Investigation vs. Information
Recently a good friend mentioned that sometimes I use material from writers whose life teachings are considered heretical. And sometimes I investigate implications from Scriptural texts that challenge accepted doctrine. So I thought it might be important to comment on my approach.
First, in my view, truth is truth no matter where you find it. If I quote from Moses Luzzatto, that doesn’t mean I endorse everything he said just as I quote from Martin Luther but clearly do not endorse his anti-Semitism. I am looking for those insights and ideas that illuminate what I also find in Scripture – and I often find that men like Kierkegaard, Luzzatto and Gandhi say things we need to think about even if not ALL they say seems true.
Secondly, I notice that often our objective seems to be to get all the right answers to our questions and achieve a kind of certainty. We want to put the issues to bed and not have to think about them anymore. But my study leads me to believe that the Hebrew approach is one question leading to another question. So I am anxious to understand the QUESTIONS rather that jump quickly to the answers. This means that I want to investigate each subtly of the text, each word implication, each nuance in hopes of understanding WHY God said it, not just WHAT God said.
Finally, investigation and information are not always the same. Frankly, I resist the tendency to arrive at information too soon. I have found that as we peel back the paradigms we often find we need to revise what we thought was the correct information. But the goal is always the same – Lord, help me understand what You have said so that I might be closer to You.
So, my faithful readers, please remember that I am only traveling along the road with you. We learn together, and sometimes I need correction just like all the rest of us. I am just pursuing Him wherever I happen to find a clue.
“You mean, you agree with Hitler?!?!…. that the world is round?”, this used to be an illustration a friend of mine would used to use to make a similar point.
Even Today’s Word is a source I agree with very often, but not always. There are hundreds of articles that I would highly recommend highly, and then a few that I … wouldn’t. Of course, I wouldn’t agree with myself a year ago, either.
All in all, I’m glad to be on this ride, and I have no doubt that it’s a more fruitful path than what I was doing before.
Yes…ditto.
And, what a ride it is!!
Amen to that!
I like how you challenge doctrines and open me up to new questionss. Keep up the good work Skip.
“First, in my view, truth is truth no matter where you find it. If I quote from Moses Luzzatto, that doesn’t mean I endorse everything he said just as I quote from Martin Luther but clearly do not endorse his anti-Semitism.”
Hi Skip,
I’ll come back to Moses Luzzatto a bit later, but there is similar kind of issue in literary criticism to the one you point out above
Namely how can a literary work be considered great (good, true, and beautiful) if one of themes of the work is essentially evil
For example, Celine was a great writer and a brilliant man, but he was also a fascist
In literary criticism there is a need to devise a methodology that recuperates the meaning and value of the text
So the baby is not thrown out with the bath water 🙂
Céline, Louis-Ferdinand
Born May 27, 1894, in Courbevoie; died July 1, 1961, in Meudon. French writer. Physician by training.
In the novels, Journey to the End of the Night (1932) and Death on the Installment Plan (1936), Céline naturalistically depicted the horrors of bourgeois existence and the transformation of “the little man” into a wolf among wolves.
In 1936 he visited the USSR, and in the same year he wrote the pamphlet Mea culpa, a slanderous attack against communism.
An apologist for fascism, he advocated anti-Semitism (the pamphlet Bagatelles for a Massacre, 1937), defended Hitlerite racism (the pamphlet The School of Corpses, 1938), and fawned over the fascist German occupation forces (the pamphlet A Fine Mess, 1941).
Céline expressed his bitterness over the defeat of fascism in the memoirs A Fairy Play for Another Time (1952).
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Hebrew: משה חיים לוצאטו, also Moses Chaim, Moses Hayyim, also Luzzato) (1707-1746 (26 Iyar 5506)), also known by the Hebrew acronym RaMCHaL (or RaMHaL, רמח”ל), was a prominent Italian Jewish rabbi, kabbalist, and philosopher.
