Musings

Some strong sermon themes from this season:

The infancy narrative - What would happen if you lived as if it's all true? - Rev Garrett

What do you want to have freedom from? What would that give you freedom for? - Rev Dr Joe

Christmas Day is about making a big fuss over something very very small. Noticing an almost inconsequential beginning. - Sisters of St Anne

To what extent does a language that refers to God with a specific gender limit God's breadth? Or remove an entry point for participation in creation?  (Soughers, Beyond a Binary God)

An annual period of preparation. Powerfully amplified by the coming of the winter solstice. 

I was pretty intentional about it this year - spending the initial week with dear friends at a yoga retreat in Mexico before returning to the rhythms of parish life. 

Another key period of preparation. 

Release release release to get ready for new life. 

So what is daily prayer? I am so grateful to the many points of guidance freely available. Beautiful and moving prayers. But there is the risk of trying to get everything done with words, as gorgeous as they are. What are some ways of exploring modalities of whole-body prayer?  

How did Jesus go about his day for the thirty or so years before we start reading about him in his teaching years? How did Jesus pray? He knew his Hebrew scripture very well, and could refer to passages at will. The Old Testament obviously provided a framework for his rich prayer life. 

I wonder if there is such a thing as an aesthetics of justice? The idea that you might do justice because it adds beauty to the earth. Can one experience the same sweet thrill as you get when you hear Mahler's Adagietto, or Purcell's Lament, when you see a just outcome of societal problem? Not just the contentment of seeing a job well done, or a moral pat on the back, but spine tingling, tear-bringing sweetness?  Maybe that is what church is particularly good at - bringing together all the arts - to celebrate just outcomes. 

I'd like to use all my senses in church. Our bodies are fairly intimately involved already. Ears and hearing for words and song and music. Nose and scent. Smells and bells. Eat and drink. Brain power to process the sermon. Pretty comprehensive. What are we missing? Perhaps not much. Movement? Touch? 

I'm still sorting out desire as a life force as opposed to a distraction. I'm holding out hope that it's the former.

There is that classic psalm about the desire of the hart for the waters of the brook, and let that be the longing for life. The same power coursing through me. 

In the meantime, the female form remains mesmerizing to me. Surely these are interlinked somehow. The fact that desire is among the first words of the Easter Vigil is encouraging. 

Most Sunday mornings the presiding priest says some strange words as part of the regular morning service - existing "by Christ ... with Christ ... in Christ...". I'm definitely towards the beginning of understanding what that could possibly mean. In some ways BreatheMovePray is an experiment in developing a framework for some sort of - maybe call it - Christ consciousness, and then hoping to live in the regular world with that opening active. 

People who interacted with Jesus repeatedly misconstrued the work that he was about. To what extent does that continue to the present day? 

What are you hungry for? What are we hungry for? 

So how do you translate Romans 3:22? pistis Iesous - faith in Jesus - versus - faith of Jesus
(from Jeffrey Siker Sin in the New Testament)

Jeffrey Siker points out that, in his letters, Paul develops a participationist Christology - a Christology of indwelling
(from Jeffrey Siker Sin in the New Testament)

Why was there a need for so many prophets in the Old Testament? 1 Kings 8:27 notes that Yahweh wasn't containable by the temple, so from then on only his name would be resident. Moses and others had been interacting with Yahweh almost roaming around within their midst. Perhaps at some point God becomes more distant, and there becomes a need to have emissaries. 

Making my way through the Prophets of the Old Testament...  The lovely instinct to listen to prophets may make us susceptible to the influence of false prophets. There are so many to choose from... Perhaps, choose a good one early on so that you can withstand the buffetting. 

Jesus had the riches of scripture before him. Here's a grab-bag of passages he would have been familiar with: 

The Sabbath is for everyone, altars can be anywhere (Exodus)

People are holy because Yahweh is holy (Leviticus 11:45)

Use of senses - burnt offerings creating fragrance (Exodus 29:26)

Yahweh is in your midst (Deu 7:22)

Shuv (Deu 30:2)

Yahweh hovers over fledglings (Deu 32:11)

bringing a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26)

Arise my friend and come away (Song of Songs 2:10)

honesty (Job)

Creation relaxes (Wisdom of Solomon - 16:24)

elements changed places (Wisdom of Solomon 19:18 )

correct little by little those who trespass (Wisdom of Solomon 12:2) 

Genesis
22:2 Abraham
22:11 Abraham
27:17 Jacob to Isaac
31:11 Jacob
46: 3 Jacob

1 Samuel 3:4

Isaiah 65:1

Romer - The Invention of God

Asserting within limits of constraints

Eve makes a choice

Rebekah chooses Jacob (Gen 25:28)

Rachel sits on the cushion to hide the relics (Gen 31:34)

Tamar survives Judah through a clever deal (Gen 38:15)

etc

Jesus and Lazarus were dear to each other. I imagine Jesus saying this to his dead friend - 

Arise my friend and come away (Song of Songs 2:10)

What would change if Jesus said that to you? 

Do not be afraid

Mark 5:36 - Mark 6:50 - Luke 1:13 - Luke 1:30 - Luke 2:10 - Luke 5:10 - Luke 8:50 - Matthew 1:20 - Matthew 14:27 - Matthew 17:7 - Matthew 28:5 - Matthew 28:10 - John 6:20 - John 14:27 

readings from de la Torre, Reading the Bible from the Margins 

conversion constructs a life existence within a sacred space created by both reality and the power of the idea - p148

faith becomes a special form of consiousness containing specific consequences for the will

the longing of the heart to answer the unanswerable questions caused by an existence alienated from the earth's resources becoms a religious quest for meaning

God as a verb p166

western Christ as a captive of Greek philosophy and Roman structures and Latin language p67

God's promise is made to Hagar, a slave woman, who gives God a name (El Roi)

Rt Rev Steve Charleston (2014 address to GTS)

not that they are empty vessels waiting to be filled, but full spiritual beings overflowing with the desire to connect with others who have a need for spiritual insight

not that it "gives" something to people who don't have or know, but instead, that it "releases" something within them that has always been there

The definition of sin shows interesting evolution through the centuries. It's possible to think of sin primarily as an indication of a broken covenantal relationship (with Yahweh). And secondarily as the failure to abide by societal behavioral codes.  
(from Jeffrey Siker Sin in the New Testament)

Genesis 

Exodus 20:11 the Sabbath is for all classes

Exodus 20:24 earth altars can be anywhere

The sabbath as a sanctification of time on a weekly basis

Exodus 29:26 burnt offering creates a pleasing fragrance for the Lord

Exodus 33:22 The Lord shields Moses with his palm. 

