I like to say the urgent problem for religion is to bring meaning to pain, but the important problem is to bring meaning to pleasure.
E Sent from my iPhone > On Sep 1, 2015, at 09:18, BILROJ via Centroids: The Center of the Radical > Centrist Community <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > The Christian Century > > Post-traumatic texts > > Aug 28, 2015 by Walter Brueggemann > Since the 19th century, biblical study has accepted history as its defining > cognate discipline. History has dictated the questions asked of the text, > whether by fundamentalists who find the whole Bible to be historical, or by > minimalists who want little of it to be historical, or by the Jesus Seminar > with its circular arguments, or by historical criticism in general. > > At the turn of the last century, however, the unquestioned mastery of history > as the defining cognate discipline for biblical study was being challenged by > the rise of social scientific methods that ask other kinds of questions of > the text, not eliminating historical questions but breaking the monopoly of > such investigation. Among the great variety of newer cognate disciplines has > been trauma studies, which arose in the 20th century in response to the deep > and multiple traumas leading to posttraumatic stress disorder, with its > “story of a wound that cries out.” Given that compelling body of research > into the searing experiences of disaster in the 20th century, it is > inevitable that trauma studies should become a fresh cognate discipline for > scripture, as evidenced in the work of Daniel Smith-Christopher and Kathleen > O’Connor. > > David Carr, professor of Old Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New > York, rereads the familiar materials of the Bible in light of trauma theory > and opens the way for a fresh and suggestive interpretation. He brings to the > work his personal experience of a biking accident followed by months of > healing and rehabilitation during which, he writes, “I barely lived.” His > simple thesis, worked in many layers, is that scripture was formed over and > over as a response of faith to deep historical trauma. The term resilience in > his title refers to the capacity of communities of faith to continue in the > face of disaster. > > Carr judges that the founding of the monarchies of Judah and northern Israel > brought a political system of writing that became “the pretraumatic core of > the Old Testament” in the assertion of the first scripture. The monarchy’s > introduction of writing, a “thing for enemy city-state monarchies,” and thus > the first scripture, was an intrusion into the oral tradition of the tribes > of Israel. > > But then came the generative force of trauma. In the first wave of such > generativity, the process is clear enough: > > The destruction of the Northern Kingdom evoked Hosea’s prophecy of hope and > judgment as scripture. The image of divine-human marriage was an attempt to > process imperial trauma. > The Assyrian crisis in the times of Hezekiah and Josiah produced the > Deuteronomic corpus as a response to destructive loss. > The destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians produced the > trauma literature of Lamentations, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and eventually the > exilic “comfort” of 2 Isaiah. > After that the argument becomes more complex as Carr ponders other textual > responses to the trauma of exile. He proposes that the Pentateuchal > materials concerning Abraham and Moses were taken up as fresh resources for > resistance. > > Historian that he is, Carr is careful not to claim that these traditions were > invented in the sixth century, as some have proposed: > > Of course one cannot rule out that the historical Abraham, the one who lived, > actually underwent challenges like those described in Genesis. Perhaps it is > just lucky happenstance that these stories about him turned out to comfort > later traumatized generations. Whatever its origin, the Genesis story of > Abraham was revised in light of trauma for people in trauma. > > The biblical narrative became an antidote to the crisis of exile. While parts > of the Moses story “long predate the Babylonian exile,” that story, > culminating in Passover, became a great source of assurance and hope for > traumatized Israel. The crisis of the exile eventuated in the deeply > Torah-oriented movement led by Ezra that made possible the survival of a > remnant that understood itself as chosen, not in triumph but in diligent > obedience. > > Carr provides a brief but crucial segue to the New Testament by considering > the crisis of Hellenization and the aggressive initiatives of Antiochus IV > that evoked the Hasmonaean standardization of the Hebrew scriptures. Indeed, > the form of the text, fixed in this period as a resource for resistance > against Hellenization, yields a textual tradition that came to be normative > for times to come. Canon is a response of resistance to the threat of > Antiochus IV! > > In the remainder of the book, Carr extends his thesis into the New Testament. > He judges that the development of Christian scripture was a response to > Rome’s attempt to obliterate the Jesus movement, an attempt that pivoted on > the execution of Jesus. But the scandal of execution became the hallmark of > Christian faith: > > Jesus’ crucifixion became the founding event of the movement and not its end. > . . . The cross is no sign of humiliating defeat for Christians. Instead, it > is a proud symbol of movement membership. Jesus’ followers did not end up > fleeing from the reality of his crucifixion, but “took up the cross” > themselves. Such a thing would have been incomprehensible to Romans. It is an > excellent example of the adaptability of symbols, especially in cases like > imperial domination, where a dominated group confronts symbolic actions > imposed on it by the oppressor. The Roman symbol of ultimate defeat became > the Christian symbol of ultimate victory. > > Carr proposes that Jesus died sacrificially not to assuage an angry God, but > to walk to the threshold of salvation where his followers could follow. This > opening made possible by Jesus is like that of Moses, who led to the edge of > the land of promise. Carr’s suggestive movement between the Moses narrative > and the Servant Song of Isaiah 53 reflects the imaginative interpretation > that permitted the early Jesus movement to persist in the face of Rome: “The > cross that Romans intended to bring despair instead became a beacon of hope.” > > The discussion is carried further by a consideration of Paul, “the > traumatized apostle.” Paul faced the trauma of his own conversion as he > struggled between a persecuting past and an apostolic future. Beyond that, > Paul took his own trauma as a paradigm for Christian living. The Christian > movement was summoned to a new life that was wrought out of the trauma of the > crucifixion. The direct linkage of the trauma of crucifixion to the Christian > movement permits Carr to comment on the resurrection. His words sound like my > seminary teacher who taught us that “the reality of the church is the > verification of the resurrection”: > > The church’s survival, its ongoing life and flourishing, became a testimony > to the healing and making righteous that Jesus’ death accomplished. Not only > Jesus but the whole community, the whole Jesus movement, stands as proof of > the failure of Roman imperial terrorism. > > Carr carefully reflects on the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the > Romans, which became the matrix for both Rabbinic Judaism and the Christian > movement. Both were responses of faith to the threat of Rome, embraces of > meaning and assurance that refused imperial containment and opened to larger, > deeper possibility. > > Particular attention is given to the Gospel of Mark with its abrupt ending > without any report of resurrection appearances. Carr judges that this > earliest response to the trauma of crucifixion was then augmented in other > Gospels with resurrection scenes. The church was doing the hard work of > continuing to make sense out of its narrative of trauma. Carr doesn’t say > much about the resurrection, but he acknowledges its force in the Christian > movement: > > The gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John remedied this ending by adding stories > about disciples actually seeing the resurrected Jesus. . . . References to > the resurrection in Paul and other early writings indicate that Jesus Jews > talked from an early point about encounters with Jesus on the other side of > crucifixion. . . . These additions reflect the ongoing struggle of Jesus > followers to place the trauma of Jesus’ crucifixion into a broader framework. > > This rich alternative reading of the Bible is “saturated with trauma and > survival of it.” Carr does not avoid questions of the historicity of the > tradition, but it is clear that his interest is elsewhere. > > Ours is a time of profound trauma about race, the economy, violence, and the > environment. Just as the biblical text emerged in response to trauma, this > may be an important time to let the text touch the power and pain of trauma > yet again. Carr has provided an accessible guide for further work, and this > new cognitive discipline for scripture study is sure to be of immense > importance for some time to come. > > -- > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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