What an exciting night! The 300+ crowd was brimming with enthusiasm as Mark painted a vivid, full-colour picture of what life was like in ancient Corinth. Already many texts in Paul's Corinthian letters seem either less confusing or much more meaningful, radical and vibrant! Please comment with topics or insights you found particularly interesting. Here's mine...
-Getting a sweep of the timeline of history leading up to and surrounding the writing of the Corinthian letters was very helpful.
-Unpacking the dualistic worldview of Greek philosophy was incredibly helpful to understand how they viewed nature, reason, progress, rank, status, relationships, etc.
-I had never heard anyone so strongly discount the idea of the immortality of the soul, and was challenged by Mark's clear assertion that the New Testament does not teach this. As I think further about it, this idea does seem to 'fit' quite nicely in the dualistic Greek worldview as Mark said. But this raises lot's of questions about the soul...
-I was glad that he distributed the hand-out. It was good not to have to try and scribble down what he was talking about.
Comments welcome! Tell me what you took away from it!
Dale
5 comments:
its hart to have a debate about things that i agree with so much. Not that you were asking for debate but that's usually what gets these forum type things going.
ive been thinking a lot about the Lord's supper so i really enjoyed his description of what went on in the Corinth church. Robert Banks adds a bit more depth in his book too - which i'll pass on soon.
Also im really looking forward to his explanation of the roles of women and authority in that respect. I hope its really different to our (Brethren) current understanding becuase i find it un-satisfactory.
Yes, Justin. No need for debate if we agree! Can't wait to borrow the book, and also see what Mark Says about women and authority. I agree, Sarah, that the story was a little long - however I'd LOVE to have a copy of it! - but the questions were great! Very excited to see where he goes from here!
-d-
I agree totally with all of you.
So again - no debate.
The highlights for me were the contrasts between hellenistic thinking and current thinking, showing the way the Xn message has so diffused through our culture. But this diffusion now means we bring assumptions to the text that mean we don't see the juxtapositions that Paul was throwing out there.
I have a comment on Justin's final sentence: what if it doesn't? Will that make Strom unsatisfactory too?
(I just think sometimes we look for answers to the wrong questions)
I'm not so interested in what he says so much as why he's saying it, and what hermaneutic he's using to come to his conclusions.
The most memorable thing for me was the absolute and total dissing of the immortal soul concept.
BANG!
Go away!
I so I was sitting there thinking: "nooo. heretic. the nt does too teach that. no. hold on. no it doesn't, i don't think that. i used to. i think. crap. what do i think. let's see, that's right, i do agree with strom here. preach it brutha!"
By that stage he'd moved onto something else and I'd missed it.
It's funny because the more I learn the less I know.
Indeed Duane. The more we all learn, the less we realise we know (that is, this is what we will realise if we are really learning).
Lot's of questions can be raised (and this is one of many places to raise them!) about how we do church, and what assumptions, mis-understandings, good-but-distorted intentions form the basis for our methodology? What matters and what doesn't?
-d-
Mark S here. I'm humbled and stoked that people want to interact with my Wineskins materials. Sorry about the overkill in the last half of last Monday night. Waaayyy too much stuff and waaayyy too fast. I'll try to tidy up some loose ends this Monday before tackling 2 Corinthians. And I promise I will slooowww it down. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
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