Leviticus 11:46 You shall be holy because I am holy. A new appoach - elevation by drawing near

Numbers 6:24 the threefold blessing

Numbers 12:7 poem

Numbers 15:14 fire offering

Numbers 28:1 bread

Deut 4:28 heart and being

Deuteronomy 6:4 The sh'ma - Hear Israel the Lord is one

Deut 6:5 all your heart and being and might

Deut 6:7 without cease

Deut 6:8 sit go lie rise

Deut 7:5 you are holy

Deut 23:15 The Lord walks in the midst of the camp

Deut 27:9 Be still and listen

Deut 30:2 your heart will turn back (shuv) 30:8, 30:10

Deut 32:2 teaching as rain

Deut 32:11 hovers

Deut 34:10/11 face to face

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Judges 5:12 awake

Joshua 22:5 watch

Joshua 7:13 rise

Joshua 6:16 shout

Joshua 5:15 the place on which you stand is holy

Joshua 3:6 wonders in your midst

Joshua 2:18 scarlet cord

1Samuel 3:4 Here I am 

1Samuel 19:21 a lot of ecstasy...

1Samuel 25:18 savvy Abigail

2Samuel 22:2 The Lord is my crag

1Kings 8:27 Can God dwell on earth?

2Kings 24:1 Nebuchudnezzar destroys the city

Amos 5:20 let justice well up like water

Hosea 10:2 (7?) like foam upon the water

Hosea 11

Hosea 14:4-6 like dew to Israel

Malachi 3:2 smelter's fire

Zechahiah 8:21 grasping a hem, we have heard God is with you

Zechariah 9:9 riding on a donkey

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Isaiah

26:18 dew

26:9 life-breath/desire

16:10 heart moans

30:1 spirit

32:15 spirit poured on us

33:18 heart murmurs in awe

57:16 life breath

Isaiah

43:19 I am about to do a new thing

58:8 Your light shall breath forth like the dawn

60:1 Rise - shine - your light has come

62:4 the one bedded

Haggai

2:5 spirit standing in midst

2:22 shake

2:23 set me as a seal

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Jeremiah

5:14 putting my words in your mouth like fire

22:16 defend the right of the poor and the needy - that is to know me

31 the new covenant - deck yourself with timbrels

31:11 life breath

31:31 and 32:31 new covenant - inscribed on their hearts

51:21 smash

52:23 pomegranates

Ezekial18:18 justice restated as individual, not generational

27:36 exist no more, forever

36:26 new heart and a new spirit

37:6 I am about to bring back breath into you

Lamentations 5:15 heart's joy is no more

Ezra 9:6 kneel and spread the palms

Nehemiah 8:15 booths with lovely boughs

9:5 blessing language

Jonah 1:2 Jonah flees

1Chronicles 29:10 blessing from David

2 Chronicles 6:41 arise to your resting place

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Psalms

5:4 in the morning you hear my voice, I lay it before you

17 you have probed my heart

23 meadows/shepherd

24:9 lift up

34 bless the Lord

39:14 look away that I might catch my breath

42 the deer

57:9 awake the dawn with lyre

62:1 only in God is my being quiet

71 in you I shelter

87:7 all my well springs are in you

90:9 We consume our years like a sigh

95 sing gladly

96 sing to the Lord a new song

103 Bless the Lord o my soul

118:14 and :19 Yah?

119:32 you make my heart capacious

121 lift up mine eyes

134 lift up your hands

135:3 praise Yah

139 You searched me and you know

139:5 you set your palm upon me

139:23 you knew my heart

141:2 may my prayer stand as incense before you

Song of Songs

2:10 Arise my friend and come away

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Rev Dr Joe - Jesus as an enlargement rather than a replacement of God's covenant

YHWH as breath itself, hence unpronounceable

freedom from..., freedom to...

Garrett - belonging

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Job 

statements by Job, versus statements by apologists

38: 7-20 God answers Job

42:5-6 Job repents

Qohelet (Ecclesiastes)

1:2 merest breath

9:12 ensnared by time

12:4 merest breath

12:7 dust returns to the earth

Wisdom of Solomon

1:14 the generative forces of the world are wholesome

13, 14 idol worship description

16:28 rise before the sun

16:24 Creation relaxes on behalf of those who trust in you

19:18 the elements changed places with each other

all translations from David Bentley Hart

letter of Paul to the Thessalonians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

1 Thess 1:5 ...our good tidings came to you not only in word, but also in power and a Holy Spirit

1 Thess 2:13 ...a word of God, who also operates within you who have faith

1 Thess 5:16-18 Always rejoice, pray incessantly, in everything give thanks

1 Thess 5:28 The grace of our Lord Jesus the Anointed be with you. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

1st letter of Paul to the Corinthians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

1 Cor 2:1-5 announcing God's mystery to you not by grandiloquent flourishes of discourse or wisdom ... but rather in a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might not be in men's wisdom but rather in God's power.

1 Cor 2:10 For God has given us revelation by the Spirit. 

1Cor 2:14-15 (issue of psychical man versus spiritual man - psychikos versus pneumatikos)

1 Cor 2:16 And we have the mind of the Anointed.

1 Cor 3:16 Do you not know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit dwells within you? 

1 Cor 7:4 (theme of the equitable male/female balance in a marriage)

1 Cor 7:23 You were purchased at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 

1 Cor 10:13 God is faithful, he who will not let you be tried beyond your capacity, but who along with the trial will furnish the way out, so that you may be able to endure

1 Cor 10:17 Because of one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf

1 Cor 11:11 Then again, in the Lord there is neither woman apart from man nor man apart from woman; (12) for, just as the woman is out of the man, so too is the man through the woman, and all things are out of God. 

