (as much any as any of those preachers James says totally miss the point) tempted to wonder how an outright word-for-word dictation of Jesus interpreting excerpts from Hebrew scriptures would read. However, James’ point is well taken; L…[Read more]

At table, when Jesus blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them, suddenly he is the host and they are the guests. Luke portrays this appearance of Jesus as a Yahwistic theophany, an appearance of YHWH. The disciples come to realize that it hadn’t been a “he” who was talking to them, but “I AM”, the driving force all that had happened,…[Read more]

To begin to get inside the disciples’ experience of that reversal, think about the difference between being a dinner party host, and being a guest. When you are the host, what gift or experience do you hope to give to your guests?
Thinking metaphorically, I might describe a host as someone who, first, sets the stage for an improve show and, t…[Read more]

There is absolutely nothing lame at all about your reaction to watching a network news story on the Parkland shooting, Andrew. To the contrary, I found it most insightful and moving. And, if this is the way you “have noticed the content, questions or insights from the previous Module showing up in your life”, you have had a profoundly C…[Read more]

I had a peculiar occasion a while back in which I was left wondering if I hadn’t got a glimpse of a fleeting deity, in the way that is similar to what James says is characteristic of the depictions of YHWH in the Bible generally … in a similar way to how James says Luke framed the resurrection appearance of Christ in its concluding chapter. I s…[Read more]