Speech-act theory and the psalms

I probably won't buy the book by Gordon Wenham, but there are a few cool comments in this podcast about his new book, The Psalter Reclaimed. For a series of lectures on Speech-Act theory, listen to these podcasts. They were my driving companions in random order on my last cross Canada trip to Winnipeg. Keeps one awake on a long trip - especially when listened to in random order!

Why won't you buy this book? Don't you think it would span the gap between your language and the language of the more conservative of your kin?  And would it not help you find a way in to those assemblies that fail to use the Psalter in their work?

Yes, it might. He still uses Law for Torah, rather than my use of instruction or teaching. In doing so he removes the rigidity of the conservative mindset, but I find it difficult to use the word 'Law' since every time a person uses it, they have to rethink their assumptions. Yet he also emphasizes the obedience - and the vows, very suitable for all, particularly the rich or the careless. I will likely listen to this podcast more than once... (There are errors in it, as would be expected in a phone call - the reference to Ps 89 is wrong, should be Psalm 119:97. Also the role of the Sabbath is there in Ps 92). The interviewer is full of leading questions, loaded with adjectives. Implied is - do you agree with me ... or else! Wenham uses the phrase, 'the evidence of a new David, a new Messiah'? Not a phrase in the Psalms that I have read at all. Getting inside the assured mind is a significant problem - (the darkness does not receive the light.)  'Reciting the psalms is like taking notes in court' - nice image... needs teasing out. Coverdale (for me) does not cover the full gamut though... - again this problem of language and expectation...  re laments and the negative psalms, Wenham makes good points particularly for the rich who have ignored the preferential option for the poor that is evident in the Psalter. But he says - "I haven't got a vineyard that is being trampled on" - really? What about the evidence of the trampling on the earth by humanity and rare storms like Jerusalem today?  The interviewer has all the answers (grrr.)

For why should churches use the psalms see my prior post on The Case for the Psalms.

For my own teaching on the psalms see this playlist.

While I am on useful links - this exploration of the prologue to John as Targum and Midrash by Daniel Boyarin, a recent visitor to our coffee time last week, is really worth studying.

The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John
Author(s): Daniel Boyarin
Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 94, No. 3 (Jul., 2001), pp. 243-284
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3657424

Thesis and Oral Defense

There we have it - what will I do next? Seeing the Psalter is my thesis and the Course for the Healing of the Nations is my oral defense.

The psalms course - for the healing of the nations

How about that! I have the whole series of videos in one list. I suppose that's progress.

Please note that the full set of slides is available here. Related posts are on NT Wright's book The Case for the Psalms, here, and the summary of the allusions to or consistency with the psalms in the Sermon on the Mount here. Each of these is also available, somewhat edited, in PDF - here and here.

My review of The Case for the Psalms expresses the reason - and always one is stretching to find such reason - why I wrote my course based on my book Seeing the Psalter, - itself designed to get people to read these remarkable poems - not just for the poems but also for the conversation that one becomes a party to when one reads them.

Psalms course - Session 6

Session 6 version 2 has just been uploaded - I hope you can see it on the public list of videos. I have removed to private all videos that I have replaced. I see you-tube has a playbook - must learn how to use it. At the present if you want to hear the music I have chosen, you need to use my playlist - not very integrated...

This session introduces Suzanne Haik Vantoura's interpretation of the te'amim. It is short because the time for the session is for the course attendees to bring their own reading, music, poetry, or art related to the psalms based on what we have discussed over the last 5 weeks.

Psalm 96 recording is here.

Some light Christmas reading

Writing on Philo and John, In the beginning was the word, Daniel Boyarin demonstrates thoughts akin to hypostasis in Jewish Synagogue tradition prior to early Christian teaching on the Trinity. Available as pdf here. This makes the Trinity a little less like a triangular puzzle and a little more down to earth - where it belongs for the Christmas message Emmanuel, God with us, to be good news. Pray, folks. Use the psalms as your ' how-to' guide to prayer. Change is possible. Maybe Scrooge (the spirit of fear and self-protection) will change his mind again.

Christmas cheer from Selwyn College Choir Cambridge

Hear the space between the notes.

An app for the Psalms

Have Psalter will travel.

I have laid out my Psalter with the poetry phrase by phrase, line by line, in Hebrew and English so that the reader (especially I myself) may be able to read and study the poems in Hebrew as poetry. With respect to technique, my translation highlights word recurrence, but without neglecting prosody or parallelism.

Now I am teaching these reading 'techniques' but also in the second half of the course, moving into engagement through the text based on the pattern of the use of the Psalms in the epistle to the Hebrews as dialogue between father and son. This latter is the greater challenge for our time. It is not academic, though the academic be important. What is key is to engage the word of God on our behalf, the behalf of the people in a present political and social situation.

Biblical studies is not my primary field, though I have loved my 7 years of immersion in Hebrew. My field is data base analysis and software. You could say that the book is 'an app for the psalms'. (But it requires a human reader not an android and it needs no technology).

The publisher Energion Direct has a special on for Advent. 20% off - just enter advent in the coupon code.

You can buy the book Seeing the Psalter here.