Fallen Into Knowledge

Status: Excellent

This Post is a response to Adam’s comment on the post below, “Paradise Lost”

• 1.  Anyway, should a poetic theology be constituted chiefly by allegory?

As I mentioned in class today, we must distinguish between allegory and typology.  An allegory is a story whose meaning depends on the reader’s associating ideas that lie outside the story itself to particular aspects of the story (characters, places, etc.):  an allegorical theology is not that to which I am drawn.
Rather, I am interested in recovering a figural reading of the Bible.  A figural interpretation depends on an assertion that the Biblical text constitutes a narrative unity which encompasses both all that is in the text as well as all that lies outside of it.  Which is to say a Figural reading of the bible depends on our seeing the story of the Bible as both teleological in nature and pattern.  This is how, I believe, the author’s of the Bible read scripture.
A figural, or Poetic theology, will be chiefly constituted in re-telling the story of scripture such that our place within it, and, as a necessary part of that telling, what we should do in response, is rendered clearly.
(for more about figural interpretation, see Frei, “The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative,” Chapter 2.

• 2.   Of course there is theology embedded in every act, but should art which only seeks to allude to biblical imagery be thought of as poetic theology?

Well, First: by Poesy, I am thinking of a definition like Sir Phillip Sydney’s:  “Poesy therefore is an art of imitation…that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth - to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture - with this end, to teach and delight.” (In Defense of Poesy).  By poetry I am including a wide range of creative acts, not strictly verse.
Secondly, a Poetic Theology, as I see it, has at its core filtering the theologian’s own sitz im leben (something like: life circumstances) through the structure (or, the logic internal to) of the biblical story.
I’m sure I’ll think of more, but this is already a long post; feel free to respond - questions may stimulate more cogent thought.

Yet again I am writing a paper on Paradise Lost.  The first time (or two) I read Milton’s book I didn’t like it all that much.  I do now.  Milton is a poet, for sure; but I find myself more intrigued by Milton the theologian.  Paradise Lost is serious theology.  A couple of things about this that interest me:

• 1.  compare the form of Paradise Lost to, say, Calvin’s Institutes; Theology is a creative endeavor, Milton seems to have serious reservations about the capabilities of human knowledge after the fall, and it seems appropriate for him to connect the activity of theology with poetry rather than a seemingly objective philosophical style.

• 2.  the stuff of theology consists in a interpretive retelling of the biblical narrative; telling the story again for a new generation, in a rather pointed manner.  I find this to echo what the prophets were doing by interpreting Israel’s present through the Exodus story.  “God, who faithfully brought you out of the land of slavery will certainly be faithful and bring you back from exile.”

• 3.  Paradise Lost (and Paradise Regained, for that matter) is meaty stuff, and Milton asks his readers to wrestle long and hard with both the form and the content of the work:  Spencer set out to write the Fairy Queen so that by reading it one could become a gentleman; Milton, too, wants to shape his readers - his theology demands an (ethical) response.

More and more I want to do theology like Milton, and not like those theologians whom I had to read in bible school.  Theology as Poesy, more than as Philosophy.

Frankly, X-mas is more Honest,

don’t believe me? read this.

Frankly after many years of working at Starbucks (including four “xmas” seasons at Pioneer Place mall), I have had more than a lifetime’s worth of christmas spirit.  In fact, for the time being, the season has been soured for me.
I am proud to be part of a family that leaves for christmas - we get outa town.  Away from the tinsel and the music and the malls and the sales, away from any schedules and plans.  We leave and hang out for a week.  I recommend it heartily.