1Cor 11:23-26 (Eucharist)

1Cor 12:7 But to each is given the Spirit's manifestation for some benefit. 

1Cor 12:13 ...in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Judeans or Greeks, whether slaves or freemen, and all of us were made to drink into one Spirit

1Cor 12:27 And you are the Anointed's body and partial members

1Cor 12:31 But be zealous for greater gifts of grace. 

1Cor 13:12 ...as yet I know partially, but then I shall know fully, just as I have been fully known.

1Cor 14:34-35 (spurious and troubling later interpolation about subordination of women - see commentary by David Hart)

1Cor 15:28 ...so that God may be all in all

1Cor 15:35-54 (Confusing discussion of psychical body versys spiritual body.) 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

2nd letter of Paul to the Corinthians 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

2Cor 3:1 You are our letter, which has been inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all human beings, as it is manifest that you are a letter from the Anointed, ministered to by us, written not by ink but rather by the Spirit of a living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of hearts of flesh. 

2Cor 3:18 But all of us with face unveiled, mirroring the Lord's glory, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit. 

2Cor 6:1 And, cooperating with him... (Synergountes). Discussion by Hart of coworking, acting with. 

2Cor 6:16 For we are a living God's sanctuary; just as God has said: "I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people..."

2Cor 12:14 ...for I am not seeking your things, but you. 

2Cor 13:11 ... be restored, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you all. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

letter of Paul to the Galatians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Gal 2:20 And I live no longer, but the Anointed lives within me...

Gal 3:28 There can be neither Judean nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there cannot be male and female, for you are all one in the Anointed One Jesus. 

Gal 4:19 ...I am again suffering the pangs of birth until the Anointed is formed in you

Gal 5:17 (troubling passages setting up dichotomy of flesh and spirit) - 16Now I say, walk in spirit and you most certainly will not bring the longings of the flesh to pass. 17For the flesh longs in opposition to the spirit, and the spirit in opposition to the flesh, inasmuch as they are opposed one to the other...19Now what the works of the flesh are is obvious... (long list of bad things) ... 22But the fruit of the spirit is ...(long list of nice things).... 25 If we live in spirit, let us also be aligned with spirit. 

Gal 6:8 because the one sowing in his own flesh will reap perishability from the flesh, but the one sowing in the spirit will reap life in the Age from the spirit. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

letter of Paul to the Philippians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Phil 1:20 ...the Anointed shall be magnified in my body...

Phil 2:7 emptied (Hart: divested) himself (eauton ekenosen)

Phil 2:8 reduced himself (etapeinosen)

Phil 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend

Phil 2:15 ...amid a twisted and perverse generation, among whom you shine as luminaries within the cosmos

Phil 2:17 But, if indeed I am a votary libation poured out upon the sacrifice and the liturgy of your faith, I rejoice. 

Phil 3:14 I press onward to the mark, for the prize of God's call upward in the Anointed One Jesus.

Phil 4:1 Therefore...take your stand in the Lord thus, my beloved ones. 

Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again: Rejoice!

Phil 4:7 And the peace of God that surpasses every mind will keep watch over your hearts and your thoughts in the Anointed One Jesus. 

Phil 4:18 I have been filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things issuing from you, a sweet fragrance's aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. 

Phil 4:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus the Anointed be with your spirit. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

letter of Paul to Philemon

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Phil 1:17 if you hold me to be a companion, welcome him as you would me

Phil 1:19 (not to mention that you are indebted to me for your very self....)

all translations from David Bentley Hart

letter of Paul to the Romans

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Rom 1:21 [what happens when you don't give God the glory...]

Rom 2:11 For with God there is no respecting of persons. 

Rom 5:1 we have peace before God through our Lord Jesus the Anointed, 

Rom 5:2 through whom we have also gained access (by faithfulness) to this grace wherein we have stood, and boast on the hope of God's glory.

Rom 5:5 because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through a holy spirit that has been given to us

Rom 5:12 (a lot of words about sin and redemption)

Rom 5:16 ...to whomever you give yourselves as slaves in obedience, to him you are slaves..

[extended passages about the torments of the flesh...]

Rom 7:15 I do not know what I accomplish; because what I desire, this I do not do; instead, what I hate, this I do

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me - that is, in my flesh - dwells nothing good; for it is present in me to will, but not to accomplish, the good; 19 for I do not do the good I will; instead, the evil I do not will, this I do. 

Rom 7:24 I am a man in torment - who will deliver me from the body of this death? 

Rom 8:5 For those who exist according to flesh incline the mind to the things of the flesh; but those according to spirit, the things of the spirit. 

Rom 8:6 For the mental inclination of the flesh is death; but the mental inclination of the spirit life and peace. 

Rom 8:8 for those existing in flesh cannot be pleasing to God. 

Rom 8:9 But you are not in flesh, but rather in spirit, since God's Spirit dwells in you. 

Rom 8:13 For if you live according to flesh, you are about to die; but if you put the deeds of the body to death by spirit, you wil live. 

[that was a lot about the flesh...]

Rom 8:38 For I have been persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor Archons nor things present nor things immiment nor Powers, nor height nor depth nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord. 

Rom 11:36 Because from him and through him and to him is everything; to him the glory, unto the ages, amen. 

Rom 12:2 do not be configured to this age, but be transformed by renewal of the intellect...

Rom 12:5 we who are many constitute one body in the Anointed, and are members each one of one another.

