As do so many pretentious types, I'm going to put my journal not on paper hidden in my nightstand, but on the web where I'll at least have the illusion of writing for others. Community Christian Church (which I attend) is encouraging its members to read and journal about the book of John throughout the month of November; one book per day. As you can tell by the date, I'm a tad behind schedule. So now you know a little more about me, huh?
As it happens, I find the first verses of John to be a very appropriate place to begin a journal:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Odd, huh? I've been thinking about this, and not in the way I imagine many other Christians do. (Before I go on, you need to know I love Western Civilization. I love history with the passion of the convert. I don't know nearly enough about it, so I still have the enthusiasm and ignorant bliss of puppy love). One thing that struck me about the verse is that it reminds me of the early success of Judaism. It is my understanding that Judaism (of which I know sadly little) was greatly boosted in its infancy by its reliance on Torah scholarship. The faith was able to spread in large part because it reached beyond the local household gods of the pagans to a God which was universal and omnipresent. Because Judaism held to the Torah so faithfully, there was a standard which was uniform, which could travel, which could be handed down to generations.
In other words, God set apart the Jews not only to be his chosen people ethnically, but also ideologically by their unique (as far as I know) reliance on the written word. So in a very literal sense, "In the Beginning was the Word..." not only in the sense of Father, Son and Spirit before creation, but also in the beginning of the Earthly realization of the Judeo-christian faith.
I wonder if the "Word" written about in these verses reveals something also about the nature of man as distinct from the rest of creation. Man was created in God's image, right? Well if the "Word was God", is there some aspect of the Word still in humanity? Is our ability to speak, read, write and communicate abstractly part of what makes us God's image?
In that light, how do I interpret verse 3?
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
If by "him" we are now talking not just God but Word, then part of creation is not just the coming-into-being but in the naming. Something was created not just when it was floating in the cosmos or crawling through the primordial muck, but when God (or Adam) named it; gave it its own word. Through naming an object, it begins to exist in the realm of ideas. Without a name, an object, though "made" does not exist in the realm of ideas.
Just as Winston Smith at Orwell's Ministry of Truth un-created concepts by removing dangerous words from the dictionary, can it be that this passage refers to the creation of concepts (and physical objects even) by the creation of that province of God and man, language?
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
In the word was life, and that life was the light of men. Our language, our ability to "wrestle with God" is the light of men.
(Dennis Prager, a radio host, blogger, Jewish thinker & author, and all-around Good Man, contrasts "Israel", which can mean to "wrestle with God", with "Islam", which means "submission". He (and I) prefer a God that wants to challenge and engage us rather than a God who wants to dominate us. I find that train of thought satisfying).
Anyway, that life (the word, language, history, poetry, literature, the Holy Scriptures) is the light of men. Amen to that.
OK, so there's blog post one. I'm sure most of these won't venture so annoyingly far afield. But since it's the inaugural, I thought I should explain the title. In coming posts, I will continue to wrestle with God, and words, and the light of life, until I stop, which will likely be any day now, knowing me.
Prayer: God help me to listen to you, to quiet myself and push out the distractions. Help me let you prune any branch in me which does not bear fruit. Let me serve you in all things, and refine me until I'm with you. Let that "life (which) was the life of men" shine a bit from within me.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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3 comments:
There are very few people in the world who share a love for radical, reflective thinking. This blog displays the depth of your mind and character. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with the world! The world is all the better for it!
As an aspiring philosopher, I appreciate the way you connect Biblical theology with Analytic philosophy. There is a lot to be said about the word "Logos". You probably already know that the word was used by the pre-Socratics and Stoics to describe 1) perfect rationality, 2) eternal existence, 3) the structure and source of order in the world. John is using that concept to show that Jehovah-God gives clarity and meaning to what they only understood obscurely.
Also, I enjoyed your interpretation of the Word as giving birth to logical concepts. Something very strange happened around 10,000 years ago that deserves our attention: rationality entered the world. If evolution is true, a billion years passed before reason and rationality took on a physical form. Personally, I do not believe that that happened randomly or by chance. But the very fact that it happened is amazing to me! It would also go to explain why everything we claim to know seems conventional--these concepts would not exist if not for our rational minds. Of course, I am probably taking this way too far. But you sparked some new thoughts in my head. =)
I am also curious to know (since you brought it up) your thoughts about the connection to 1984's thought police and the concepts discussed in "Blink". Do you think it is important that we avoid "dangerous words" from our collection of concepts? Is it possible to create new evils simply by thinking them into existence? Perhaps that is a discussion for another forum.
In short, I think that you are off to a good start. I look forward to reading more in the future. Some additional thoughts: Don't stress out if you don't keep up with the deadlines. Quality of time with God is more important than quantity of time. You can't rush through a life-changing experience.
BW
I found a description of Petrarch as heavily influenced by the opening verses of John. Petrarch looked to Cicero and the other great pagan writers and saw God working in the beauty of their thought and writing. He saw "the Word" as connected to our humanness. So I've stumbled onto something that's been central to Western thought since the 14th century. There's nothing new under the sun. I'll have to follow up on this.
I agree with bw. I appreciated your approach to the text. I see John as having a philisophical treatise, perhaps even writtem to accomodate and derail early gnosticism. At the same time, so much of the ideology and phraseology (i.e. dualism as evdenced by the consistent contrasting of "light" and "darkness" comes straight out of mystic jewish teaching (qumran, below).
BW is absolutely right about the Logos, but it hits even closer to home (in my opinion). The highly philisophical community at qumran, who gave us the dead sea scrolls share much of john's thoughts on the nature of divinity and its connection with mankind via the the Logos. If you ever have a pare minute, try reading the Genesis Apocryphon found at qumran...you'll see some uncanny parallels.
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