PreacherMike

I got to sit across from Richard Hays at dinner last night. What a relief! When you have been so influenced by a scholar whom you’ve never met, there is the chance that you’ll disappointed by the person’s character.

But no disappointment here. The guy is so humble, so real. Loves to talk about baseball (Yes, he coached his son all the way up) and about Dylan. Plus, I’ve been working through his incredible commentary on 1 Corinthians and was ready with a few questions for him. (Check out what he wrote on 11:2-16 if you get a chance.)

This is the guy who wrote two books that have influenced me about as much as any I’ve ever read: The Moral Vision of the New Testament (named by Christianity Today as one of the hundred most important theological works of the whole 20th Century) and Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul.

At last night’s lecture, he gave these twelve marks of the practice of “theological exegesis.” (I know they take some unpacking. Would love to come back and do that later.)

1. Theological exegesis is a practice of and for the church.
2. Theological exegesis is self-involving discourse. (In other words, we don’t stand apart from scripture. We are seeking to have it pull us into its gospeled world.)
3. Historical study is internal to the practice of theological exegesis. (He has little patience for biblical study that seeks to do an end run around serious historical work.)
4. Theological exegesis attends to the literary wholeness of the individual scriptural witnesses. (As an example, we don’t want to produce one gospel by conflating everything. We want the four gospels we were given, and we want to hear their unique voices.)
5. Theological exegesis presses forward to the synthetic question of canonical coherence.
6. Theological exegesis focuses on the texts as testimony. (The implications here are staggering!)
7. The language of theological exegesis is intratextual in character. (We seek, therefore, to stay with the concepts, images, and vocabulary of scripture.)
8. Theological exegesis engages the Bible’s complex web of intertextuality.
9. Theological exegesis is committed to the exposition of multiple senses.
10. Theological exegesis will find aid, not hindrance, in the church’s doctrinal traditions.
11. Theological exegesis will produce fresh imaginative readings.
12. Theological exegesis must be done from a posture of humility before the Word, in the expectation that we will be transformed by the text.

For more, try wading into Echoes of Scripture. I’m heading back for more today.

I’m so grateful that ACU is willing to bring scholars like Hays here. A couple years ago it was Luke Timothy Johnson. Waiting now for N. T. Wright . . . .

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Did you happen to catch the Wineskins/Zoe interview with Randy Harris (by Greg Taylor)? Here it is . . . .

Tell me about the Spiritual Director Program. You mean I get to tell people what to do with their lives?

Randy Harris: The irony is we are training spiritual directors and none of us are really qualified to “direct” another life . . . the heart of the program is that we both pay attention so God does the direction.

You and the other directors are not spiritual gurus?

Randy Harris: We have a non-guru approach.

You sure look like a guru, your shaved head, the little glasses bit you do before and after you talk. I like how you put them away in your Johnny Cash black jacket during your final point of a sermon.

Randy Harris: (smiles and perhaps chuckles a bit) We end the program with a ceremonial shaving of the head and uploading of Gregorian Chants to each participant’s iPod.

Come on, can’t you be serious? Hey, speaking of iPod, what’s on yours?

Randy Harris: Can’t you stay on the subject? Fauré Requiem, Pie Jesu.

Give me a break. What else is on your iPod?

Randy Harris: “Raise your skinny fist like antennas to heaven” by Godspeed you! Black Emperor.

Now, I’ve heard it all.

Randy Harris: I also have “Spirit of Gregorian Chant.”

No ZOE music?

Randy Harris: I don’t think there is . . . a few by Rich Mullins.

I like Rich Mullins . . . but you really don’t stay up on Christian music if the newest things you have are Rich Mullins and Gregorian Chant.

Randy Harris: (stares)

What’s your favorite VBS song?

Randy Harris: “I’ve got the Joy Joy Joy.”

Fair enough. The Cope/Harris version?

Randy Harris: Is there another version?

We were supposed to be talking about the Spiritual Direction Program. Who’s leading this interview?

Randy Harris: (stares again, saying nothing)

So tell me, how do I know if this program is something for me?

Randy Harris: The best reason to enter the Spiritual Direction Program is if you are already engaged in spiritually directing people . . . and the best sign that you are doing that is if people seek you out for it. So the program is to develop a gift you are already exercising. People ask, “Am I called to be a spiritual director?” and I ask “Are people seeking spiritual direction from you?”

So, to get into the program then hope someone will seek you out won’t work, right?

Randy Harris: Right.

Can we talk about the Growing Deeper Spirituality Program now?

Randy Harris: The program is for people going about the business of Christian life and asking, “Is this it? Is this what I signed up for?”

You mean someone who’s at a point of searching for something more in God?

Randy Harris: Yes, the church has been thinking about these things for two thousand years. We’re trying to recover what the church has learned about how to have a spiritual life.

Give me an example.

Randy Harris: Well, it’s like playing chess and ignoring hundreds of years of chess move theory.

You could say the same thing for Poker or some other pastime that people actually play more, but that’s beside the point.

Randy Harris: Yes, it is beside the point. It’s the same way with any game or sport-there is a body of knowledge that you access and practice to become a better athlete, and in the same way, we are seeking to tap into a long history of spirituality that helps us deepen our own life with God.