Rom 12:9 Love is without dissemblance

Rom 12:16 ...do not fancy yourself sages

Rom 13:10 ...love is the full totality of the law

Rom 16 [naming numerous female leaders - Phoebe, Prisca, Quila, Mary, Junia, Julia...]

all translations from David Bentley Hart

New Testament Christianity in the Roman World, Harry Maier, Oxford Univ Press 2019

p10 "While the early church would have agreed that the canon was scripture, it did not restrict scripture to the Bible... The broad term reflects the early belief that divine and prophetic inspiration did not end with the first two generations of Christians, but was rather a continuing reality." "Kanon", from a Greek word that means "rule" or "measure"... Early Christian writers repeatedly cite writings (many of which survive only in fragments) that did not become part of the canon but were for them authoritative sources of divine revelation and instruction for belief and practice. ... Before this period, "canon" did not refer to a body of texts, but rather to the content of teachings believed to preserve apostolic instruction and proclamation regarding the revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth, against which any claims to Christian teaching were to be measured." 

p18 "..early Christianity was not a book or even a church; it was individuals and communities living in space and time." 

p18 "...it is important that readers are not misled ... into thinking that Christianity was one thing that true believers held in common in a geographically dispersed movement..."

p19 "...we should not imagine a single Christianity in the period we are discussing with a universally agreed-upon creed and set of ethical commitments. Rather we should think of a shifting and dynamic set of beliefs and practices that were specific to differing lived contexts and that were often in competition with one another. .... Already in the second century Christians started to tell a story about christianity as a single united thing passed on in an uninterrupted chain of instruction from the apostles onward, corrupted by heretics whom Satan sent in order to destroy a pristine unith. That story was a rearguard action designed to champion one set of beliefs and practies over another and in order to accomplish that there had to be a good deal of invention of a normative Christian past." 

The New Testatment: A Historical Introduction, Bart Ehrman
p16 "The diversity of Christianity is already evident in the earliest writings that have survived from the Christians of antiquity, most of which are preserved withni the canon of the New Testament."

Jewish-Chistian adoptionists - Jesus as inspired teacher
Marcionists - divinity of Christ
Gnostics
Proto Orthodox 

non-canonical sources - Acts of John 

85

Vanish away from those who hope in the Lord - from their thoughts,
from their mind,
from their souls,
from their bodies,
from their action,
from their life,
from their conversation,
from their activity,
from their deeds,
from their counsel,
from their resurrection to God,
from their fragrance which you will share,
from their fastings,
from their prayers,
from their holy baptism,
from their eucharist,
from the nourishment of their flesh,
from their drink,
from their dress,
from their agape,
from their acts of mourning,
from their continence,
and from their righteousness...

Acts of John
95

I will be saved, and I will save
I will be loosed and I will loose
I will be pierced and I will pierce
I will be born, and I will bear.
I will eat, and I will be eaten.
I will hear, and  will be heard.
I will be understood, being wholly understanding.
I will be washed, and I will wash.
Grace is dancing.
I will pipe, dance all of you!
I will mourn, lament all of you.
An Ogdoad is singing with us.
The twelfth number is dancing above.
The whole universe takes part in the dancing.
He who does not dance, does not know what is being done.
I will flee and I will stay.
I will adorn, and I will be adorned.
I will be united, and I will unite.
I have no house, and I have houses.
I have no place, and I have places.
I have no temple, and I have temples.
I am a lamp to you who see me.
I am mirror to you who perceive me.
I am a door to you who knock on me.
I am a way to you, wayfarer. 

Acts of John
98

This cross of light is sometimes called the Word by me for your sakes,
sometimes Mind,
sometimes Jesus,
sometimes Christ,
sometimes Door,
sometimes Way,
sometimes Bread,
sometimes Seed,
sometimes Resurrection,
sometimes Son,
sometimes Father,
sometimes Spirit,
sometimes Life,
sometimes Truth,
sometimes Faith,
sometimes Grace.
Thus it is called for man's sake. But in truth, as known in itself and as spoken to us, it is the marking off of all things and the uplifting and foundation of those things that are fixed but had been unstable, and the harmony of the the wisdom and indeed the wisdom of the harmony. 

Acts of the Apostles

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Acts 2:1-4 And, when the day arrived that completed the fifty after Passover, they were all gathered together in one place; and suddenly there came a noise like a turbulent wind borne out of the sky, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared before them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest, one each upon each one of them, and they were all filled with a Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter. 

Acts 3:6 And Peter said, "I possess no silver or gold; but what I do have, this I give you: In the name of Jesus the Anointed, the Nazorean, walk."

troubling language: 4: 12 [And Peter said] "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name given among men under the sky by which we must be saved;"

Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great marvels and signs among the people. 

Acts 8:3 But Saul wreaked havoc upon the assembly...

Acts 8:17 Then they [Peter and John] laid hands on them, and they received a Holy Spirit. 

Acts 9:3 [Saul on the road to Damascus]

Acts 9:40 Peter went down on his knees and prayed, and turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, arise."

Acts 10: 10-11 ...and as they were preparing it an ecstasy came upon him [Peter], and he beholds the sky opened, and an object descending...

Acts 10:40 This one God raised up on the third day, and granted that he become manifest, not to all the people but to us, witnesses previously appointed by God. 

Acts 11:4 And Peter explained it to them from the beginning, saying "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in an ecstasy I saw a vision, a certain shape descending..."

Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and a Holy Spirit. 

Acts 16:18 But Paul, becoming quite perturbed and turning around to the spirit, said, "I command you in the name of Jesus the Anointed to come out of her." And it came out at that very hour. 

Acts 17:24-28 [And Paul said} The God who made the cosmos and everything in it, this one - being Lord of heaven and earth - does not dwell in sanctuaries made by hand; needing nothing, neither is he aided by human hands - he who gives life and breath to all things;... so that they might seek God - though they might perhaps grope their way toward him to find him, even though he is not far from any one of us. [28] For in him we live and move and are.... 

Acts 18:9-10 And in a vision in the night the Lord said to Paul, "Do not be afraid, but speak out and do not keep silent, [10] because I am with you..."

Acts 19:6 And, as Paul laid hands on them, the Spirit, the Holy One, came upon them and they both spoke in tongues and prophesied. 

