I spent the afternoon
attending a seminar on theological interpretation of the Bible. I'd
love to do more to help further good biblical interpretation that
takes seriously both the confessional nature of the Bible and
current critical/academic scholarship on the Bible. Attending this
seminar and hearing what others are doing is hopefully a step towards
doing more of that.
Before I walked into the
Seminar I saw a notice that there was a Taizé service in the
church at 6 that evening. Perfect timing, I thought – something to
do between the afternoon service and my late dinner plans. And
perhaps it would be a nice change from the very intellectually
focused afternoon.
It was a strange
contrast between the two. The seminar was attended by about a hundred people,
almost entirely composed of fairly well-to-do white males. The Taizé
seminar was about 10 people, mostly females of which at least one was
homeless. The seminar was well organized; the service somewhat
haphazard. Yet, the singing in the Taizé service, despite the seminar
being full of theologians and pastors, felt significantly better. Furthermore, I was robustly welcomed and thanked for my presence
at the service; people were appreciative of me at the seminar, but I wonder how much of that was related to the potential diversity I represented?
I'm not sure what to
make of the fact that I felt more immediately at home in the
Taizé service than I did in the biblical seminar. Life in Amsterdam
has obviously changed me – living in a Christian community and hanging out with homeless people regularly probably does
have an effect on a person. Yet, I also long to feel at home and have a voice
in doing theological interpretation well: theological interpretation
that has consequences for both the homeless and the ones who
might be accused of being too impressed by their own thinking.
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