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Archive for December, 2009

Jerusalem descending: Revelation 3

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

From time to time the course of events hands to us a particularly pleasant fruit encased in a most bitter shell.

The genre of biblical literature—it is of course to be found outside the biblical text as well—that is called ‘apocalyptic’ addresses itself to the faithful who have lost control. Words like ‘power’, ‘influence’, and ‘clout’ have meaning in a society and an historical moment in which the pious can share in the shaping of their space, their time, their shared destiny. Often this privilege is denied. Then, apocalyptic speaks its word. (more…)

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inheritance of dominion: Revelation 2

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The letters to the churches that occupy the early chapters of the book of Revelation are a study in nuanced assessment. The Lord Jesus, who speaks in these letters embedded in an apocalyptic neighborhood, metes out both praise and rebuke in roughly equal measure. Not unusually, the reader is stunned by how severe and encouraging the dominical voice can be with regard to the same listening church.

Thyatira, for example:

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The italicized words come from the second psalm, which contains a message from YHWH to his human delegate on Zion that is routinely quoted by the New Testament and early Christian literature as an anticipatory description of Christ’s dominion over the nations. (more…)

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soft landing: 24 (Season Six)

Posted in reseña, tagged , on December 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

By the time Jack finds himself walking away from his beloved Audrey and staring at the ocean over which a new sun rises, neither guns nor brains can save him. Jack has come to his end.

Or so we would conclude if we did not know the penchant of 24 writers for making the impossible become plausible.

Along the way, Jack has saved a blooded United States of America and, arguably, its constitution. One of the elements that makes Season 6/Day 6 powerful is the insight into ‘politics as the art of the possible’ when the possible has been circumscribed beyond precedent by men who are prepared to do anything to advance their cause.

Action, it seems, begets contemplation which begets drama. (more…)

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bridle: 2nd John

Posted in textures, tagged , , on December 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We take for granted at this late evening of Enlightenment’s day that truth is to be discovered by the earnest, individual seeker. Nothing stands above his range of movement as independent investigator, no truth looms larger than he, no calculation of danger is to be admitted. (more…)

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