Acts 19:11 And God, through Paul's hands, performed extraordinary deeds of power...

Acts 20:9 ...and being carried down into deep sleep as Paul's disquisition went on and on, was upended in his sleep and fell from the third floor...

Acts 26: 8 Why is it judged incredible by you that God raises the dead? 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

the pseudepigraphic letters - Colossians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Col 1:15-20 the "Colossian hymn" [an early constructed description of Christ as a concept existing and acting on a cosmic scale.] 

Col 1:27 by whom God wished to make known what the wealth of the mystery's glory is among the gentiles, which is the Anointed within you, the hope of glory.

Col 2:2 ... the mystery of God and of the Anointed, in whom are all the hidden treausres of wisdom and of knowledge 

Col 2:6 ... walk in him

Col 2:8 Watch that there be no one who robs you by way of philosophy and empty deceit according to the traditions of human beings...

Co. 2:8-9 ...the Anointed, because in him dwells all the Fullness of the deity bodily

Col 2:18 Let no verdict be passed against you by anyone affecting humility and a religion of the angels, venturing upon visions he has never had, blustering aimlessly by the mind of his flesh

Col 3:1 [The beginnings of bifurcation ... ] ... seek the things above, where the Anointed is sitting at God's right hand; set your mind on the things above, not the things on earth. 

Col 3:11 where there is no Greek and Judaean, Circumcision and Foreskin, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman; rather, the Anointed is all things and is in all.

Col 3:18-25, 4:1 [the household codes -patriarch/wives/children/slaves -  consistent with patriarchial hierarchy of the period, but also urges the person in the position of power to act well.] 

2Thess 2:3 introduction of the idea of the "man of lawlessness"

all translations from David Bentley Hart

the pseudepigraphic letters - Ephesians

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Eph 2:15 having abolished the Law consisting in commandments in dogmas [well, no, actually, this idea seems to be completely made up. ]

Eph 2:18 - because through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. [seems to set in place an exclusionary path]

Eph 4:25 ... let each one of you speak the truth to his neighbor, because we are one another's corporal members

Eph 5:2 and walk in love, as the Anointed also loved you and gave himself up on our behalf, an offering and sacrifice to God, for the aroma of a sweet fragrance. 

Eph 5:8 walk as children of light

Eph 5:21-33, 6:1-9 [household codes -  consistent with Greco Roman patriarchical hierarchy, but bringing some balance or reciprocity to the structure]. eg, Eph 5:28 So too, the husbands ought to love their wives wives lke their own bodies. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

the pseudepigraphic letters - 1st Timothy

all translations from David Bentley Hart

1 Tim 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and worthy of all acceptance: that Jesus the Anointed entered the cosmos to save sinners.  [really?]

1Tim 2:11 [dated text describing household roles and duties, in stark contrast to Galatians] 

1Tim 4:14 Do not neglect the gracious gift that is within you...

1Tim 5: 11 [odd text about libidinous tendencies of young widows]

1Tim 6:3 [bold claim about sources for the words in this letter] ...which are those of our Lord Jesus the Anointed...

1Tim 6: 9 But those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and are ensnared by many witless and injurious longings, which plunge human beings into ruin and destruction. [seems like a reasonable statement whatever the century]

1Tim 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all evils... [the classic statement]

1Tim 6:19 [advice for the wealthy, to share their wealth]...so that they may take hold of the life that is real... [Hart translation, versus "the life of the Age"]

1Tim 6:20 O Timothy, guard the deposit...

the pseudepigraphic letters - 2nd Timothy

2Tim 1:6 For which reason I remind you to fan the flame of the gracious gift of God, which is within you through the laying on of my hands. 

2Tim 1:14 guard the good deposit by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us 

2Tim 2:23 refuse imbecile and untutored questions, knowing that they breed fights

2Tim 3:1-6 And know this: that in the last days there will be difficult times; for human beings wil be lovers of self, lovers of money, shamelessly boastful, arrogant, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungracious, unholy, lacking natural affection, implacable, slanderous, intemperate, savage, without love of the good, traitorous, reckless, delirious with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to piety's form but rejecting its ower. And turn away from these men. [another applicable statement]

2Tim 3:7 ...always studying and never able to arrive at a full knowledge of truth...

2Tim 3:16 Every scripture is divinely inspired [Hart: theopneustos - "God-breathed"]

2Tim 4:6 For I am already being poured out in libation, and the time of my departure has arrived

the pseudepigraphic letters - Titus

Titus 1:10 and 1:12 [casting aspersions liberally]

Titus 3:5-7 ...he saved us by a washing of regeneration and a renewal of a Holy Spirit, which he shed upon us richly through Jesus the Anointed One, our savior, so that, having been vindicated by his grace, we might become heirs accoridng to hope of life in the Age. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

non-canonical sources - Acts of Paul and Thecla

This non-canonical text provides a rare case of the assertion of female agency. In this instance through the adoption of chastity by Thecla. The familial and Roman power structures are outraged and respond accordingly.  

It is true that the statements ascribed to Paul introduce a presumption that would not read as body-positive in 21st century terms. 

Acts of Paul and Thecla verse 5:

"Blessed are those who keep the flesh chaste...
Blessed are those who have kept aloof from the the world...
Blessed are those who have wives as not having them...
Blessed are the bodies of virgins...."

Alarming in the rest of the text is the stridency of the state in attempting to assert and maintain control over the female body. 

Another key non-canonical source, ascribed to Mary of Magdalene. 

translations from Karen King

3:7-8  This is why you get sick and die, because you love what deceives you. 

4:3-6 Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, 'Look over here!' or 'Look over there!' For the child of true Humanity exists within you. Follow it! Those who search for it will find it. 

4:8-19 Go then, preach the good news about the Realm. Do not lay down any rule beyond what I determined for you, nor promulgate law like the lawgiver, or else you might be dominated by it. 

