“This God has subversive tendencies. One may readily discern this point in the divine proclivity throughout Genesis for the secondborn as opposed to the firstborn child. But this image extends further and is much broader in scope. God is a God of inversion, who is not circumscribed by the strictures imposed by the various power brokers of the narrative. The subversive nature of YHWH attested in the Jacob cycle manifests a dogged insistence that YHWH is free to undermine any sense of propriety, decorum, and convention as is deemed fitting to the situation at hand.”—Jacob and the Divine Trickster, page 176
<idle musing>
No doubt YHWH is larger than us and delights to reverse humanity's egotistical impulses. But, I still think John takes it too far...and he disagrees with me, I'm sure! He does, however, offer a healthy corrective to the tendency of some to smooth over the "bumps" in the Bible. After all, Aslan isn't a tame lion.
</idle musing>
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4 comments:
I've just ordered the book for our library, so will need to take a closer look when it arrives.
This quote, however, seems to bring with it some slippage between "inversion" and "subversion", to "subversive", and this subject to the observer's moral judgment.
Still, Yahweh's freedom as described here is very much of a piece as that ascribed to him in, e.g., Hannah's prayer.
I'm left with a bit of uneasiness, though, about how the sentences quoted are logically and emotively related.
Intriguing, no doubt!
The longer I walk with Christ the less I know about God, but the more I know He is good, loving, merciful, and gracious. To us God should seem a paradox. He has no beginning, middle or end, but we have all three. The infinite is beyond the comprehension of the finite. Honestly, how completely silly to think we could comprehend the almighty creator.
David, how delightful that I sold a book : ) Seriously, I agree with you; I think John takes his observations too far and there is some logical slippage along the way...
Lonnie, Amen!
James
jps said: ...David, how delightful that I sold a book :) ...
Well, the whole series actually. When I checked, we only had two of them, so I ordered the rest when I noticed we didn't have this one. Hope that's OK. ;)
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