November 22, 2024
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
As usual, after completing the October Quarterly Discussions, I am left with more questions than answers. But more importantly, more vital to me, is the fact that many questions have been deepened. During discussion, these ideas evolve and morph into three and four dimensional figures, versus the two dimensional beginnings. Whether you call it Socratic dialogue or inquiry-based discussion, there simply is no better way to learn.
The process which led to October’s focus on these Biblical books began during summer while reading Erasmus’s Praise of Folly. Erasmus cleverly inserts quotes throughout his writings, sometimes meaning them to be taken seriously and other times clearly tending towards sarcasm. Erasmus enjoyed a good joke at the expense of religion and sometimes poked fun at the Bible (or its interpretations). Therefore, his use of Proverbs struck me as complicated to say the least. I also realized that I had never explored the book of Proverbs itself. I’ve heard quotes and anecdotes, I’ve seen paraphrases and excerpts, but had never read the entire book of Proverbs. So, I read it.
Reading Proverbs from beginning to end was more difficult than I thought it would be. It’s a short book, not particularly difficult in language or metaphor. But it’s entirely didactic. It layers instructional adage upon adage which was a little like hitting a nail on the head. A bit tedious. A bit dry. It lacked narrative, to me at least. And this is how our October Quarterly Discussion came to be a combination of Psalms and Proverbs. The Psalms include art and narrative, song and meter, where Proverbs does not. For this reason, I felt that they complemented each other. Both books are well worth reading, and offer similar instructions in very different styles. They actually combined easily and well in our Quarterly Discussion.
To attempt to cover Psalms and Proverbs in a 1.5 hour discussion is to set oneself up for failure. Instead, we jumped through a handful of Psalms and then ended with a short discussion on Proverbs. We covered many topics. For example, we questioned the nature of wickedness, which also led us to better understand goodness. We looked at metaphorical understandings of God whose vastness is expressed in terms of nature, joy, power, beauty, strength, and goodness. Humans are meant to fear the Lord, and much of our discussion revolved around what this fear means.
The Psalms remind humans that they are small and weak. That earthly power is not true power. That earthly goods are not divine goods. The Psalms repeatedly state that in seeking power through human strength, we are misled. The Psalms places true knowledge in faith alone. Some Quarterly Discussion participants found this comforting and others felt that it makes knowledge relational rather than factual, and therefore a bit unstable. Nevertheless, we all agreed that in Psalms and Proverbs the wicked are self-centered and that the path to knowledge does not lie in the self alone.
Throughout Psalms, God shows many emotions including love, anger, frustration, and sadness. I questioned why we would depict God with such emotions since human emotions are often chastised and problematic. One participant responded that the opposite of an emotional God is an indifferent God. They questioned which version we might prefer. Another response indicated that God actually demonstrates incredible patience much more often than He demonstrates any other emotion. Though God grows angry with man’s repeated hubris, God continually forgives man. The fact that many of these stories are in the form of poems and songs further increases their emotional weight. Songs carry not only stories, but also emotions and history.
Making sense of the Psalms is a bit like making sense of contemporary music. They feature emotions and tone, they use repetition surrounding a handful of themes, they use image in storytelling, they involve memory. More memorable refrains become fixed into everyday language. They can be used for instruction or enjoyment. They carry history forward.
Following the Psalms, Proverbs reads like an instruction manual. The language is plainer. Not less poetic, but dense and concise. I will conclude with a few quotes from Proverbs from the King James version which reiterate the theme that humans lack understanding, something that we grappled with in the October Quarterly Discussion, and an extension of Erasmus’s search for the same.
Thanks to the participants in the October Quarterly Discussion! What wonderful voices and thoughts! Our next Quarterly Discussion will focus on Natural Science in late January. Email as****@*mu.edu with questions or to register.
Proverbs 3:5-7
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Proverbs 14:24:
The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.
Proverbs 14:29:
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
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