9:16-25 ... the soul went upward and saw the fourth Power. It had seven forms. The first form is darkness; the second is desire; the third is ignorance; the fourth is zeal for death; the fifth is the realm of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of the flesh; the seventh is the wisdom of the wrathful person. These are the seven Powers of Wrath. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

A letter to the Hebrews

Heb 2:11 For both he who makes holy and they who are made holy all come from one

Heb 3:14 for we have become partakers of the Anointed if indeed we cling to the origin of our assurance

Heb 4:1 ...the promise of an entry into his rest has been left open

Heb 4:3 For those who have had faith enter into rest

Heb 4:9-11 So there remains a Sabbath rest from God's people; for whoever has entered into his rest has also rested from his works.. Let us strive, therefore, to enter into that rest...

Heb 5 Jesus as high priest

Heb 9:11 not by blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, he entered once and for all into the Holy of Holies, having obtained an emancipation payment for the Age. 

Heb 9:26 he has appeared just once, at the consummation of the ages, to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself. 

Heb 11:1 Now faithfulness is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of unseen realities. 

Heb 11:3 In faithfulness we rationally perceive that the ages were composed by an utterance of God. 

Heb 12: 28-29 Therefore, receive an unshakable Kingdom, let us have grace, by which we may worship God as delights him, with reverence and awe, for indeed our God is a consuming fire. 

Heb 13: 8 Jesus the Anointed is the same yesterday and today and unto the ages. 

A letter ascribed to James

James 1:22 And become doers of the word, and not only hearers, thus deluding yourselves

James 2: 14 What is the profit, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?

James 2:17 ...faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead

James 2:20 ...faith without works yields nothing

James 2:24 ...a human being is made righteous by works, and not by faith alone

James 4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

James 4:14 ...for you are a vapor, appearing for a short while and then vanishing.

James 5:12 ...rather let your "Yes" be "Yes" and your "No" be "No".

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

The First Letter of Peter

1Pet 1:13 ... vest your hope completely in the grace being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus the Anointed, ... not fashioining yourselves according to the desires of your former ignorance. 

1Pet 1:15 But, as he who called you is holy, you yourselves be holy too, in every behavior, for it is written, "You shall be holy because I am holy."

1Pet 1:22 love one another fervently from a pure heart, having been regenerated not from perishable - but rather from unperishable - seed by a living and abiding word of God. 

1Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen kindred, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people held in peculiar possession, so that you may openly proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.

1Pet 3:4 [adorn yourselves with] rather the hidden human being of the heart, in that imperishable reality of the gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's eyes is something lavishly opulent. 

1Pet 3:21 [baptism defined as] the pledged consent of a good conscience to God

1Pet 4:8 above all, have fervent love for one another without murmuring, ministering to one another - each as he has received a gracious gift - as good stewards of God's manifold grace.

1Pet 5:10 And may the God of all grace, who in the Anointed has called you to his glory in the Age -... - himself mend, confirm, strengthen, establish you. 

The Second Letter of Peter

2Pet  1:16 For we were not following after cleverly devised myths when we apprised you of the power and the advent of our Lord Jesus the Anointed, but had instead been eyewitnesses to his majesty. 

2Pet 1:19 And we have the still firmer prophetic word, of which you do well to take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dreary place, till day should dawn and Phosphoros arise in your hearts, knowing this before all else: that no prophecy of scripture comes from a private interpretation; for at no time was any prophecy produced by a human being's will; rather, human beings spoke from God when they were borne along by a holy spirit. 

2Pet 2:1 Yet there arose false prophets among the people as well, just as there will also be false teachers among you who wil secretly introduce destructive heresies... 2:3 and in acquisitiveness they will traffic with you in fabricated discourses. 

2Pet 2:12 But these men... will indeed perish in their corruption.

2Pet 2:17-19 These men are waterless springs and storm-driven mists, for whom the darknesses's nether gloom has been reserved [unto the Age]. For, loudly uttering bloated polixities, they use flesh's desires to lure back into lascivious behaviors those who had truly escaped from persons of aberrant conduct, promising them freedom while being themselves slaves of corruption.

2Pet 2:22 The proverbial truth of "a dog having returned to its own vomit, and a washed sow to wallowing in a mire" suits them precisely. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

The First Letter of John

1John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we also announce to you, so that you may also have comunion with us. 

1John 2:4 Whoever sys, "I have known him" and does not keep his comandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1John 2:6 whoever says that he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked

1John 2:7 Beloved ones, I am writing no new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you heard [from the beginning]

1John 2:8 the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. 

1John 2:15 Do not love the cosmos or the things within the cosmos.

1John 2:20 And you have an unction from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 

1John 2:24 As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abide in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he has promised us: the life of the Age. 

1John 2:27 And as for you, the unction that you received from him remains within you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; rather, as his unction teaches you about all things, and is true and is no lie, you must abide in him, just as it has taught you. 

1John 3:2 Beloved ones, now we are children of God, and what we shall be has not yet become apparent

1John 3:9 No one born out of God commits sin, because his seed abides in him, and he is unable to sin, because he has been born out of God. 

1John 3:13 Do not be amazed, brothers, if the cosmos hates you

1John 3:18 Little children, let our love be not in talk or on the tongue, but in action and truth. 

1John 3:24 And whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in that one; and by this we know that he abies in us; from the Spirit that he has given us. 

1John 4:1 ...many false prophets have gone out into the cosmos...

1John 4:4 ... the one that is in you is greater than the one that is in the cosmos

1John 4:20 ...for the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

The Letter of Judas

Jud 12 These are the hidden reefs lurking in your love-feasts.. waterless clouds carried off by the wind... wild waves of the sea foaming over with their shames, wandering stars for whom the darkness's nether gloom has been reserved until the Age. 

Jud 16 These men are murmurers, querulous, following after their own lusts, and their mouth utters overblown words, lavishing their obsequiousness on "personages" for the sake of gain. 

Jud 19 These are those who cause divisions, psychical men, not possessing spirit. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Revelations

text

all translations from David Bentley Hart

all translations from Mark Mattison gospels.net

The Gospel of Philip

59 The perfect are conceived and begotten through a kiss. Because of this we kiss each other too, conceiving from the grace within each other. 

