From Dust We Are . . . Is This Our Self?

June is, among other things, Mud Month. Naturally, when I applied my theological brain to that name, I thought of Genesis 3:19. Previously, I've talked about the self and how it has been conceptualized over time. This week, I dug a little deeper (pun intended). It took months, but I was finally able to interview Husband for this post! You are in for a treat.

The Modern Self and Expressive Individualism

In the last few years to decades particularly, the dominant view of the self in intellectualism and percolating into society has been of the "psychological self." That is, the essence of who someone is, their identity, is in their mind or what they think and feel about things. Carl Trueman has traced the post-Enlightenment history of this concept in a longer and a shorter book. Embracing a psychological self often goes along with expressive individualism.

In addition, many people today, particularly many Christian philosophers, consider themselves substance dualists. In their concept of dualism, each person is composed of substances (= something possessing properties but not completely defined by those properties, in philosophical terms) existing in a dualistic relationship (i.e., in 2 distinct categories that together describe the whole). In contrast, others consider themselves monists. That means that each person exists in a single substance.

What are the implications of the psychological self idea as held by an expressive individualist?

• My thoughts and feelings are what define me, so they are essential to my identity.
• My body isn't essential to my identity, so it can be changed without consequence.
• I can't be a whole person without my body matching my thoughts and feelings.
• If I'm feeling a conflict between my thoughts/feelings and my body, it's my body that is the problem/I'm living in the wrong body.

What are the implications of substance dualism?

• Since my self is more than my body, if there's no reincarnation I should fear death
• Misinterpretations of passages like 1 Corinthians 15:44 ("natural" body is often a mistranslation of the more accurate "soulish") and multiple passages in Romans and elsewhere ("flesh" is mis-assumed to exclude the mind)

The Biblical Self Through Early Christianity

Plato preceded the development of Christianity, coming onto the scene around 370 BC. His thought was developed by the first few generations of church fathers by around AD 200. In Plato's conception of the self, several concepts were excluded (like memory) from what we now would consider essential to the self or identity. Early thinkers who engaged with Plato included the Gnostics (heretics), Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen.

However, Paul--with a Jewish mindset and background--had a different concept of the self (which Aristotle was more consistent with). The Hebrew thought pattern was closer to non-substance dualism: that the soul, self, and essence were equivalent, but none included the mind. (Opponents of this view cite 1 Samuel 28 about Samuel summoning up the spirit of Samuel which expressed thoughts consistent with Samuel's mind.) His use of psyche to translate nephesh indicates that the "soul" is the "self" throughout the Pauline epistles. He may have been influenced slightly by Platonist anthropology in the Wisdom of Solomon as supported by his description of the armor of God.

Developing Paul's thought, the biblical conception of the self can best be stated as: my identity is found in my relationships--first to God, then to family, then to others in society. I relate to others through my God-given callings, or vocations, whether as sister, daughter, mother, wife, and/or other.

Recommended Reading on the Self Over Time

This was the easiest question for Husband to answer, citing Anglican philosophers and theologians:

• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• After You Believe (titled Virtue Reborn in the UK) by N. T. Wright
• Anything by Carol Newsom
• Anything by Michael Gorman
• N. T. Wright's commentary on Galatians
• Richard Hays' work on New Testament oral tradition

Final Thoughts

Some comments didn't quite fit under the other interview questions I had for him. However, they bring fresh thought to the theme of the self-as-dust:

• Freud was the major thinker to modify the concept of the Platonic "self" so that it could eventually become the "psychological self." Descartes, in particular, developed a statement of the idea of a physical-nonphysical dichotomy where the physical and nonphysical were separate but touching, like halves of a sandwich.
• Descartes' concept of dichotomy enabled the development of the concept of mechanism. This was excellent for the progress of empirical science, but has been overused by physicalists.
• Many thinkers today are moving away from both monism and dualism, toward a modified dualism essentially saying "There's more to matter than what we can empirically discover." This view is lethal to methodological naturalism. For further reading, check out Anglican philosophers Timothy O'Connor and Lynne Rudder Baker.
• Martin Luther was not a strict dualist. His concept of soul sleep, which a number of contemporary Lutherans have moved away from, communicates the idea of unconsciousness from the time of bodily death until the time of bodily resurrection, and is consistent with N. T. Wright's work on the new creation.

What's in the Middle of a Book?

Is there anything special about the midpoint of a book, examined at the midpoint of this year? Does the concept of "middle" have any theological implications?

How does the Middle of a Book Relate to its Message?

As a reader partial to paper copies of books, I find a certain satisfaction when I'm at or just past the middle of a book. There's a sense of accomplishment along with the motivation to progress more quickly through the second half than through the first half. Dopamine (usually) yields momentum!

Besides the physical aspect of holding equal portions of the book in right and left hands, is there anything about the message or purpose of the book that occurs in the middle, consistently across different types of books? The next subsection is about where I am in each book I'm currently reading. Let's see if there are any patterns.

Examples From My Current Reading

At this time, I am making my way through six books . . .

Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (eds. K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, K. Thomas)

• Past the middle? Not quite, but I'm close!
• What's in the middle? The "cultural meaning" test as to how unconscious racism may be identified in specific cases. This test did not exist at the time of the writing (pre-1995).
• What's the point of the book? Critical race theory as envisioned and enacted today has historical context, starting in the legal literature around the 1960s. This book seeks to provide some of the most influential writings in chronological order. I appreciate the detailed end notes even though the endnote style is irritating (I'm an AMA girl).
• What is the significance of the middle content? Unconscious racism as an idea/theme had not been developed in the book up to this point. It is one of the commonly repeated ideas of CRT, and this essay is where that idea is developed as a purported problem to address.

Christian Apologetics (D. Groothius)

• Past the middle? Not quite, but I'm very close!
• What's in the middle? A discussion of Pascal's definition of human existence, in a chapter on his anthropological argument for God/theism.
• What's the point of the book? To engage with major and moderately-major topics relevant to Christian apologetics and making the case for a biblical faith. Douglas Groothius is Anglican, which I was stoked to find out, but writes from more of a Reformed perspective. Also, he jokes that the book is thick enough to be used in cases where a brick might otherwise be used.
• What is the significance of the middle content? The chapter in which the middle occurs is in a section on various arguments for and against Christianity and theism in general. I'm not familiar with the anthropological argument, so that will be a learning opportunity.

The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (ed. M. W. Holmes)

• Past the middle? No, although I'm jumping around per Husband's recommendation of the best order in which to read the writings.
• What's in the middle? A portion of The Epistle of Barnabas, pointing out water and cross together through Old Testament examples. Its theme was that Christians were God's intended covenantal heirs (one-covenant theology).
• What's the point of the book? Much of biblical interpretation is informed by how the earliest Christians and Christian leaders interpreted what the Old Testament said and what Jesus had said and done. These Christians functioned in the historical context of first-century second-Temple Judaism as it related to the surrounding Greek and Roman cultures. If we ignore those things and instead read our own presuppositions and historical understandings back into the text, we risk falling into error.
• What is the significance of the middle content? Because the book isn't quite arranged chronologically, not much. However, all the sources were written in the first 2ish generations of Christianity during and after the lives of the New Testament authors.

The Flirtation Experiment (L. Jacobson and P. Masonheimer)

• Past the middle? No, but I'm close!
• What's in the middle? "Your Flirtation Experiment" assignment related to the idea of nurturing the friendship between you and your spouse. What activities used to build the friendship in your early days and years?
• What's the point of the book? The authors have been married for the longer and shorter ends of the marriage spectrum, and wanted to team up to suggest ways for wives to resume the flirtation they did premaritally, in order to revive their marital dynamics as desired. This is actually a very family-friendly book, more so than I was expecting.
• What is the significance of the middle content? There are a month's worth of ideas in the book, to try one per day (e.g., resuming a hobby previously enjoyed); the organization is roughly according to the order in which the authors came up with the "experiments" in real life.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality (P. Scazzero)

• Past the middle? Yes! (I finished the book early, and Husband is working through it by chapter in concert with a book study we're involved in.)
• What's in the middle? Advice for moving "through" emotional walls one encounters in one's life.
• What's the point of the book? Peter Scazzero seems to be telling the story, interspersed with recommendations, of how he grew more aware of his emotions and adopted Daily Office (non-Anglican) practices as the founding pastor of a nondenominational community church. The core information could have been stated in 30 pages or fewer, as is the case with many self-help books. Theological and psychological problems aside (he recommends therapy in an offhand way and does not seem to have gotten any himself for his severely dysfunctional early marriage), it's an easy read.
• What is the significance of the middle content? The emotional wall concept is about halfway through Scazzero's journey, so it involves introspecting a bit more deeply with one's interpretation of Scripture as a guide.

The Lost Dragon of Wessex (G. Bowers)

• Past the middle? Yes!
• What's in the middle? Scene in the king's hall where a wanderer is telling his story. This lights the imagination of Wulf, the main character, who uses the rest of the book to go on a small but significant adventure.
• What's the point of the book? This surprisingly short novel was recently recorded by Smidgen Press and should be available here in about a month. The story is of a Saxon boy becoming a young man after journeying to be of service to the king.
• What is the significance of the middle content? The story is just starting to move along at this point, so the remainder has more momentum.

Patterns of Middle Content

In books intended to have a "story" flow, the middle served as a pivot point in my list. In books organized topically or chronologically, the middle content didn't serve a predictable purpose. Have you found this to be the case with the middles of the books that you've been reading lately?

Theological Implications of "Middle"

Despite the polarization of many aspects of worldview and society these days, I find comfort in being a conservative moderate in many areas (politics, theology, etc.). I wanted to explore more areas in which "middle" has value and implications in this post, but time got away from me.

