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« [berkman] Wendy Seltzer on ChillingEffects and copyright take-downs || Back to Blog | Union Diamond - give them a call » April 18, 2007
Akma highly recommends Dr. Rowan Williams' lecture on the interpretation of the Bible. If the endorsement of a non-observant Jew matters—and why should it?—I agree. The lecture is fascinating to me, although also quite foreign. I would love to hear the reaction of some learned and observant Jews. For example, Dr. Williams says that the Bible was first heard in a community, not read in isolation. It should therefore be read (he says) "not as information, not as just instruction, but as a summons to assemble together as a certain sort of community, one that understands itself as called and created 'out of nothing'." I both recognize this as a deep summons and hear it as expressing foundational presuppositions different from mine and my people's. Although non-Jews often don't give this full credence, Jews are a people. You are a Jew by birth, not by belief. (It's more complex than that, but what isn't?) Thus, the community isn't created "out of nothing." And the community with which one hears the holy text is an historical one with which one is supposed to discuss the text. Reading the Torah, at least as I've watched my wife and others do it, is about conversing with the tradition of great commentators on it. I think that is a different type of community and different experience than Dr. Williams is discussing. And yet, of course, there are elements of Jewish community that are much like what he describes. Anyway, I find myself useful provoked by the lecture. [Tags: rowan_williams bible hermeneutics akma judaism torah ] Posted
by D. Weinberger at April 18, 2007 03:14 PM
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Comments
This highlights one of the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism emerged from a primary oral society - one without the phonetic alphabet and the changes that technology brings. Christianity emerged from a society that already had the ability to write things down. Despite being called "the people of the book," Genesis (especially) is a work of orality, with its complex structures largely not understood by modern, literate scholars.
But more than that, during the early centuries, most people were illiterate, and received the Torah, and for Christians, additionally the Books of the Apostles, in community gatherings in which there was a very different dynamic than the one that most of us experience. Think about this: The Catholic Church gave western civilization the very first mass media. Seriously. :)
Posted by: Mark Federman | April 19, 2007 09:21 AM
I enjoy watching monotheists peck oneanother apart over an illusion. I just do.
Posted by: Homer Andhesiod | April 19, 2007 12:38 PM
No pecking apart going on here, Homer. You should try actually reading Rowan Williams' lecture; speaking as an ex-Christian atheist, I think it's brilliant.
Posted by: Phil | April 19, 2007 06:13 PM
Mark Federman's attribution of aspects of Jewish tradition to oral culture is consonant with cultural self-perception. There's an idea that you can't grok ideas by listening, or reading solo, but only through the help of mentors and friends. But that's not the only explanation; or there are examples of convergent evolution. iPhoneDevCamp is an outgrowth of a culture that believes that creation comes in large part from collaborative discussion and action, and it's got nothing that can be traced to preliterate oral cultures.
Posted by: Adina Levin | July 7, 2007 06:26 PM