62 A pearl doesn't become less valuable if it's cast down into the mud, nor will it become more valuable if it's anointed with balsam; but it's valuable to its owner all the time. That's what it's like with God's children: no matter where they are, they're still valuable to their Father. 

68 He said, "Enter your closet, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father who's hidden," that is, the one who's within all of them. But the one who's within all of them is the fullness. Beyond that, there's nothing else within. This is what's called "that which is above them." 

69 There were three houses of offering in Jerusalem. The one which opens to the west is called "the Holy." The other one, which opens to the south, is called "the Holy of the Holy." The third, which opens to the east, is called "the Holy of the Holies," the place where the high priest enters alone. Baptism is "the Holy" house. [Redemption] is "the Holy of the Holy." "The [Holy] of the Holies" is the bridal chamber. The [baptism] includes the resurrection [with] the redemption. The redemption is in the bridal chamber. But [the] bridal chamber is better than […] You won't find its […] those who pray […] Jerusalem. […] Jerusalem who [… Jerusalem], being seen […] these that are called "[the Holies] of the Holies" [… the] veil torn […] bridal chamber except the image [… which] 70 [is above. So] its veil was torn from top to bottom, because it was necessary for some from below to go up above. 

70 If the female wouldn't have been separated from the male, she wouldn't have died with the male. His separation was the beginning of death. Because of this, Christ came to repair the separation that existed since the beginning by uniting the two again. He'll give life to those who died as a result of the separation by uniting them. Now, the wife unites with her husband in the bridal chamber, and those who have united in the bridal chamber won't be separated any longer. Because of this, Eve separated from Adam, because she didn't unite with him in the bridal chamber. 

78 That's what it's like when spirit unites with spirit, the [Word] is intimate with the Word, [and light is] intimate [with light. If you] become human, [it's the human who will] love you. If you become [spirit], it's the Spirit who will unite with you. [If] you become Word, it's the Word that 79 will unite with you. If [you] become light, it's the light which will be intimate with you. If you become one of those from above, those from above will rest upon you. 

all translations from David Bentley Hart

text

all translations from David Bentley Hart

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in "Eulogy for the Martyred Children" 

I hope you find consolation from Christianity's affirmation that death is not the end. Death is not a period that ends the great sentence of life, but a comma that puncuates it to more lofty significance. ... an open door which leads man into life life eternal. MLK, in Cone p87

"all reality hinges on moral foundations" MLK, as quoted in Cone, p91

we are not what we used to be, and not what we will be Cone p92

"[B]igotry and hatred are not the most urgent problems. The most urgent and most disgraceful, the most shameful, the most tragic problem is silence." Rabbi Joachim Prinz, March on Washington

"I don't care what they think or what they feel; I care about their power." Baldwin in Cone p56

[O]nce contact with the transcendent is found, a new existence in the world becomes possible. Cone p155  paraphrasing Eliade

text

A poem about breath

La respiration

(un poème d'amour)” by a friend, Malcolm Smith

.

Tu essaies d'entrer, mais je n'ai pas encore fait de place. J'insiste pour ranger d'abord, mais tu entres quand meme. Je me sens oppressé, mal à l'aise, peut-être même un peu honteux, mais tu continues à entrer, malgré tout.

Tu me tiens, tu m'embrasses, tu remplis mon corps de vie et tu le vides en même temps. Tu es moi et pourtant je ne peux pas te saisir. Do it ici, do it là. Do it absolutely. Je veux ce moment dure, que toi et moi ne fassions qu'un. Mais très vite, tu t'en vas et tu me laisses vide. J'ai besoin d'air.

J'attends ici dans le vide de ton absence pour ce qui semble être une éternité. Mais la seconde suivante, do it back. Engloutissant ma langue, ma gorge, ma poitrine, mon être tout entier. Do it now and I'm here. Nous sommes tous les deux ici, là et partout.

Je m'attarde en ta présence. Je m'émerveille de ta beauté. Je m'imprègne de ton mystère.

Puis tu repars. Peut-etre que quelqu'un d'autre a besoin de toi. Peut-etre que quelqu'un d'autre a besoin de respirer.

Alors, humblement, je te rends. Tu n'as jamais été à moi. Je n'aurais jamais pu te controller. My apartments are pas et c'est la raison pour laquelle je t'aime si profondément. Plus profond que la chair, plus profond que les os. Plus profond que la Terre elle-même.

Je t'aime, douce respiration. Ma tendre bien-aimée. Je t'aime. 

lots from Mary Oliver

Harvest of Hope (2022) A Contemplative Approach to Holy Scripture 

Mark McIntosh p16 "If we recognize the biblical word as sacramental, as iconic rather than photographic, then we begin to realize that the reality and truth it conveys are not a static piece of information we can grasp but a living person we must encounter - who uses the iconic words of Scripture to draw us into a transforming relationship."

Frank Griswold:  p21
"And so it is that Christ, through the working of the Spirit... enters our interior spaces - the inner room of our hearts - causing them to burn with the fire of his intimate presence, illumining our minds with his truth, and drawing us more deeply into the mystery of our mutual abiding: he in us and we in him. Scripture, therefore, is profoundly sacramental...." 

p17 quotes Stephen Mitchell:
"Prayer was a quality of attention. To make so much room for the given that it can appear as gift. "

p22 "Christ is present  when the words of Scripture - a passage or a single verse - suddenly accost us and break us open and become the word of insight most needed in this present moment. When this happens, several things are occurring: the scriptural word is connecting with what is going on in my life, and what is impinging most upon me is where I am being met by Christ. Here I am reminded that the Hebrew word for "word" is dabar, which means not only speech but also event or circumstance. Words are not simply spoken, they also occur..."

p23 "Saint Bernard tells his monks that there are two books we must read: the Bible and the book of experience, which may be called the scripture of my life, because Christ is present in both."

p27 "This process of being found out, reshaped, and conformed to our true selves by Scripture is the ongoing work of the risen Christ through the unrelenting work of the Spirit, who forms Christ in us."

p 29 In effect, we could say that we all have a “secret identity” as echoes of the eternal Word and yearnings of the Holy Spirit. This deep identity at the heart of our existence allows us each to be ourselves—but it also opens us toward a fulllment that lies entirely in God’s gift, who welcomes us into the divine conversation that is our origin and our consummation.

p30 Analogously, every being in the universe is itself and is also, at its deepest level, the expression of our Author’s creative mind. To hear this deeper meaning in all things (in our fellow creatures and in the words of Scripture), we need the ability to perceive not only the literal reality but also the spiritual presence and meaning of the divine Author—who, by means of earthly creatures and human language, speaks to us of heavenly life.

