Burning to read: Enslaved to the text

Burning to Read (Prof James Simpson)

Highly recommend this fascinating book. Only half way through Chapter 4 and have 30 bookmarks !

Some favourite excerpts...

P48 English Royal proclamation of 1530...by [...well-learned ... in divinity].. it is thought hat it is not necessary the said Scriptures to be in the English tongue and in the hands of the common people, but that the distribution of of he said Scripture, and he premitting or denying thereof, dependeth only upon the discretion of the superiors, as they shall think it convenient.

Thinks: As a public servant, I recognise this view as unchanged from that day to this i.e. i see this approach implemented at every level of our government from school administration, to government minister. The truism "Information is power" (Robert Morgan) has always been known to successful rulers. This example is only one of a billion. The key issue is the evaluation of why this particular meme

p.76 From the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, annual confession for each Christian...became compulsory. That legislation marked a decisive new step in the history of both self-analysis and ethics.... This is the basis of the three parts of the sacrament as listed by More: contrition of the heart, confession of the mouth, and satisfaction, or repayment for sins committed.

p.78 The premis of the sacrament is that the Christian's works can, within the gracefully mediated terms of gods justice, change the sinners situation: One can persuade God through verbally articulated contrition for sin committed and social repayment for that sin, to readmit one into the compny of the absolved. The institution of the church is the indispensable channel through which the negotiation is made, via a priest.

P83 Late medieval Christian theologians had constructed a theology that gave full recognition to two opposing traditions: the positivist, hebraic tradition of God's absolute justice, and the Graeco-Roman notion of a divine reliability and rationality, perceptible to humans.

P81 The soul imagined by Luther ... confronts the terror of God's judgement alone ....

P84 [In Luther's schema].. a sense of individuality rises dramatically in profile precisely because ... it confronts a single and menacing source of absolute power [i.e. God]

p85 In Western cultural history, writing is usually opposed to faith, or at least is a compensation for want of faith: one writes the contract down precisely because there's a shortfall in faith. Oral culture relies primarily on witnesses, while literate culture gives primacy to documents.

P85 In the Lutheran system, ...the book has become the repository of faith, unsustained by any surrounding structure.

Thinks: How many of the followers of Luther actually considered these arguments ? The leadership groups in political parties are tortured by semantic detail while the mass of voters and even supporters merely mouth the current orthodoxy as passed onto them. The Bible could therefore stand merely as an artefact whose interpretation is infinitely malleable according to the dominant orthodoxy. The interpretation at any time evolves as political buttons are pushed and the cultural response measured - 1000 peasants and 1 prince might like one interpretation; 50 princes and no peasants might like another. Luther picks an interpretation that fits the time and his purpose.

In a thousand years, scholars may analyse the sectarian debates in the "Middle East" seeking answers to the conflagrations that occurred. I would suggest that the real causes and controls on the paths of history could be the smell of burning flesh and the propaganda screamed in a temple or school, rather than the written words. The intellectual arguments are for the leaders to dress themselves in when talking to other leaders. They are not leaders because of this one set of intellectual clothes. Leadership stems from the chameleon ability to be many things to many people through touch rather than text; through presence rather than print; through actions that rarely match words....

To be continued.....