Reading Biography 6.23.2022

    Preaching is bridge-building. We build bridges between the past and present. We build bridges between cultures. We build aesthetic and intellectual bridges. We build these bridges because the Gospel includes both particularity and universality. The kingdom is both always and now, then and there, here and hereafter. The most common of commonalities linking the past, present, and future is people. 

    The Bible tells the tale of God’s work to redeem His fallen creation. Within that tale, we read of men, women, and children whose lives contributed to the unfolding of the story. Some are heroic and some are tragic. Some provide positive role models, and others behaved deplorably. 

    Understanding people and what makes them tick is essential if we are to preach Scripture in such a way that listeners learn what they hear and apply what they learn. The world is our laboratory. We are surrounded by opportunities to learn about human nature and motivation, that is, other people. And every bookstore and library contains volumes of information about exemplary and notorious people to further our understanding of the human condition. That is what biographies are for, and if you preach to other human beings, you should read biography regularly. 

    Of all the kinds of literature I have recommended this month, biography may be the most directly relevant to preaching, even more so than history. The examples and illustrations taken from historical reading can lean toward the abstract and generic. Biographies provide illustrative material that tends toward the personal and intimate. Let’s consider the kinds of helpful information a conscientious preacher can glean from regularly reading biography. My examples shall come from my reading this winter of William Manchester’s magisterial (and large) biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion.

Human Nature

    Winston Churchill may have been larger than life, lived in a different era, and flourished in a class-driven society, but he was also driven by what we might think of as “normal” human characteristics. 

    Churchill was always trying to please his father. Churchill was always trying to get from beneath his father’s shadow. He adored his mother, who treated him as a beloved but tiresome toy. 

    His ambition was at times untamed which led him to avoidable errors and unnecessary danger. 

    Churchill suffered, throughout his life, from what he called his “black dogs.” The current diagnosis would likely describe him as depressed. Yet he was able to master his darkest moods and continue working. 

    His stubborn resolve turned him into a great leader during World War 2. His stubborn resolve led the electorate to remove him from office shortly after the last shot was fired in Europe.

Cultural Similarity/Dissimilarity

    All cultures share certain features. Each culture also has its defining characteristics. Churchill was born to wealth. He also lived in an era when rich, British aristocrats spent money lavishly on their comforts and pleasures. It was not uncommon for Churchill to be in debt to common shopkeepers and merchants whom he depended upon to help satisfy his needs. Those he owed were not as well off as he and his indifference to their needs seems callous to us. Yet, despite all the similarities between American and British culture, this is one of stark contrast. 

    He was at the same time an ardent individualist and a party man. He served his sovereign, party, and nation. His first allegiance, however, was to himself. 

Nature/Nurture

    Like most British middle and upper-class children of his time, Churchill’s education was largely in “public” (in Britain a public school is a private school, you know two people separated by a common language…) boarding schools. This was the nature of the British system. As for nurture, Churchill’s parents provided virtually none. Like his peers, he was largely raised by his nursemaid who was the most influential nurturing presence in his life until he got married. 

    So, what or who made him what he was? Was he born to greatness? The circumstances under which he was raised made him spoiled, self-centered, churlish, and childish even into adulthood. Yet none of these seemingly stunted emotions were able to stifle him. 

Vices and Virtues

    While Churchill is famous for the way he ate, drank, and smoked his most defining vice, for we who live in the Post-Modern world, was perhaps his work ethic. He was a workaholic, and that word barely does it justice. He was a member of the House of Commons. Before his Premiership, he had served in several other ministries. He wrote constantly and would be justly famous just for his life’s written output. For leisure on his Chartwell estate, he designed and built buildings. He found laying bricks to be a relaxing way to take his mind off work. 

    About eating, drinking, and smoking. Churchill had a formal dinner every evening. He would gather a crowd of employees, chums, and government officials and have a good English meal (at which he always consumed Champaign). These meals were ostensibly for “work” and conversation. At these gatherings, there was only one speaker. Churchill himself. Likely his central defining vice was his narcissism. He was a genius in several fields and much of the drive came from the fact that he was able to focus the energy of others on his work. 

Individuality/Genius/Teamwork

    Churchill was one of the great orators of the twentieth century. This is even more remarkable in that he had a lisp. He overcame this obstacle by leveraging it and turning it into a tool. In preparing a speech he dictated his first draft. Then he revised. Then he rewrote. Then he practiced. Then he amended. Then he had the final copy drafted in “Psalm Style”, arranged on the page to enable him to follow the logic and inflection of the speech. Prior to delivery, he would pencil corrections in the margin. 

