I'm just adding this in here instead of a separate post below.
You should all have admin. access now to be able to make actual posts. Also, I deleted a couple replys that Rob and I made that were unrelated to the discussion, just to clear up space. Feel free to do this yourself too.
Hey guys, hopefully this is useful to communicate in this way. If it ends up not really being helpful, just be honest and we can try something else.
We can play each week ear by ear depending on what we decide to particuarly study that week. I have nothing to say regarding message/theme right now but whenever one of you do, just throw it on here as a reply.
Also if you think of any other specific areas we should cover as a group, throw those out also. I think this is where we sort of divided up stuff initially...if I'm wrong, just say so:
Rob- Apparent Discrepencies
Caleb- Internal Features
Stephen- Bib. Theo. Connection to Genesis
Andrew-Bib. Theo. Connection to NT
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I think we are probalby all moving in the direction of this them probably- "fearing God and keeping his commandments" in spite of all of life being vain, based on this assertion at the end (12:13). However,this seems to really be making even more sense to me in light of the Wisdom literature itself.
Fee states that the "fundamental assumption" of the wisdom literature is that hte "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7). On top of this, Goldworhty states, "Wisdom, then, has to do with a right perception and understanding of reality. It presupposes that there is a divinely ordained order in the universe that can be perceived. It directly contradicts the relativism of postmodernism, for wisdom assumes the coherence of God's created order." Thus, one's epsitomological starting point/presuppostion should be that of a being a God-fearer (the sovereign creator) versus that of "empiricist epistimology" -which seems the be the exact point of Eccleisates: that looking to empirical data for purpose/meaning in life is not true wisdom and will not give one true answers because nothing in life ever really 'adds up' but rather all just ends up being vain.
Craig Bartholomew's article points out this connection also saying that more work needs to be done in the area of episemology in Ecclesiates. He says, "Ecclesiates is an ironic exposure of an empiricist epistomology as always leading to a 'hebel' conclusion...and ironic exposure of a way of knowing that depends upon reason and experience alone, as opposed to an approach that starts with remembering one's creator, with faith and obedience."
For me this really expanded the whole concept of what the fear of the Lord being the "beginning of wisdom" is all about. It is more than just a good thing to do; is the only way to understand life without going insane. Also, I love the applications this has for today regarding postmodernism.
Post a Comment