Polar Opposites

The phrase "middle way" most commonly refers to Buddhism, in a context of world religions. In a specifically Christian context, adopters of the concept of "the middle way" (Latin via media) have historically been Anglicans, most commonly. Their "middle" was between Reformed and Roman Catholic theology and practice. As a side note, although Lutheranism was an obvious product of the Reformation, in more recent times it has grown closer to certain aspects of Anglicanism. More on that shortly. As another side note, I refer specifically to Roman Catholics in order to distinguish from the ACNA's use of big-C Catholic to refer to the universal church. (In my priest's words: "We're not small-c Christians. Why would we be small-c Catholics?")

On the one end, common principles adopted by most Reformed denominations include

• Centering theology on God's glory or sovereignty
• Applying logic to the Biblical texts (typically in English translation, checking back to the Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic originals as needed)
• Systematically comparing (translated) Scripture with itself
• Using the Westminster Confession and others written within a few centuries of that ("historical" pointing back to the Reformation era of the 1500s)
• Affirming four of the early church councils' doctrines on the Trinity and two natures of Christ (Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon)
• Clarifying the central role of Jesus Christ as the mediator between us and the Father
• Expanding beyond five-point (TULIP) Calvinism to speaking to other points of worldview
• Prioritizing practical application over systematics at times
• Promoting evangelism and missions (common to all Christian denominations)
• Hearkening back to a strong Puritan influence

On the other end, common principles adopted by most Roman Catholic churches include

• Branding itself as representing all of Christianity
• Canonizing certain Christians who perform miracles as saints through a lengthy process
• Specifying interdependence of nature (created things) and God's grace (e.g., baptismal regeneration which is not unique to Roman Catholicism)
• Identifying the Church with Christ Himself (something N. T. Wright cautions against)
• Depending on Scripture-plus-tradition, sometimes weighting tradition above Scripture
• Teaching specific dogmas about Mary, Jesus' mother (e.g., perpetual virginity, super-veneration as distinguished from worship, etc.)
• Advising penance for for moral (vs. venial) sin
• Roughly equally weighting seven sacraments
• Combining justification and sanctification

Anglicanism's Via Media

How, then, is Anglicanism a "middle way" between these two poles? Here's the spectrum of Anglican denominations, from most liberal to most conservative in doctrine, and explaining a little bit about the ACNA somewhere on the conservative side of the middle.

• On the most liberal side is the Church of England, specifically the diocese of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The principal liberal stances relate to holy orders (bishop, priest, deacon) intersecting with non-celibate non-heterosexual people.
• Roughly in the same position is the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA).
• In the middle is most of the Anglican Communion, including the Anglican Church in Canada, Australia, and South India (more ecumenical).
• In the conservative/middle side are the ACNA and various individual streams (high church/traditionalist/Anglo-Catholic, low church/evangelical, and charismatic).
• On the more conservative side are Continuing Anglicans and the Anglican Church in America.

The ACNA and Anglican Church in Canada split from the part of the Anglican Communion that accepted non-heterosexual ordination as noted above. Anglicanism being somewhat of a mixed pot in terms of non-essential doctrines, there are core beliefs held by all members in terms of (1) major doctrines, (2) one's approach to doctrine (i.e., apostolic succession and an episcopal governance model), (3) holy orders (i.e., the offices of the ministry), and (4) worship life. Daily Prayer and weekly Eucharist are cornerstones of Anglican worship.

On Ways to Misunderstand Audiobooks

This month, I'm focusing on audiobooks in blog-land, for several reasons . . .

☔ Audiobooks make outdoor reading weatherproof (and in my area, the transition from spring to summer is a bit unpredictable weather-wise).

🤔 I do have access to Audible, after all. Maybe I should use it. I also have access to Smidgen Press's new AI-generated audiobook recording of The Lost Dragon of Wessex so am taking advantage of that!

👶 Child is becoming more exploratory, making audiobooks a sensible choice for getting reading done while providing adequate supervision and engagement.

👂 Some cultures still use oral-language to transmit traditions and knowledge over periods of history. Who knows, audiobooks may eventually contribute to that for ours!

All that said, I'm still somewhat new to the audiobook world, but not to the book world! My friend and fellow literary blogger Beth mentioned earlier this year that audiobooks help her to appreciate pronunciation of unfamiliar words and place/character names as compared to a non-audio version. But that leads to the difficulty of possibly misunderstanding those words the first time (or few) they're pronounced. 

What about the angle of someone misunderstanding the content itself, at a superficial or deeper level? That's what I will scratch the surface of, in this week's post! As you might have guessed, I've been inspired in part by 3 recent N. T. Wright books that I've been listening to on audiobook:

• Paul: A Biography
• Commentary on Galatians
• How God Became King (here's a 1-hour video lecture on the book here from when he spoke at Calvin College)

How to Read for Understanding

I may or may not have mentioned previously on this blog--I struggled as a child with reading comprehension, despite being a somewhat early reader (~3 years old). Mom worked with me on seeing the forest, not just the trees, which was quite uncomfortable and effortful at the time. It still is, now, but it's easier because I have more background knowledge about most content I'm reading. There are three scaffolded strategies that you can use to read anything for understanding, particularly Scripture.