    To be a part of his team was to be in the heat of the battle and at the heart of government. It was also exhausting. He never stopped thinking, writing, and exhorting. 

    The defining characteristic of Team Churchill was that it served him. The secretaries, typists, clerks, and government subordinates functioned as an extension of his valet. The latter prepared his bath and dressed him. The former prepared his documents and dressed his speech. 

End

Many other kinds of literature incorporate biographical processes into a larger genre. My current evening pleasure reading right now is the story of the writing of a computer program. In telling that tale the author is incorporating dozens of mini-biographies as he weaves a narrative web naming programmers and executives, the dreamers, doubters, schemers, and coders who set out a decade ago to write a new PIM called Chandler. They failed and that failure makes for an interesting story of why smart people do not always succeed. 

The story could have been told with much less biographical detail. The information would have been just as accurate, but the story would have been less readable. 

Mitch Kapor is no Winston Churchill but each character in each tale extends our understanding of what it means to be human. Biography helps us with the human side of preaching. 

We are always making comparisons between people. Biographical reading gives us a bigger canvas for those comparisons. Reading biography lets us compare people from diverse backgrounds with the characters we meet in scripture and the people we interact with every single day. Those comparisons teach us that people are pretty much all the same, sharing the same motivations to one degree or another, all participating in the fall and all in need of redemption. 

Reading History 6.16.2022

    Though the “technical” Biblical Studies genres tend to be academically delineated and narrowly specialized, it is an accurate generalization that much of the study for preaching involves historical analysis. 

    When we read and study scripture, we are considering the record of events the most recent being thousands of years old. In fact, many of the stories in the Bible are so well known that they have entered our general cultural lexicon, with a nearly universal relevance that reaches beyond their inspired meaning and spiritual intent. In our culture, the story of David vs. Goliath is just another description of the plight of the underdog. Virtually anyone can understand the analogy even when it is divorced from the spiritual content and purpose for which it was written (presumably by Samuel.)

    Scripture provides a particular understanding of history and a specific framework for historiography (the writing of history). For scripture, the processes of history and the recording of events and outcomes serve the central controlling purpose of revealing God’s nature, will, and requirements for humanity. Biblical historiography sees the past through the lens of God’s will and focuses on that past to create faith in the reader in the present. Though we are not professional historians, preachers tend to view the world historically. 

    So, reading even more history might not seem so pressing as other sorts of literature. If studying scripture is primarily reading history, why read even more? Reading and understanding history will help us frame good questions. Good questions infuse our preaching with dynamic engagement. Most importantly this dialogue is not just between you and the congregation but between the congregation and the past with you as an enabler. Let’s examine for a moment what kinds of questions historical reading will help you ask. 

Context

    The first rule of exegesis is context, context, context. You can never have too much context and reading history will provide the broadest possible stage for understanding the world. Once we master the Biblical context, we need to understand how the Biblical story fits into all the other stories which describe the human community. How have other cultures dealt with the issues addressed by scripture? What world events coordinate with events in scripture? How has the application of scriptural principles made an impact on the rest of world history? What impact did the emergence of the Church have upon the rest of civilization? All these questions begin by examining the big-picture history and correlating it with scripture.

Connection

    How are civilizations connected? When the terms are different, the stories confused, and the outcome leveraged for propaganda, how can we know what “really” happened? For example, we know that ancient Egypt and the Levant were inundated by a migratory group called The Sea Peoples in the aftermath of the great Mycenaean collapse. (If you do not know what that is, welcome to this essay.) What is the relationship between The Sea Peoples, the Phoenicians, and the Philistines? Does this connection explain the technological advances of the Philistines beyond their peers in Canaan? (The book of Judges implies that the Philistines entered the Iron Age prior to Israel and the indigenous Canaanite tribes.)

    These are historical questions dealing with connections of time, space, culture, geography, and the broader human condition. The Bible often plunges into a story without as much background as we might prefer, we are not really told who these Philistines are, they just sort of appear as enemies of Israel. Ignorance need not be permanent. It is correctable. In this case, there is available information, albeit some of it is incomplete, contradictory, and outdated—yet making at least a loose connection between The Sea Peoples and the Old Testament expands the context of understanding. 

Commonality

    People are people. Folks are folks. Reading the Bible in such a way that it draws a clear distinction between people groups, races, religions, and classes can be tempting. The Bible seems, at times to go out of its way to portray central characters with all their flaws prominently displayed. Humans are all sinners, and the Bible has several fine examples to make its case. Where we see differences the Bible often sees commonality. And what we hold in common is our fallen condition. 

