[Oe List ...] Internal screwed-up-ness, Niebuhr and so on

[frank bremner]

Thanks, Bill.  More below. 


From: bschlesinger.pv at tachc.org
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:45:01 -0600
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Internal screwed-up-ness, Niebuhr and so on









It’s been interesting to me that ‘sin’ has taken on a moral connotation (You Are Bad!).  The Greek word – hamartia – means ‘missed the mark.’  It’s pretty ontological itself.  The other element is the pretty clear language in the synoptics and John about the Jesus character; suffering and death isn’t equated with ‘divine punishment,’ but the necessary consequence to confronting embedded systems of control that are based on manipulation, coercion and hierarchy.  (I've always thought of martyrdom as unintended but sometimes necessary consequences.  Was Bobby Sands, N Ireland hunger striker, a martyr?  Is hunger striking really martyrdom - or is that a popular and common abuse of the word?  I've always said "No" as it manipulates the situation, rather than being a consequence of a positively intended action, but ......) ... That consequence happens but isn’t the last word.  The alternative system to confronting those systems is George Bush vs. Saddam Hussein.  And it has its consequences.  
 
Basically, there are 10 types of people.  Those who get binary and those who don’t.  That’s a joke.  I'll pass this one on to the students I tutor in Year 12 Mathematics.  There are some good binary jokes in Jasper Fforde's novels about the Nursery Crime Division.
 
The pattern of ‘accountability’ sometimes appeals to some standard out there for right action.  It also assumes the ability to measure behavior and actions and their consequences.  It can also be a method of discipline and care – future oriented for both the individual and the society.  (Did you take that cookie?).  It never fixes the past, but can be a helpful tool in pulling things together for the next step.  Blame and shame often leads to arrogance (I’m good, I did the best I could) or despair (I’m a worthless fool.)  Both are – of course – illusions, miss the mark, and are postures of ‘hamartia.’  
 
“Taking the hit”  - turning the other cheek – cutting loose the bonds (aphiemi – translated as forgiveness) of having missed the mark – has the capacity of trying to fit the pieces together (eirene – translated ‘peace’) so they work.  (I really like the word stuff in Greek).  It isn’t letting the living dead eat you up (aha! where's my copy of DHL?); it’s trusting that life sustains us as beloved in the midst of all the screwing up we and others can do, and beckons us constantly to the responsibility that comes with being linked to all that is.
 
This is a little stream of consciousness (but very useful images, thanks) – we’re in the midst of trying to set up condo’s for low income folk ($30K each), and applying for a SAMHSA grant to integrate primary care into behavioral health.  Seriously mentally ill folk die about 25 years sooner than others; nobody’s set up to deal with their diabetes, hypertension, etc.  The music’s coming in the window from a youth fair outside the window.  And our youngest son leaves for Iraq this Saturday.  
 

Bill Schlesinger
Project Vida
3607 Rivera Ave
El Paso, TX 79905
(915) 533-7057 x 207
(915) 490-6148 mobile
(915) 533-7158 fax
bschlesinger.pv at tachc.org




From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of frank bremner
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 3:17 PM
To: Dialogue OE
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Internal screwed-up-ness, Niebuhr and so on
 
Thanks everyone, for your comments on brokenness, and the Niebuhr commentary.  They have been useful in coffee-break conversations within my BTh subject Grace and Humanity (Christian anthropology).  Lots of stuff about creation, eschatology, sin and grace (of course!), and so on.  
 
(I was also interested in the notes about Hilary Clinton's youth pastor in Carl Bernstein's book about her - his theological influences looked very familiar, although they were part of the US theological landscape.)
 
I'm doing the tutorial on Karl Rahner - as his brother once said, it's be great if he'd written in German!  But I like his notion that "creation is already blessed" - echoes of Matthew Fox's Original Blessing.  I may even refer to Jimmy Carter's interview in Playboy, in which he spoke about forgiveness in an ontological fashion.
 
I'm doing my major essay on "What, if anything, is distinct about Christian freedom".  Any suggestions on leads and references to pursue?  I'm certainly taking the tack that "man (sic) is freedom" from NRM/OW/RS-I etc.  
 
And definitely taking a Christian (and Christ-event) approach rather than a Jesus-ian one - although Jesus before Pilate, and Conchis (in John Fowles' The Magus) before the Nazi firing squad are good illustrations of extreme freedom, of freedom as "relationship to the situation".  And Kazantzakis' phrase about "man loses his (sic) freedom as soon as he uses it" (from Report to Greco?).  
 
And certainly the responsibility/obedience/ freedom relationship from Bonhoeffer - my current take is an ontological rather than a moral one - that obedience (from obediens = I listen) means living in a world of connectedness, and that freedom means living in a world of solitariness in my decision-making ("When I'm on my journey there is no-one else but me").
 
Any ideas?  Good references?  Good quotes?  (Remember "corporate writing"?)
 
Cheers
 
Frank Bremner
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20090501/222ad8a6/attachment-0001.html>