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Reading the Bible as a progressive revelation makes sense to me. Most of the biggest changes in my life have come through steps, which if I had missed, might have missed the whole point. So I understand and can begin to relax a bit about what I may not fully comprehend yet.
It was a big step for me to watch the prophecy video and then while thinking about it, realizing that it is not about me, as per the Emmaus story. I am not the host here, Jesus is. I am not the victim, I am the one with a rock in one hand and a hammer in the other.
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Hi Sheelah,
The experiential structure of humour and horror are the same. Let me try to explain it with a joke.
A 90 year old man visits his doctor with a complaint. “Doc, I have a bowel movement at exactly 7:00 a.m. every morning.” The doctor responds “What?! But that’s great. I have patients much younger than you that would love to have such regular bowel movements.”
To which the man responds, “But Doc, I don’t wake up until 8.”
Putting my analysis hat on, we can see that the joke is funny because as we listen to the first part of the joke we are envisioning a certain picture that suddenly gets taken away at the end of the joke. It is the sudden change of our internal pictures which sets off our nervous systems to which laughter is a healing response. This is the structure of all humour. It is also the structure of all horror.
I suspect that it is also the structure of God’s work on the cross as espoused by Rene Girard. We think we are absolutely justified in our condemnation of the “bad guy”. Surprise! The “bad guy” is actually God. And as God is innocent, the bad guy must be me. The experience of the gap between the way I thought things are and how they really are, becomes my opportunity to look back at my self and begin the process of change.
Anyway, sorry for the length. These are the things I am working on and that is why I am here as I believe there are strong corollaries with what Girard and James Alison are talking about.
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What might it mean for us to be listening to the unheard voice in the midst of confusing and traumatic events in our own communities or society?
As the unheard voice seems to be saying that the source of the events lies at the core of that which we feel to be ourselves, I think that it might mean that things are going to get even more confusing and traumatic. Hopefully, this would be the first step to things getting a whole lot better!
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Having watched the video, I don’t have any good answers to the questions posed. However, the video and the topic has influenced some questions of my own. For example, one question I am thinking on now is, if the Bible is the word of God, and that to understand it, I need the help of someone familiar with ancient Greek and Hebrew as well as in how Hebrew and Greek texts were interpreted by ancient peoples, what does that say about the nature of God?
By the way, the video player used for these last two videos is not nearly as useful as the player for the earlier videos. This recent player only has start and pause. I cannot expand the screen nor fast forward or see how long the video is and how much time there is left. If the player for the whole course would be the one used earlier, that would make everything much easier.
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News sources. For news in English (I am in Japan), I mainly watch BBC international. Regarding biases, I noticed something kind of funny. The BBC recently reported that the government news channel in Moscow was reporting that US special forces mercenaries were sneaking into Ukraine and stiring up trouble. The slant from the BBC was that the Moscow news was doing this without any real proof meaning that it was not news but rather propaganda. However, the next news story was that of the US secretary of state John Kerry saying that Russian special forces were sneaking into Ukraine stirring up trouble, again providing no proof.
Now, leaving aside the question of who was telling the “truth” and who was not, I found it interesting that there seemed to be no awareness on the part of the people from the BBC that from the perspective of the viewer, they were doing the same thing that the Moscow news station was doing.
Disconcerting, yet also fascinating.
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Insights from the previous unit…
I am not sure where I am going with this but…
Last week at mass, the priest told a story in his homily about having to go up to Tokyo for a wedding. The train was crowded and he was tired from having to stand up for a long time. (He’s in his late 60’s) A seat opened up and as he went to sit down, a young woman pushed him out of the way and sat down. (paused a beat) And then she got off at the next station.The story got a good laugh from the congregation and I started thinking about humor and my theory that it is intimately tied to horror. There is a gap between receiving my story from the social other and receiving it from God. My understanding of Girard is that the gap is bridged by the horror of the cross. I am wondering where humor fits in.
Anyway, not a totally thought-out thought, but it is where my thoughts are now.
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Don’t speak until you are spoken to.
So the idea is that the “I” which I feel is independent and real is actually a response the “word” of the social other. Add this to the idea that all the problems in my life have their roots in this sense of “I” and I can know that to solve my problems (stop my sinning), I must change the “I”. But this “I” is a response, so to change it I must listen for a new voice, something other than the social other to respond to.
Now I am speaking (typing) but these words come from the response to the social other so to find true joy, I guess I better shut up!
Thank you for your words Sheelah. I really appreciate them.
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Peer pressure. I have been “induced” to think of the word to mean the pressure of the mob upon one to do something he/she would not do normally, that is, to do something “wrong”. Holding that definition and thinking in the context of what Father James is saying, then I believe that it cannot be good for me.
There is an aboriginal skills/wilderness survival teacher, Larry Dean Olson, who takes troubled kids out into the desert for a month long program. There they learn self-sufficiency skills, working as a group, as well as spending a certain amount of time totally alone. Larry says that when he checks in on them six months after the program, a common report is that the kids do not have specific friends anymore, that they are now comfortable being with whoever they are with. I think there is a clue here on how to free myself from mimetic rivalry.
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I have now watched the video. A question I have is, does the self that is developed in relation to the social other correspond with the term “the false self” as taught by Thomas Merton and then the other Catholic contemplative practice teachers that followed him?
I suspect it does and also suspect this point will be clarified in further videos, but I’d love to hear others’ thoughts.
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A beneficial practice I have discovered that I have is the practice of maintaining a somewhat complex multiperson discussion about a topic in my head. This has lead to a certain degree of being able to “unpack” another person’s communication even in the middle of a conversation.
I think I first noticed this desire during discussions during literature classes in high school when I was influenced by some of the teachers there and then on into university philosophy classes.
This began the freshman year of high school and I remember feeling confident the following year and have gained even further confidence since. My desire has been sustained through reading and by being exposed to those that use language in a logical way in real time, for example trial lawyers, police interrogators amd therapists.
So, if it weren’t for my parents and my teachers and exposure to talented communicators, I would not have acquired this practice.
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Food For Thought
1. My relationship with the Bible? It has been difficult, I often have gotten frustrated while reading various passages. I have largely read it piecemeal, but am looking forward to reading with new eyes gained from this course. I read somewhere the idea of separating the God OF the Bible from the God IN the Bible and this has helped me a lot.2. The word “beneficial” is throwing me off when I try to think of beneficial practices I have been inducted into. If I change it to “not beneficial” I can come up with a huge list! I am thinking that following this thought of mimetic desire to conflict to scapegoat to release via the atonement, Father James will lead us to the idea of opening ourselves to being induced to new habits in relation with God. With this, I am sure that an act of communication from God would have a massive impact on my life.
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“What I hope we are going to be doing together is to begin to become habituated to being the sort of people who might be able to hear God speaking through the Son whom he appointed heir to all things.”
In the Discussion Forum for this session, share why you think this course is subtitled, “Listening for the Unheard Voice”?”
So, who I am is my accumulation of habits (Aristotle). These habits have been formulated in response to the experiences I had as a child with others around me (mimetic desire/conflict). To change, I must change those with whom I shape myself. Listening for the unheard voice (of God), becomes the first step in the process of becoming a new person.
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