Phonics

While the teaching of phonics has been de-emphasized over the years in practice, and certain poems have been written to emphasize the limitations of phonics, there is much merit to this approach as the earliest part of formal reading. I have this book on my wish list for when Child shows readiness for phonics because I am a firm believer in the ability of phonics knowledge to unlock a large amount of the English language for a reader. It may be a while, though, since he sits in one place for a maximum of 4 board book pages . . .

However, if phonics is just learning how to sound out unfamiliar words according to the rules of a language, how does that connect to understanding a text, especially without interpretive pictures? Here's my line of thought:

1. Language follows patterns, and written languages use alphabets that also follow patterns, whether within individual words or larger units of text.
2. One cannot have an idea of what a text says unless one is told about it, read aloud the text by another, or reads the text themselves.
3. In order to read a text aloud to oneself or another, one must have a sense of how to transform the written words into intelligible speech (phonics or some other method).
4. Mispronounced words can be mistaken for other words or otherwise not understood if the pronunciation doesn't match what the hearer expects based on their past experience with the language.
5. Phonics knowledge (on the reader's part) increases the likelihood of correctly pronouncing all or most words.
6. Understanding or comprehension isn't possible unless someone has an idea of what the text says.
7. Therefore understanding of a text isn't as likely without phonics knowledge as with phonics knowledge.

(I have read through this logic and philosophy book recently, but my deductive logic skills and premise construction may be a little underdeveloped because that's outside my line of work. I welcome your constructive critiques and feedback!)

Context, Context, Context!

In the health care field, training after training, and article after review article, emphasizes the need for providers to pay attention to context of interpersonal communication. TeamSTEPPS is an example of a nationally standardized training for providers and student providers. Why? Communication, attentive to the whole context, reduces medical error, cost, and lives lost.

In everyday reading or listening to read-aloud books/audiobooks, lack of attention to context may not be immediately fatal to life, but it's pretty important, starting with the earliest readers.

So, how do you consider the context when reading the Bible (as one example)? Whether you're a layperson or a more trained theologian, you need to know something about hermeneutics, the structured process and study of Biblical interpretation. Grasping God's Word by Duvall & Hays is a college-level (pre-seminary) text that was helpful in introducing me to a relatively balanced approach to the field. Here are some takeaways from their approach:

• Be aware of the cultural and temporal/historical distance between you and the biblical writers. Though God is eternal, the human authors were not, and didn't write to you specifically.
• Be also aware that the collection of canonical books in the Bible work together to tell a story about God working in history. More detail down below.
• When reading individual sentences, look for repeated words, contrasts, comparisons, lists, cause-effect phrasing, figures of speech, conjunctions, verbs, and pronouns. (It helps if the translation is current and accurate enough to more closely approximate the meanings into your reading language.)
• When reading individual paragraphs, look for general and specific statements, questions and answers, dialogue, purpose/result statements, means (of accomplishment), conditional clauses, people's and God's actions and roles, emotional terms, and tone.
• When reading discourses (longer passages), look for connections between paragraphs and episodes, shifts in the story (breaks/pivots), interchange (comparing 2 stories simultaneously), chiasm (a-b-c-d-c-b-a is a complex one), and inclusio (same/similar words or ideas bookending the passage).
• Be aware of the genre of the text or book, and its implications.
• Types of context include historical-cultural, your own culture(s) including presuppositions, and literary.
• Types of word-study fallacies to avoid include 
• English-only (go back to the Hebrew or Greek!)
• Root (assuming that etymology = real meaning)
• Time-frame (reading a current connotation of a word back into its original text)
• Overload (packing too many ideas into one word)
• Word-count (assuming identical meaning in each location of the word)
• Word-concept (one word = a whole concept), and
• Selective-evidence (cherry-picking the evidence for our interpretation).

Historical Documents

I can summarize this section by the common phrase "Those who don't know the past are doomed to repeat it." Or misinterpret it. Essentially, although some theological traditions eschew attention to the historical context of biblical texts while claiming that they are in fact reading for context, a historical lens is indispensable. An example of historical context being ignored in favor of reading one's own tradition's presuppositions/worldview into the text is this 2021 reprint of a 2018 blog post from a Reformed perspective that either correctly or wildly incorrectly summarizes some of N. T. Wright's key claims about Paul's theology, despite including many quotes from Wright's books (more detail in section below). The post showed how it's definitely possible, and highly likely, to misinterpret an author's meaning if some criteria are not met:

• Recognizes and acknowledges one's own biases and presuppositions
• Recognizes and acknowledges the author's environment (geographical, historical, societal, etc.), then tries to enter the mind of the author
• Holds all historical texts (those inside and outside one's own tradition) to the same standard, rather than raising the standard for the ones outside and lowering the standard for the ones inside
• Reads the entire document and, if possible, additional documents/footnotes (others' testimony and scholarship--preview for History and Eschatology post) that help in understanding by bridging the knowledge-history gap between author and reader

I plan to do at least one additional post specifically devoted to this topic, so that's all this subsection has!

Why is N. T. Wright so Often Misunderstood?

