Fall Class on 1 Corinthians: Reflecting on Culture

 

Critical Thinking and Biblical Studies: Paul and the Corinthians

I’ve been reading 1 Corinthians for the last two weeks.

 I’ll continue to be in that book for ten more weeks. Every fall we have a chance to enroll in classes that cover books of the Bible. We read selected portions and answer questions. Usually it’s just one or two chapters. I’m familiar with 1 Corinthians, but not about the culture in that community in Greece. The deep dive into cultural attitudes of the people is probably the biggest thing I’m learning. It’s the historical part of the bible that doesn’t always come through in the reading. History and culture animates so much of the Scriptures that we often miss the full context of a verse.

Historical Foundations

I find history to be endlessly fascinating. Not everything needs a two hour documentary or a 700 page book, but context is critical. I watch documentaries to learn about some unknown part of the country, industry or person. Those sports docs always suck me in. ESPN did one called The Last Dance, highlighting Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Ostensible about the final championship season, it recapped the Jordan years since the Bulls drafted him from North Carolina in 1984. There was a lot of new footage of the team on road trips and during practice. Everyone loved it too. I’m sure it was one of their highest rated documentaries of the year. 

I’ve watched a lot of boring shows too.

I started one about the travel cruise industry and turned it off after 20 minutes. Despite the logistical miracle of running a cruise line, it was less exciting than watching the crew eat lunch together. This is a reference to a Gene Siskel metric about films. If you’d rather watch a documentary of the same actors in the movie having lunch, it’s too boring. There was a way make it fun, but they missed. Get a charismatic host next time and have them walk excitedly from room to room and drop nuggets of information. Instead, they used a narrator who sounded like he was reading a recipe for wheat bread. Not all history shows are created equal. I can see some people thinking the Bible is boring too. But with the right teacher, curriculum and context, it wouldn't be.

Cultural Foundations

I’m not the type you have to convince to read, but a lot of Christians are. My hope for those who don’t like to read, is that the culture of Greece during the Roman empire will spark curiosity. Anything that puts the letter of Paul into a helpful construct, makes us understand the scriptures a little more. It also shows us how these issues people dealt with (pride, sexual promiscuity, greed) are still present today. The world isn’t as different as we imagine. Human nature is sinful in any age. That’s important, or we might think our issues are those of a ‘sophisticated’ society.

Sophistication is where the theory of human evolution shows up in modern life. It posits the idea that we evolve to higher states of consciousness the same way we escape our primitive bodies. First we swam then we crawled. Now we walk upright, discard our silly ideas about a spirit world and seek utopia. The world is as corrupt as it was in the time of Christ. History helps us put our life and times into a larger context.

The opposite problem is that we see the scriptures only through the lens of the time in which they were written.

Philosophical Foundations

It goes, Paul’s warnings to the Corinthians were for those people at that time. We shouldn’t read too much into the relationship between their sins and ours. Sure, we can read his words and get a better sense of his instructions and scolding. But we have different ideas today about women in society and slavery. It's not a parallel reading.  

But leaning too heavily on history can contextualize the meaning away. The way to read the Bible is both in its time, and existing as a guide for today. The word of God existed in the past and present, it carries the same impact into the future.

America needs to bring back the importance of the Bible as a common book. What I mean by “common” is connected at all levels of society. Cultures need values that work across all levels. The Bible used to serve that purpose. Even non-religious people (in Anglo societies) realized the underpinning of the Bible on law, medicine and philosophy. George Bernard Shaw, socialist playwright, and G.K Chesterton argued different sides on much of the philosophy of their day. Both were raised in a British society where the Bible formed the basis of cultural learning. Shaw had to undercut belief in God in an established Christian society. He was a radical among the common classes.

Today, Chesterton would be the one arguing against the established humanism of the day. The schools are steeped in postmodern thought and churn out students with that worldview. This means science, medicine and law have been remade into something closer to the views of Shaw than Chesterton. This is in part, because we don’t study the Bible anymore. We’ve let the post modernists tell us that it can’t be rightly understood because of author bias. Once you’ve broken down the importance of scripture for social cohesion, it gets relegated to churches and parochial schools only. Then, in debates on ethics or education or scientific theory it gets treated like astrology, mysticism.

