Monthly Archives: June 2015
Love — what it requires, how to value it, how it calls us to pay attention — to celebrate and be grateful. Because we simply never know. Human beings have no rights or claims on the ever-so brief moments they are given to be together.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/steven-kalas/love-the-simple-measure-life * “When someone you love walks through the door, even if it happens five times a day, you should go totally insane with joy.” — Denali Denali isn’t famous enough to need a last name. He has … Continue reading
Irony is a way of transcending and ultimately extending the limited resources of everyday language — irony uses words to point beyond language.
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Lite/LiteBred.htm https://curtisnarimatsu.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/irony-can-include-paradox-and-paradox-can-include-irony/ * * Irony entails endless reflection and violent reversals, and ensures incomprehensibility at the moment it compels speech. Essentially, irony swallows its own stomach. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony#Irony_as_infinite.2C_absolute_negativity * * Jonah in the belly of the whale as irony swallows … Continue reading
Irony, reversal, and frustration of expectations are characteristic of Jesus. Does a periscope (short saying — “turn the other cheek”) present opposites or impossibilities? If it does, it’s more likely to be authentic. For example, “love your enemies.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Seminar#Criteria_for_authenticity * “Hi everyone! The one we worship was crucified by the Romans. Come follow us.” This opening line did not fit among Greco-Roman religions. Claiming that a divine figure was helplessly beaten, tortured, and gruesomely–shamefully executed, would have been … Continue reading
“Hi everyone! The one we worship was crucified by the Romans. Come follow us.” This opening line did not fit among Greco-Roman religions. Claiming that a divine figure was helplessly beaten, tortured, and gruesomely–shamefully executed, would have been proof positive that such a religion was a joke worthy only of late night monologs. The ridiculousness of the crucifixion of the Son of God is easily lost on modern Christians. We miss an important reversal that so typifies the gospel. Because the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation of being wise, to save those who believe. (1 Corinthians 1:18-21) — Peter Enns
The Pharisee and the Publican, baroque fresco in Ottobeuren Basilica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican * Jesus’s crucifixion: not exactly a selling point in the ancient world * * But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose … Continue reading
Curtis Narimatsu 