September 09, 2005

Oh Dear

My copy of Racializing Jesus arrived in the mail last night. Flipping through it, some sentences make me think we may have bit off a bit much:

  • This Greek/Roman/German triangle provides Heidegger with more than a means of constructing a clearly delimited racialized hierarchy.
  • Bultmann infuses into NT scholarship a series of existential and aesthetic values that are themselves deeply racialized (originary/derivative, primordial/compromised, dynamic/static, security/insecurity, authenticity/inauthenticity, theology of history/theology of word, concrete/abstract, free/enslaved).
  • If reason reveals itself in the phonomenal world of history and culture, and if history is guided by reason itself, and if history has a teleological destiny (the self-manifestation of the absolute), then Hegel must incorporate culture and history into his own philosophical system

I'll give it the old college try, but I may present the professor with a doctor's note explaining my intermittent allergy to theory.

Posted by Ben Brumfield at September 9, 2005 04:04 PM
Comments

On the second quote, Ben, if it helps any, there was enormous hostility toward and suspicion about Rudolph Bultmann and his New Testament scholarship among German Protestant clergy who became a part of the underground confessing church during the Third Reich. Bultmann remained a part of the established German Protestant Church and those who left it suspected that there was a flaw at the heart of Bultmann's enterprise that offered no critique of Hitler's regime.

Posted by: Ralph Luker at September 9, 2005 10:05 PM

Oh boy. There are an awful lot of binary oppositions there. And phrased in that horrible theory jargon.

But I think I can follow what he's saying. The big question is, do I want to? Should I have to work that hard?

What do you think, Ben? I actually haven't ordered it yet. Now that you have it, read a bit and tell us whether you really think it's worth it, slashes and oppositions aside. You might save a fellow human $30.

Posted by: Alan Hogue at September 10, 2005 12:46 AM

Thanks for the note, Ralph. The subject is really quite new to me — I've had one extended conversation about the racial legacy of that scholarship influencing some of the modern work on formation of the NT canon, and read Philip Jenkins' Hidden Gospels, but I couldn't tell Hegel from Heidegger on a bet.

Any further comments or pointers as we plow through this would be very much appreciated.

Posted by: Ben Brumfield at September 10, 2005 09:02 AM

Alan,

I'll try to get through the first three or so chapters and post representative bits. So far it looks like he's going to make some good points, but as Sara says, "it reads like French feminism."

In addition to the theory-speak, Kelly uses ideosyncratic punctuation: camelCase rather than hyphenation, such as "antiSemitic" or "nonWestern".

Posted by: Ben Brumfield at September 10, 2005 09:24 AM

In addition to the theory-speak, Kelly uses ideosyncratic punctuation: camelCase rather than hyphenation, such as "antiSemitic" or "nonWestern".

You're joking, right? Come on now. No, really.

Posted by: Alan Hogue at September 12, 2005 09:54 AM

I am trying to find out about Bultmann's life during the Nazi period - does anyone know about this?

Posted by: Joe at February 10, 2006 09:24 AM