The fact of Wright having been so easily misunderstood by people from various perspectives is well-documented. Prominently, R. C. Sproul publicly called him a heretic based on a misunderstanding of his (orthodox) view of justification by faith. John MacArthur also accused him of a heterodox view of the Atonement (whereas Lutherans take Wright's view as well, and I happen to think that they're fairly orthodox). Given the amount of cognitive effort and intellectual humility that I hope the previous section has shown as necessary to a proper understanding of a historical/biblical text, it is perhaps not surprising that Wright's complex ideas don't fit every reader's worldview or presuppositions.

His Approach

Wright's approach flows from his background. Oxford-trained in philosophy and theology, he taught New Testament studies for two decades at various UK and Canadian universities, served as the middle-Anglican Bishop of Durham, and has written over 80 books in his area of interest and expertise, the historical Jesus (focusing on the Resurrection). His second main focus topic is the New Perspective on Paul.

You already know that Husband has read many of Wright's works. I asked him to summarize Wright's approach to scripture in an elevator speech. Here's the gist of what he said (very well put by another writer as well--the long read is worth your time!):

• Many interpreters translate the Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic into their own language, then interpret from that language. Wright interprets directly from the original language, then translates.
• Since he is committed to examining and thinking about the Scriptures themselves, as their original authors would have intended to communicate messages within their own historical contexts, he ends up critiquing points from nearly all Christian theological traditions.
• He also refuses to align to a polarized position from any one Christian tradition, even his own. (Side note: Anglicanism, in some parts, is commonly referred to as "three-streams" because of its blending of Protestant, Pentecostal, and Catholic.)
• Finally, he notes that there are many ways to read a text "literally" (in the Lutheran take of sensus literalis, or according to the letter/original intent). How would the intended audience have interpreted the text?

A not-exactly-positive, but still fairly accurate, article lists some of Wright's positions that flow from this approach in some more depth.

His Bibliography

I had a difficult time finding a complete list of every single one of his books, because he keeps on writing them. (He started writing decades ago, and is continuing to write busily at age 75ish.) Goodreads lists a selection, including these:

• Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
• Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters
• How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels
• God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath
• After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters
• Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today
• The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus' Crucifixion
• Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues
• The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology

Case in Point

I mentioned a reprinted blog post above. The organization reprinting the post is a self-described publisher of texts that clearly describe "historic biblical Christianity" from a specifically Puritan perspective, inspired by some early Methodists. The first problem is that the publisher views "historical" as equivalent to "when the Reformation occurred." Different traditions disagree on when exactly that was, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

At any rate, this post centers on a Wright chapter in one of John Walton's books, titled "Paul's Use of Adam is More Interested in the Effect of Sin on the Cosmos Than in the Effect of Sin on Humanity and Has Nothing to Say About Human Origins." My thoughts by no means constitute a complete analysis, but I have brief responses to each of the post's claims:

• Claim #1: Wright has a low view of Scripture.
• Response: The author's understanding of a "low view" seems to be anything less than divine dictation to the human authors. This also brings in issues of the canon--Reformed groups in general have major problems with the concept of antilegoumena including 2 Peter and Hebrews.
• Claim #2: Wright doesn't call himself an inerrantist. 
• Response: Correct. An inerrantist position, strongly stated, comes across as a literalist who discounts how biblical authors might have communicated their message in their historical context. See section above on Wright's approach.
• Claim #3: Wright thinks the debate over Adam's historicity is more of a focus in the US than in the UK.
• Response: Probably right. Just because a researcher/academic isn't part of a cultural or ethnic group, though, most certainly does not mean that the academic can't show interest and insight in goings-on of that "other" group. It happens all the time, and interest in the "other" is a key part of curiosity that leads to discovery.
• Claim #4: Wright re-imagines and re-interprets Paul.
• Response: Correct. The author phrases this as a criticism by standing behind a shield claiming that her theological tradition has a/the "purely biblical" view without acknowledging the philosophical presuppositions of that tradition that are sometimes prioritized over "biblical" interpretation. See section above.
• Claim #5: Wright overemphasizes the cosmos' redemption (renewal of the creation) over and above individual humans' salvation (from "moral failures").
• Response: Partially correct. The comparative overemphasis is needed, Wright says, because of how the Reformation and other events have produced major shifts in thinking about salvation which need re-examination.
• Claim #6: Wright thinks that Adam being a historical figure is unnecessary to Paul's theology. 
• Response: Correct. However, note that Wright is not saying in those sections that Adam isn't a historical figure. See claim 3.
• Claim #7: Based on all this, Wright doesn't view Scripture by itself. "Either Scripture will be the lens through which you view the world or the world (science, politics, worldview, etc.) will be the lens through which you view Scripture. Ultimately one or the other will be your authority."
• Response: Correct. But I believe that Wright is taking the correct view, as opposed to this view influenced by the myth of perfect objectivity. Because the Bible was not written to us, and everyone brings presuppositions to a text, worldview always comes into play when one is reading Scripture or any other writing.

Now that I've stirred the pot, what are your thoughts?

Good, Best, and Books?

