Integrating Missionally

The following is a two part series on the images of knowing. Today I look at the images that form the idea of truth.

The message education should convey is not identified by words like “fact,” “theory,” or “objective”. Instead, the message is called “truth.” The English word for “truth” comes from a Germanic root that also gives rise to the word “troth,” as in the ancient vow “I pledge thee my troth.” With this word, one person enters a covenant with another, a pledge to engage in a mutually accountable and transforming relationship. To know something or someone in truth is to enter troth with the known. To know truth is to become betrothed, to engage the known with one’s whole self. To know in truth is to allow one’s self to be known as well, to be vulnerable to the challenges and changes any true relationship brings. To know in truth is to enter into the life of that which we know and allow it to enter into ours. Truthful knowing weds the know and the known; even in separation, the two become part of each other’s life and fate.

Therefore, truth has nothing to do with manufacturing a world, keeping it at a distance, or manipulating it to suit our needs. Truth involves entering in to a relationship with someone or something genuinely other than us, but with whom we are intimately bound. Truth contains the image we are seeking – the image of community in which we were first created, the image of relatedness between knower and known.

Educating towards truth does not mean turning away from facts and theories and objective realities. If we devote ourselves to truth, the facts will not necessarily change. What will change is our relation to the facts. Truth requires the knower to become interdependent with the known.

The following was adapted from Parker Palmer’s book To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey

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The following is a two part series on the images of knowing. Today I look at the images that form the idea of objectivism.

The shape of our knowledge becomes the shape of our living. Seeing people as thinkers requires that we acquire knowledge in a certain way, a way much different than seeing people as lovers. It also shapes the knowledge we trust and value.

If we are thinkers, we value worlds like “fact” and “theory” and “objective.” The images and metaphors developed from these words give us insight into not only on the knowledge we value, but also in how we understand our world and shape our lives.

The word “fact” is vital. Finding the “facts’ marks the turn from primitive superstition to modern science, from subjective knowledge based on feeling, intuition, and faith to objective knowledge that can be tested by our senses. Fact comes from the Lain facere, “to make.” This image of “making” suggests that a fact is something created by the human hand – meaning that is most clearly seen in our words manufacture and artifact. This tells us something interesting about our way of knowing: we are busily engaged in trying to construct a livable world with our facts.

Another key word is “theory”. Our facts do not arrange themselves automatically into structures we can inhabit. So we spin theories, webs of connective logic, to order and integrate our facts. Theory is the thread that weaves our factual world together.

“Theory” comes from the Greek theoros, or “spectator,” one of a complex of Greek words having to do with the sort of viewing and observing that characterize a theatre audience. This image suggests another feature of modern knowing: we regard what we know as “out there,” on a stage, and we relate to it from a distance. Our knowledge does not draw us into a relationship with the known, into participation in the drama. Instead, it holds us at arm’s length as detached analysts, commentators, evaluators of each other and the world. The Greeks regarded drama as integral to life, not a spectator sport but a soul-making force. We, however, made a rigid distinction between the observer and the observed for the sake of objectivity. Where Greek audiences were able to put themselves at the center of the play – literally allowing it to “play” upon them – we hold ourselves apart for fear of distorting the objective facts with our subjective needs. Read the rest of this entry »

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Zephaniah

This is a continuation of my series on Journeying with Zephaniah. I am looking at the book through the lens of rhetorical structure. Today I want to focus on the books macro-structure, or overarching themes.

This book is enclosed by the speaking of God. In 1:1, the verse begins, hwhy-rbd, “the word of the Lord.” The book ends in 3:20 with hwhy rma, “says the Lord”. It all comes from the Lord. Zephaniah may add some comment or speak for God, but the message is all from God. Because it is from God, it is a surety. It will happen just as he said.

This book also has two movements that climax in 2:1-3 and 3:10-20. From 1:2-1:18, there is the judgment of God upon all the earth and then upon Judah. In 2:4-3:7, there is judgment upon the area countries and upon the city of Jerusalem. So a pattern exists with judgment. But in between the judgement, there is hope. In 2:1-3, the hope is conditional. In 3:10-20, the hope is promised and unconditional. Therefore, the two movements are judgment then conditional hope, 1:2-2:3, then judgment and the promise of unconditional restoration in 2:4-3:20.

This book is intriguing in that it is constantly moving from the general to the specific. In 1:2-3, there is judgment upon the entire earth, and in 1:4-18, there is judgement upon the nation of Judah. Then, in 2:4-15, judgment comes upon specific nations, and in 3:1-7, judgment is on “the oppressing city.” In 1:8-13, judgment is first spoken to the religious and political leaders, which represent the nation, then to specific people in specific places.

Another intriguing aspect of this book is the fluctuation of the speaker. At times, Yahweh is speaking, at others, Zephaniah, though not referred to as speaking, comments. At times he continues the judgment; at others, he simply seems to comment. It is noted that Paul Brand wrote a commentary on the book that explores the idea. Though not developed by this writer, it is an interesting fluctuation.

With all that, an outline of the book can be determined. It is as follows:

• Superscription – 1:1
• Judgement – 1:2-1:18
  • Judgment against all the earth – 1:2-3
  • Judgment against Judah – 1:4-18
• Offer of conditional hope – 2:1-3
• Judgment against the nations – 2:4-15
• Judgment against Jerusalem – 3:1-7
• Image of restoration – 3:8-9
• Promise of unconditional hope – 3:10-20

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At the end of 2009, I was doing a test of the beta google browser Chrome. I am notorious for opening a bunch of browser tabs, and on this night I had 41 open. That’s 41 websites that I wanted to look through and read. And then it happened.

Have you ever worked on a document for hours and forgotten to save it only to have the program crash? If you’re a PC user, you know what I’m talking about to well! Well, with 41 browser tabs open, my beta browser crashed. Now, I didn’t lose my tabs because google chrome has a nice little feature that will open the last tabs you had open when you start it up. But just as I have learned to save my documents often, I now use a browser plugin to keep accidents like that from happening again. It’s called Read It Later.

Read It Later is a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome with a companion iPhone/iPod app. The browser extension sits in your browser’s toolbar with two simple icons: one to save your current page to a reading list, and another to provide your reading list for your. It’s as simple as that. If you create an account online, it will sync your reading list and you can access that list with your iPhone/iPod Touch app. While looking at your reading list, you can search through it, sort it, or remove items. Now when I go through my rss feed and open a bunch of articles I want to read, I just one click them into read it later, and I am able to declutter my browser while still having access to sites and articles I want to read later.

Read It Later is a small yet powerful extension that you should implement.

Below is a short video that discusses the Firefox extension

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Thanks to Todd Littleton for this short, 3 minute video. It is definitely worth your time.

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