This morning I was again thinking about unity - and reading the same passages in Philippians again. They're awesome! It's certainly got me thinking about what authentic Christian community should be (although that sounds like a statement riven with jargon) and how the small decisions that we make on a day-to-day basis can affect the people in our sphere of experience. I know that I need to work at a few friendships in the next few months, certainly. There's a few people that I really haven't made the time for over the past few months, and I regret that, in a way, although it hasn't felt like a conscious choice; at times it's been one of necessity as I've been (or have felt I've been) so busy. I'm not naturally especially active and I tend to spend a lot of time thinking and reflecting on things, so to feel like I'm 'on the go' all the time is quite stressful for me, and I need to maybe learn a few new ways to cope with that.
I'm researching an essay on Homi K. Bhabha at the moment. My question is to be on his theory of the 'ambivalent temporality of modernity' and how this can provide a platform for a (crucially) resistant cultural critique. I've looked at an extract from his book 'the location of culture' and this afternoon I was in the library to take out the whole thing. Hopefully reading in a little more depth over the subject should help out a bit.
I find what he says really interesting. Essentially he seems to posit simple binary divisions like black/white, East/West, inside/outside, as providing an inadequete conceptual framework for any attempt to address the problem of the representation of the 'Other' within culture. He seems to be asking the question of how a simple process of reversal can counter the implicit injustices of colonialism, and advocates a very different understanding of the concept through a 'temporal' rather than 'spatial' understanding.
I need to get on with this work, as I have two 3000 word essays to hand in immediately after the Christmas vacation, on top of my dissertation work.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
I've been looking at different parts of Philippians today, in a couple of different translations. I'm hoping to start learning basic New Testament Greek at some point in the new year which I'm really up for at the moment. I'm aware ancient Greek isn't exactly the easiest language to 'pick up', as it were, but am willing to give it a shot!
The two passages that have stood out so far have been in chapter 2, verses 1-4 which the NIV has thus:
Just reading that helps me to have a clearer picture of what Christian love is, or can and should be. People often talk about 'service or a servant-heart', but reading that passage reminds me what it might look like in practice. We aren't just to treat a select group of good friends with love and compassion and care (words that, even as I write them, seem so stripped of meaning and divorced from the concept that they indicate) as Jesus says in Matthew 5:46 and Luke 6:32-33 (both of which state something very simillar), but to act towards all people that we come into contact with with love and generosity.
Christian unity, human unity, are nice concepts that can be neatly packaged, but putting them into practice is what really counts. I've always kinda felt that that works best on whatever level you find yourself at; it isn't just about having some kind of massive 'ministry', but doing something simple to make someone else's life even slightly better. I guess it's about being aware of the small things, as well as the big; it's no good helping out at a local mission and then coming home and treating your family or whoever you live with badly; it's no good being impeccably polite to people at a Missions Week event and then being dismissive of that coursemate you'd rather not spend time with today.
The two passages that have stood out so far have been in chapter 2, verses 1-4 which the NIV has thus:
"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and in purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."
Just reading that helps me to have a clearer picture of what Christian love is, or can and should be. People often talk about 'service or a servant-heart', but reading that passage reminds me what it might look like in practice. We aren't just to treat a select group of good friends with love and compassion and care (words that, even as I write them, seem so stripped of meaning and divorced from the concept that they indicate) as Jesus says in Matthew 5:46 and Luke 6:32-33 (both of which state something very simillar), but to act towards all people that we come into contact with with love and generosity.
Christian unity, human unity, are nice concepts that can be neatly packaged, but putting them into practice is what really counts. I've always kinda felt that that works best on whatever level you find yourself at; it isn't just about having some kind of massive 'ministry', but doing something simple to make someone else's life even slightly better. I guess it's about being aware of the small things, as well as the big; it's no good helping out at a local mission and then coming home and treating your family or whoever you live with badly; it's no good being impeccably polite to people at a Missions Week event and then being dismissive of that coursemate you'd rather not spend time with today.
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