Best Friends Day is June 8, around which day this post will be published. In this spirit of that day, I want to explore what "best" means, what "friends" means in a book context, and share some of my past and current "best-friend" books and how they've shaped my life. I also wrote about commemoration days in general a little while ago, in a less secular context.

What is "Best"?

In the context of Best Friends Day, "best" connotes "favorite." I've had trouble with this concept for my whole life. It's been difficult or impossible to articulate my "one" favorite item, friend, etc. According to Reddit, this is more normal than I thought. Since favorites change over time and vary with circumstances, I've found it much easier to put together a time-bound "top 10" list.

In philosophy, Plato's dialogues were instrumental in forming initial definitions of "good" and "best." Value theory is currently used in some contexts to describe how one determines an arrangement of items and concepts with various degrees of goodness. That puts one down a rabbit whole of what one means when one uses the word "good." Language is fluid yet descriptive of reality, so there are different angles and types of "good" depending on what the person is describing.

When philosophy is applied to society and community, the concept of "common good" emerges. Here, "good" refers to what benefits those around us and ourselves, intersecting with what we are obligated by external moral standards to work toward or provide. This concept may be falling out of favor in some circles, particularly because the concept of the "self" has been shifting since the pre-1700s from an individual in relation to society toward an individual prioritizing the inner thoughts/psyche above all things.

What about "best" meaning "perfect"? Philosophically, perfectionism as a theory starts with what is objectively good and develops that set of ideas, taking into account--but not prioritizing--whether people want or like them. An example might be a nutritious but not particularly tasty vegetable. This connotes the phrase "good for you" for me to remember the concept. This concept of "good" or "perfect" is quite biblical, so it's consistent with the worldview I developed through my childhood and young adult years.

As a side note, reflection on all the situation-specific words that connote "good" prompted me to agree with Strunk and White and C. S. Lewis that one should use the most precise word for the situation for clarity. Some more examples . . .

• "Good" weather is pleasant
• "Good" days are uneventful
• "Good" workers are reliable and competent
• "Good" ideas are attractive and useful
• "Good" parking spots are convenient
• "Good" friends are kind
• "Good" children are well-behaved
• "Good" salaries are sufficient and profitable

What, then, would be my criteria for a "best" book? I suggest these:

• From a moral standpoint, a "best" book is the most
• Aligned with a biblical worldview
• Truthful in examining societal ills or personal sin
• Edifying
• From a self-serving standpoint, a "best" book is the most
• Pleasant
• Interesting
• Informative
• Easy (or challenging) to read

What is a "Friend"?

Naturally, philosophy has some thoughts about friendship and, relatedly, gratitude.

Friendship is "a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other’s sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy." Thus, philosophical concepts associated with friendship include goodness (see above), closeness, and the common good. This raises a question about human (and perhaps non-human) friends: Although people do it all the time, is it right/good to abandon a former friend for a new/better one? A further question: What is the process by which friendship grows, wanes, and dies?

Gratitude is "the proper or called-for response in a beneficiary to benefits or beneficence from a benefactor." This also raises some questions: (1) When do we owe gratitude to someone else? (2) What is the substance of a grateful response?

To question (1), the Encyclopedia's cited philosophers suggest these situational questions that expect a "yes/former" answer to most or all:

• Does the benefactor have agency, or is the benefactor an inanimate object?
• Is the benefit an action, or an object?
• Was the benefit intentionally given?
• Was the benefit voluntarily or involuntarily applied?
• Does the benefit accrue liability to the benefactor?
• Is the benefit an actual benefit for the recipient?
• Is the benefit willingly received?

To question (2), there are some suggested criteria:

• The recipient must believe that good happened
• The recipient must have a belief of gratefulness and have positive feelings
• The recipient should communicate several elements: "I am grateful" plus a behavior or tendency ("conative element") such as a thank-you note
• The recipient should have the proper (selfless/grateful) motivation. 

The common phrase "attitude of gratitude" summarizes these elements pretty well!

What are my Childhood Best-Friend Books?

As I thought about this topic, I realized that my brain was combining the criteria of "earliest" with the two sets of criteria I proposed above. As a child, I read the Boxcar Children series (specifically books by Gertrude Chandler Warner), many books in the voluminous Berenstain Bears series, a number of Nancy Drew books, and even earlier, Goodnight Moon. While not a book per se, the Memlok memory verse card system also has positive associations in my mind with childhood. My dad told me that, as he read Goodnight Moon to me when I was a little older than Child is now, he would make intentional errors so that I would correct them. Child is still not quite verbal, so my (memorized) reading aloud of The Very Hungry Caterpillar doesn't include errors . . . yet.

What are my Current Best-Friend Books?

As I noticed when developing this list and the above, I was and still am a big fan of authors who didn't stop at just one book. At the time of writing this post, my "best-friend" books include

• Douglas Groothius, Christian Apologetics. This book is 800+ pages, brick-shaped, has a pretty blue cover, uses a clean typeset and page layout, and a clear writing style. I have some quibbles with his theology, but the book is a helpful resource for the layperson, with an ample bibliography.
• Anything by John Walton. I read one of his "Lost World Of" books a few months ago and keep meaning to get around to the other ones. His writing style and approach to exegesis using the historical context of the biblical books are deeply attractive to my brain.
• Any non-devotional books by N. T. Wright. He is a scholar first, and his writing and thinking style (parallel in many ways to Walton's) lend themselves well to scholarly works. We own many of his 80+ works, so I have a long way to go.