...For both Lewis and Tolkien, the deep poetic imagination, the mythic vision, of humankind is a faint glimmer within our own minds of the infinitely greater creative imagination of our Author. And that is why, as Lewis puts it, “as long as the story lingers in the mind, the real things are more themselves”; the “veil of familiarity” that cloaks the hidden wonder of ordinary reality is withdrawn, and we are set free to rediscover everything. The biblical story that lingers in our minds is imbued by God with an unimaginable capacity to unveil, to reveal, the deep divine reality at the heart of everything.

p43 William Temple, a former archbishop of Canterbury, defines repentance as “adopting God’s point of view, in place of your own.” He then goes on to say, “There need not be any sorrow about it. In itself, far from being sorrowful, it is the most joyful thing in the world, because when you have done it you have adopted the viewpoint of truth itself, and you are in fellowship with God.”* To repent, therefore, is to see ourselves as deeply loved by the One who is love itself.

p43 I think too of the writer Kathleen Norris’s encounter with a Benedictine monk who described repentance “not primarily as a sense of regret, but a renunciation of narrow and sectarian human views that are not large enough for God’s mystery.”‡

INSIGHTFUL PASSAGE ON EDEN AND THE FALL
p32 Aquinas even suggests that the history of things and events is like a vast language that God has used to communicate to humanity the mysteries of faith: “just as a human person can use words or construct images in order to signify something, so God uses the actual course of events which are subject to his providence in order to signify something.”* With this insight, Thomas helps us to think about a crucial fact: that everything exists as precisely the thing that it is, but also as an act of divine communication, designed to draw us toward Godself. As Thomas’s contemporary Saint Bonaventure pondered this twofold reality of all beings—as both thing and as sign—he considered the wonderful possibility that in the garden of Eden humankind was able to hear and understand the divine meaning at the heart of our fellow creatures. Think of the story in Genesis 2, when God brings the animals before Adam so that he could sense and pronounce their true names. Perhaps in Paradise things were still like words, flowing freshly minted from the loving mind of their creator, still resonant and echoing with the Word who speaks them.

But what happens when humanity turns away from the creator and loses the language of Eden? Saint Bonaventure argued that our natural sense of the Word speaking God’s meaning at the heart of every creature was lost to us as a result of the Fall.

It is certain that as long as humanity stood upright, humans possessed the knowledge of created things, and through their significance, they were carried up to God; to praise, worship, and love God. This is the purpose of creation, and this is how creation is led back to God. But after the Fall, this knowledge was lost, and there was no longer anyone to lead creatures back to God. therefore, this book—the world—became dead and illegible. And another book was needed through which this one would be lighted up, so that it could receive the symbolic meaning of created things. This book is the book of Scripture which establishes the likenesses, the properties, and the symbolic meaning of those things written down in the book of the world.*

For Bonaventure, our role as human beings was to recognize the gracious spiritual meaning of our fellow creatures, and by praising God for them, to build up the divine communion among all creatures and between creation and God. In Bonaventure’s account, human alienation from God makes us deaf to God’s speaking in creation, and so, as he puts it, the book of this world “became dead and illegible.” Yet in mercy, says Bonaventure, God gave us the book of Scripture. We can see here how Bonaventure emphasizes that God has always been communicating with us through the “book of the world,” and yet, in order for God to move us toward a transformative understanding, we need to learn how to recognize the spiritual or “symbolic meaning” of all things.

p45 Mary’s consent opens the very fabric of our world to God’s loving truth, once more allowing creation to be itself, to be God’s Word expressed in time and space.

From Original Sin, by Tatha Wiley

The Hebrew yetser ha-ra is translated by the Greek term epithumia in the New Testament. The Greek word carries a slightly more negative meaning. Rather than the inclination or tendency toward evil of yetser ha-ra, epithumia is evil desire. ... The negative meaning of epithumia was intensified in its translation by the Latin concupiscentia. In the writings of early Christian theologians, concupiscence meant "disordered desire." p29

In human deliberating and choosing is experinced the desire to be responsible (yetser ha-tov, the inclination toward the good) as well as the desire to do what in fact is irresponsible (yetser ha-ra, the inclnation toward evil.) ... But for Augustine, the experiece of disordered desire was not natural. ... For Augustine, concupiscence relfects a change in creatd nature due to peccatum originale originans, orginal sin. p30

J's creation and expulsion stories form a unity. Humankind is incomplete until two human beings exist in relation to one another, but the solidarity they share will be the source of tragedy as well as fulfillment ... By refusing to live in response to God's desire for them, they bring about a world of suffering, conflict, and death.  p32

As symbolic narrative, myth often utilizes the literary device of describing the past, "what happened", to disclose the meaning of the present, "what is always happening.." p32

The narrative world of the garden is an exploration of a perplexing fact of humanness. We can know the good and yet succomb to the temptation of the alternative. We orchestrae our expulsion from the garden time and time again. p33

In the Christian tradition, the sin of Adam and Eve is described as "the fall". The idea of a fall is itself an interpretation of the story. It is not part of the story itself. Within the narrative world of the story itself, there is an "inside" and an "outside" and a "before" and "after". ... The idea of a fall reflects theological speculation about human nature.... p35

In the time frame of more than a thousand years of Israelite history to Jesus, the idea of fall is "late."... p35