Conclusion

I think the world is ready for another renaissance. We need a new age of enlightenment, one that’s focused on the Light of the World. The twentieth century and the twenty first, have seen enough selfish philosophies to turn us inward for the rest of time. It’s time for critical thinking again. The apostle has something to say about it: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’ and again, ‘The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile’.” I Corinthians 3:18(NKJV)

Labor Day Monday or Run Day

 

Celebrate The New Bridge With a Run: Tulsa's Gathering Place

Today is Labor Day, September 2, 2024. 

I started with a long run this morning because the weather was nice. It was 68 at the start and only went up a few degrees at most. Moisture and humidity weren’t a big issue today, but usually are in the summer. I’m not clear on which metric is the one I should pay attention to for jogging. Is it humidity or dew point? I finished very sweaty, but I’m sweaty in the winter too. I had enough oxygen to do all 12 miles of the loop, thanks to the cooler temp. I went to the river.

New Bridge New Pathway

Tulsa’s Gathering Place just got a lot more popular this weekend. It’s always a big draw anyway, but this weekend they finished the pedestrian bridge that goes from the park to the electric company across the river. I should've taken a picture. This under-construction image is all I could find online. It’s been closed for years. I have only the vaguest memory of the old bridge that connected the bike path on the east side to the west side, across the river. This time they put in a new dam and a slick walking bridge with a giant bend in it. The west side of the river is lower than the east. To compensate, the new bridge contains a gradual drop from the east bank which is roughly 30 feet higher. I think we can expect the Tulsa Run to incorporate some of the new paths this year.

The new look along the river meant new walking paths on both sides. The pedestrian bridge is part of the Gathering Place project. The largest phase was completed 7 years ago and is as popular as ever. I don’t have the statistics to back it up, but I can promise that foot traffic has increased along the river since. I wasn’t jogging much back then, but it’s the kind of place that demands to be seen. I made a lot of trips to and from there when I drove for Uber. Visitors to the area want to see it as well.  

Old Bridge Old Memories

I moved here in 2008 and made a few trips to the river path before The Gathering Place became a mega attraction. Back then, the Riverwalk in Jenks was a popular spot. I enjoyed sitting along the scenic patio and smoking cigars until late in the night. The half dry riverbed always seemed unnecessary. Why can’t they keep enough water in it? I wondered. I’m hardly an engineer though. Does it make sense to keep the water flowing for purely aesthetic reasons? Probably not. But enough people thought the same thing and so the city has begun managing the water. 

That pedestrian bridge has a new dam underneath it; it also feeds the newly created kayak park. Not to mention, the upstream part of the river now is filled with water again. It’s enough to start hosting raft races and rowing sports.

New Future New Activities

The Arkansas river will never be deep enough for water skiing or boats with motors. But kayaking and canoeing are on the horizon. I saw a few people on those standup surfboards things that you paddle with a big oar. It’s more than we had before and based on the number of people out at the river, it’s something we’ve been waiting for. To me the most important reason for the water is still the aesthetic one. No one wants to stare out at a sandy bottom creek bed while blowing out rich cigar smoke from their Partagas. I’m not one to ask about the cost or the practicality. I guess it’s one of those quality-of-life things that’s hard to slap a price tag on.  

These are things you think about when you have time to jog in great weather and notice your surroundings.

Today, I started at my usual 41^st street parking lot on the east side of the river and ran toward 71^st. Then, across the river at 71^st and up toward Turkey Mountain. There was an organized race happening when I passed through. I saw Fleet Feet banners and a finish line. I guess they were using the trails though, because I had a clear shot down the path and toward the "sh*t factory". It’s a crude description, but also accurate. The path goes right through the sewage treatment plant. Some days I have to hold my breath. 2 miles or so past that is the soccer fields and a detour I used to use because of the work being done on the new pedestrian bridge. I didn’t use the detour this time. It’s open again. The trail runs into the newly added paths on the west side.

Conclusion

At this point I thought about crossing over the new pedestrian bridge. It’s only been open for a day after all.  But instead, I opted to stay on the west side and cross at a farther point. I had a little steam left in the tank and felt like pushing it. When the weather is great and you don’t have a plan for the day, push a little more. That’s my motto at least. Lately it’s been too hot and I’ve been exhausted, also lazy. A cooler morning like this is just what I needed. And what a day for it.

Happy Labor Day (2024) Tulsa!!