Another current favorite that is not part of a series is The Lost Dragon of Wessex (Smidgen Press) now that I had time to get into the story over the weekend! The first few pages felt stilted and slow, but once the story got moving in chapter 2 or so, I was hooked.

How about you? What are your "best-friend" books these days and why?

Great Outdoors Month: Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study

The month of June is Great Outdoors Month, among other things. To me, that connotes the American Dream, pioneers, westward migration in the United States, Little House on the Prairie, Misty of Chincoteague, and the Handbook of Nature Study which informed parts of my childhood. While the American Dream is waning in popularity (here's an example of a horizon-broadening college experience that reflects that), nature study is alive and well in Charlotte Mason circles. Come along with me on a reread through the Handbook. 

Situating the Handbook in a Historical Timeline

Writing, revising, and publishing a textbook of any size can take time. Factoring in the time to research, draft, get feedback, complete revision, typeset, index, and print a book of the Handbook's size, I would not be surprised if it took 2-3 years. Given that timeline, what was happening when Anna was starting and finishing the book?

In 1909:

• Selma Lager was the first woman to receive the literature Nobel Prize
• The NAACP was founded

In 1910:

• The most common form of dementia received its name, Alzheimer('s) disease
• Type 2 diabetes was identified to be based on deficiency of a single chemical, here named insulin
• Boy Scouts of America was founded
• Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) died
• Several strikes, including the Chicago Garment Workers

In 1911:

• Frank Lloyd Wright began construction on his Wisconsin summer home
• Ronald Reagan was born
• Baseball was in full swing (pun intended)

Why was the Handbook Written?

Anna Botsford Comstock, while at Cornell University, wrote the Handbook to help haggard teachers especially in New York State and eventually elsewhere. As the initial section emphasizes, nature study is to serve multiple purposes in a school or farm context—physical health, mental refreshment, increased curiosity, and immediate awareness of the natural objects and organisms that one can see with at most a magnifying glass or binoculars. 

As Comstock emphasized, nature study benefits not only the students but also the teachers. We don't age out of needing to go outside regularly. Nor do we age out of needing to learn about the world around us. (I am passionate about improving the physical and mental health of older adults, so that aspect is near to my heart.)

Is the Handbook Still Useful?

It certainly is! As the 1986 foreword states, the majority of organisms and phenomena described are still around, and easy to find in most areas of the United States. The few that have gone extinct still have entries for historical value. This book is designed for elementary and middle school-level educators and so includes interesting macroscopically observable facts as well as guiding questions about each species or genus with its own entry. From the Foreword:

 "This book is for the most part as valid and helpful today as it was when first written in 1911. After all, dandelions, toads, robins, and constellations have changed little since then! And modern society's concern with the quality of life and the impact of people on soil, water, and wildlife makes this book even more relevant."

Part I - The Teaching of Nature-Study

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• I've owned this book since I was at least in high school (I neglected to check the date on the gift receipt when re-reading it for this post before Child chewed up said receipt), so I had glanced through various entries.
• I knew it had originally been published in 1911 with copyright renewed periodically by divisions of Cornell University Press.
• Favorite features include full- and partial-page plate pictures. These may already have been in the first edition, fleshing out the book to 859 pages plus index.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• The Handbook has gone through over 24 editions!
• "Ecology is merely formalized nature study" (p. ix, 1939 preface).
• The preface also noted that "teachers are as a whole untrained in the subject" of nature study (p. xiii).
• Relevant especially for homeschoolers, nature study has distinct intersections with other subjects, including language, drawing, geography, history, arithmetic, gardening, and agriculture.
• Each section starts with "how-to" and general concepts, followed by specific entries for individual species and genera.

I am looking forward to using this book with Child and any potential future siblings.

Part II - Animals

This section has subsections for birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects, and invertebrates.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• The section on game birds, particularly the ones common in my area--wild turkey and ring-necked pheasants. By this point in the year, I may have seen more turkey vultures than turkey.
• The entry on goldfish in the fish section. My siblings went through a brief goldfish-raising phase, and yours truly developed budding biology skills by dissecting each one after it became an ex-goldfish.
• The entry on  spring peepers (Pickering's Hyla or Hyla crucifer). I've seen and heard my share of these tiny frogs, but didn't know their characteristic back marking is a St. Andrew's cross.
• The entry on garter snakes in the reptiles section. One tends to either love or hate snakes; I fall into the former category.
• The entry on wood turtles (Clemmys insculpta), which are longtime neighbors in the river near my house.
• The entry on cotton-tail rabbits in the mammals section. Peter Rabbit and siblings were an apt characterization of this species' temperament.
• The entry (specifically the pictures) on the cat. Even though it was in black and white, the picture of a tabby captivated Child and elicited a full minute of joyous "Ditty! Ditty!"
• The entry on horses. Like most girls in my age range, I went through a pronounced horse phase and still wouldn't mind the opportunity to ride, if it comes up.
• The entry on monarch butterflies in the insects section. I had the privilege of tagging several migrating monarchs in undergrad along with capturing and inspecting several tagalong praying mantises.
• The entry on the black cricket. Crickets were a favorite to observe in my childhood, and notoriously difficult to catch for brief inspection.
• The entry on mosquitoes. These insects enjoy my blood type, unfortunately.
• The full-page display of Florida and East Coast shells. I think every child should have a collection of something growing up, whether that be seashells or something else. Twenty-five kinds are depicted.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Introductory section on how birds fly. I had known something about this, but the practical physics of the explanation is satisfying to mentally translate into technical terms in my own head. Analogies include a handheld fan, jumping down with an open umbrella, pressing down on a vaulting pole, a web, and a rudder.
• Bird songs notated!