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto or RaMCHaL
“Michael OHara” and “Millette” would probably not jump out at most folks in the letters above
As these names do to me, but then
Most folks probably aren’t descendants Of the Hara clan in Ireland either 🙂
In college I would come across the theme of “the Wandering Jew” in the library from time to time
And for some reason used to think there must be more to this expression than meets the eye
My eye anyway
The topic of the fear of the Lord has been discussed a number times over the last few months
And fearing God’s commandments has been mentioned as I recall
For me fearing the Lord has nothing to do with the commandments in my experience
At least psychologically speaking
It has to do with fearing the Lord when he comes and you are not prepared for him
Or when you find him in unexpected places
Like when I was much younger wandering around northern Spain or southern Italy
Or like when I was reading texts like those of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Another piece of the puzzle just popped into my mind
The professor I studied under for many years, named Fredric Jameson
Taught me most everything I knew, but I always suspected that there was some hidden subtext
That connected most of the ideas and values he taught us
As it turns out I think the subtext was the Hebrew Worldview
Jameson was teaching Hegelian Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis, semiotics and structuralism
And all sorts of other things many years ago
I didn’t know much about Judaism at the time
But now I would argue that Marxism is a form of Judaism
Which is a dialectical mode of thinking like the Hebrew Worldview
Whereas semiotics and structuralism are more like the Greek Worldview
Both are very good tools for understanding literature and society in my view
I’m not sure if Skip would connect the dots in the same way
But the only way to learn about this stuff is to “argue” about it IMO
http://www.holbergprisen.no/images/lyd/08_jameson_jameson.mp3
Actually I just remembered how Jameson showed me how Judaism
Could be integrated into his form of Marxism a few years ago, in the lecture above
It is a shame the lecture he gave is not visible any more and the introduction
By the the president of Duke University is no longer available as a video or audio
I liked the introduction by the president of Duke because he spoke of the books
That Jameson wrote when I studied under him; and they also formed my way of thinking
But you can hear Jameson speak at the URL above if you like
He is addressing the King of Norway and his cohorts as I recall, which is pretty funny to me
Coming from a teacher who does not believe in class society
The subject of his lecture is Goethe’s Faust who famously made a pact with the Devil
Faust sold his soul so he could know everything he wanted to know
The other day Skip introduced us to Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Who wrote a prominent work called Derekh Hashem (The Way of God)
It is a philosophical text about God’s purpose in creation, justice, and ethics
In the Hebrew worldview, a Derek is a public road, a road used by all people
On the other hand, a Nativ is a personal route, a path blazed by the individual
For his personal use
It is a hidden path, without markers or signposts, which one must discover on his own
And tread by means of his own devices
This is the Faustian path of which Jameson speaks in the lecture above
Skip introduced me to this concept a few years ago, when I was working at VeriSign
By pointing out a book by Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, The book of Creation
Most of my adult life I felt a tremendous amount of guilt
For not taking a job that Jameson had arranged for me at Princeton University
But the fact of the matter was that I was not really qualified for the job
I was just Jameson’s most loyal student, who took every class he ever taught
And read every book on every one of his reading lists for quite a few years
But the lecture above gave me some consolation a few years ago
Because the thesis of the the lecture is that for Goethe literature is a network
And I have worked in quite a few world class network companies
Over the last 30 years
Sorry but the link above does not take you to the original presentations
What Jameson is talking about at this link is not of general interest
Amen
Skip, I found studying your writings/audio very liberating. I always wanted answers and right doctrines. I forgot that we all know partly. 1 Cor 13:9. And when somebody didn’t agree with me, well…. his salvation was in doubt. What a delight if God delivers one from this.
Recently I heard a story about John Wesley [Arminian] and Whitefield [Calvinist]:
” A text out of context is a pretext”
I appreciate you dear brother and am blessed by your sharing. Thank you
THANK YOU
Amen, Skip! The more I learn the more I question! It’s a good thing. That’s why I love reading your TW so much! It really makes me think AND draws me closer to our Lord! Thank you!
Skip,
That some have the tendency toward wanting to be right over the priority of maintaing a living breathing relationship is what oftentimes leads to quarrels and disputes. As I look back at the loss of relationships in my life, I see a trail of “it’s MY way therefore YOU hit the highway”. And btw, didn’t some of Paul’s writings include purely secular quotes?
And at the risk of total transparency here, when I first began reading your writings, I would get so angry and have to take a break from reading. I couldn’t take the challenges to the framework of my perfect world I had ordered up for myself. I was afraid of stepping outside the boundaries I had allowed others to dictate to me! I needed an “authority” to keep me safe from harm and deception and unorthodox teachings. Little did I know at that time, many of the unorthodoxies were coming from my own universe!
So, may I say to you…keep on keeping on! Keep digging and sharing your findings with us. Thank you for thinking out loud!!
Fitting was the Torah Portion from a couple of weeks ago…Be strong and courageous. Repeatedly, He told this to His disciples, those sold out to His Plan and Purpose, that He will lead us to the Promised Land, His Kingdom if we will get up from where WE are and follow Him.
I know in Whom I believe and that He is able to keep me until that Day as I place all my trust in Him and commit my obedience to Him.
A wise man once told me that not everything a heretic says is false, but neither is everything a preacher says is true.
Jimmy
LIKE!!!!
I could not agree more. In the past I used to disaprove reading writers that did not agree with my theology. These days there is hardly anyone left in that category, but I’m at ease reading for example Henry Nouwen. I disagree with his ideas about contemplative prayer, but there is so much worth reading in his works I can learn from.
Skip, doesn’t it bother you in TW you can never look at the full story the Scriptures tell? It’s always only a tiny part, hardly ever the story as it is told / read in synagogue. So much detail, I sometimes lose track of the story……. Nevertheless, I’m so greatfull for your thoughts!
Greatings!
No, it doesn’t bother me because I see that every detail is like a thread in a marvelous tapestry. They are all connected and in each thread there is a link to the whole truth.
The Way of a True Pilgrim maybe!!!????
L.O.L. Might also mean LOVE OF LIGHT (THE ONE TRUE LIGHT “”JESHUA)
Just a thought !!!
Gerald
I thoroughly enjoy the way you and others on this site challenge us to come out of our boxes.
We have been indoctrinated all of our lives, and told how and what to think. There are still terms like “considered heretical” that try to contain or control where we are led in our search to know ‘הוה
and in turn come to know how He can fulfill His Word through us. Continue to help us think beyond our old mind sets.
Shalom Skip! Your thoughts in your writings are unique! It is challenging, thought-provoking, and profound at times if not most of the time.
It is wisdom when reading or even listening to another person, not to swallow the bones but to pick the meat, simply put; and not get choked by the bones. It’s taking the goodness and rejecting the bad. This brings to mind that of a critical spirit, not seeing the good, but only the bad side of things, keeping in mind not anyone has all truths, nor goodness.
You have been encouraging, Skip, and I appreciate that.
Stay in your unque expressions/style of writing. Thank you!
Blessings as you continue!