• The entry on stickleback (Eucalia inconstans) in the fish section. I've caught many types of fish, but not sticklebacks. "Lilliputian" and "sagacious" are two delicious adjectives that Comstock used to describe this fish species.
• The entry on newts in the amphibians section. I haven't seen too many of these, but the first reference that jumps to mind is, of course, Monty Python.
• The full-page spread on other kinds of snakes, including ribbon, rubber boa, rough green (Opheodrys aestivus, local to me), timber rattler, desert gopher, ring-necked, and the sidewinder.
• Directions for making a tin-can trap for humanely catching small mammals.
• Directions for optimizing cows' milk production by varying the nutritional content of their diet, setting up a clean dairy barn and washing the udders, and preserving milk appropriately (including raw milk consumption from one's own cows or cows whose owner one knows well).
• The diagram showing the structure of a typical index, including scientific and colloquial names for the head and parts (including a surprisingly complex mouth), thorax with sections, and abdomen with components.

• The hummingbird/sphinx moths. I would like to see or hear these some evening--I do know there are hummingbirds in the neighborhood.
• Directions for making one's own ant-nest--the Lubbock nest is designed to lie flat with a "moat" around where the ants are housed.
• Depictions of different spiderweb shapes--funnel, orb, triangle, and irregular.

Part III - Plants

This section has subsections for wildflowers, weeds including first aid for poison ivy, garden flowers, cultivated crop plants, trees, and flowerless plants.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• Milkweed, common variety, is taking root beautifully in an increasing portion of my back yard each year.
• Goldenrod has grown profligately for decades in the forest preserve near my childhood home, and its simple beauty never ceased to amaze me.
• Thistles are also an unfortunately profligate resident of my yard . . . at least pulling the different kinds gets me and Child outdoor time.
• Burdocks are another resident species I failed to recognize until too late last season, so this year I resume my mission to eradicate them.
• Daffodils grow very briefly and in a small area in my yard--more in my mother's--but they always bring cheer to early spring.
• Bleeding hearts take up more and more space in my yard each year, so that I can offer cuttings to anyone who wants them.
• Wild strawberries, raspberries, and fox grapes grow less than a mile from my house. I'm looking forward to sampling whatever the birds leave.
• Oak trees provide pressable leaves and acorns that as a young child I thoroughly enjoyed picking up and playing creatively with.
• Growing up, my childhood included a Chinese elm in the back yard and weeping willows nearby.
• Botany class in college included an expedition to pick mushrooms. A memorable quote from the professor: "Then you can say, 'No, you idiot! That's a basidiocarp!'"
• Likewise, bracket fungi were and still are a fairly commonly encountered part of my life.
• As a biology major, I studied bacteria in some detail. I am impressed that Comstock includes these profligate microorganisms in her book, given the lack of access to microscopes by schoolchildren in her day.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Dutchman's breeches, which I had heard of before but never thought to see, actually are growing in my back yard this year!
• I had not known that clover could be cultivated for forage!
• The American elm (Ulmus americana) is extinct in some areas and endangered in many others, but was very common in Comstock's time.
• I grew moss gardens in a jar from time to time, but have not yet encountered hair-cap moss (a.k.a. pigeon wheat). These varieties are much taller than the typical moss.

Part IV - Earth and Sky

This section has subsections for brooks, rocks/minerals, soil, magnet, climate/weather, water forms, and sky.

Parts I already knew or that have been longtime favorites:

• Igneous rocks, especially granite, were deposited by glaciers and older volcanoes in areas where I have lived and visited.
• A useful chart on typical worldwide wind directions serves to reinforce the fact of the earth's rotation about its north-south axis.
• Likewise, a constellation chart shows where the most common star groups may be observed, at which latitude, throughout the year.

Parts that were new or particularly interesting to me:

• Quartz is apparently in the top 10(ish) most common rocks in the world.
• There is also a full-page spread on fossils, not discussing ages but merely noting their deposition in any "former age."
• Guest essays on soil conservation, including strip-cropping, are also included.

Hopefully, you can see why I originally titled this blog The Renaissance Biologist. What creatures are most common in your gardening zone?