    When we read the Bible and compare it with other historical information, we confront human beings in all their fallen, flawed, glory. The Greeks called them heroes, but the heroism of Achilles or Julius Caesar often looks like the heroism of a Samson or King David, and all are equally flawed. History reminds us that it is often the very virtues of the heroic which lead to their fall, not their vices. The Bible, if anything, reminds us to stay off the roof in the afternoon. 

Complexity

    History is messy. Human motivations are mixed. Intelligent, well-meaning leaders often do the wrong thing for the right reason and the right thing for the wrong reason. 

    As preachers, we know the Bible intimately. Because of that familiarity, we often "interpret out" the complexity. The Bible is complex because we live in a “mixed up, muddled up, shook up world.” Biblical history reminds us that this is a bug, not a feature. For secular history the opposite is true. Complexity is a feature. 

    In the mythic past, this complexity is often reduced to tragedy. When we compare Scripture with “secular” history we discover that tragedy and fall are two ways of describing the central phenomena of the human condition. 

    When we read history, we are reminded that our human story is disordered. The human story can be heroic. The human story has pathos, tragedy, humor, hubris, and honor. We read about all of these defining human characteristics in scripture. Scripture then goes on to address the root cause of the mess, sin. Reading history reminds us that the Biblical story provides God’s perspective on the broader human condition. History confirms the central Biblical story by establishing a larger setting in which the Biblical story is plausible for those who do not (or do not yet) have faith. 

    Historical reading reminds us that even for those who do not yet believe, the Bible is believable. That’s a good start. A good preacher like you ought to be able to work with that. 

Reading Poetry 6.9.2022

     You don’t need to be a musician to appreciate music. Music appeals to a non-verbal emotive part of our intellect. Music is complex and mathematical, but its beauty transcends its compositional nuance. Just about anyone can sing. To quote Buddy the Elf it’s “just like talking, but your voice moves up and down.” If only it was that easy. Nonetheless, countless people tune in, download, or, for traditionalists, spin music every day. It enriches our lives even when we cannot grasp or explain how it is made. 

    This brings us to today’s topic. You should be reading poetry. “Why”, you may ask? It does not seem rigorous or pious enough to inform preaching, teaching, or the work of ministry in any way.

    Why poetry? Shakespeare. The bard is responsible for more idiomatic English than virtually any other author. The King James Bible, of course, had a great impact, but it is a translation. And what’s more, much of the Bible is poetry. And Shakespeare is not the only notable poet nor is his poetry the only style. I make no secret of the fact that I’m a big Garrison Keillor fan. That man can whip up a limerick in his sleep! Limericks are poems. Earlier in the year when I was preaching from John, I wrote a limerick or some other accompanying poem for the first several weeks of the series. It was an exercise in word choice, which is what Poetry amounts to. 

    Why poetry? Because poetry is about pithy, pregnant phrasing. Poets try to find just the right word to evoke understanding and emotion. Poets labor over synonyms and antonyms, modifiers, and punctuation to create something which resonates with the reader or auditor. Can you think of any other writing, spoken publicly which needs to resonate? 

    You need to read poetry because as a preacher you are a wordsmith. Your goal is to interpret Scripture and proclaim it to your congregation Sunday after Sunday. After a few years of the discipline of study, you will have acquired habits. I know that I have done all that I can to inculcate those habits in this blog space every week. One of the habits you need to cultivate is creativity. You need to get better at choosing the right word and deploying it at the right time. A part of the process of learning to be a better writer is learning to be a better reader. That means a broader reading program, dipping into more and more genres, not only for information, not only for quotation but to get better at choosing your own words. 

    Unless the poet is writing stream-of-consciousness modernist free-verse (which some might argue should not even be properly called poetry) she must have some idea of the structure of the work before writing. This means that the poet is concerned not only with the meaning of the words but their sound, spelling, and architecture. Many of the forms of poetry that you can name: Haiku, Sonnet, and yes, Limerick, have specific criteria of rhyme, syntax, and even syllabification. You cannot write a Sonnet unintentionally. The pattern of syllables and rhyme must be understood before the beginning. Once the subject is selected the architecture of the poetic form itself begins to dictate the words you can use and in what order they can be deployed. Thus, poetry, which appears to be nothing more than emotionally gushing one’s thoughts all over the page, requires discipline and forethought. 

    Just like preaching. Above and beyond becoming more culturally aware, poetry will help you choose your words with greater discipline and clarity. In reading a poem it is possible to consider all the various ways the poet could have written what she chose to write. A part of the interpretive process includes evaluating what one omits and why. Now, this can be done with prose, but it is much easier and more fruitful with Poetry because the form focuses restraints. 

    Just like preaching. The timer on my sermon document is set for 30 minutes. Despite what many think, I generally am finished before hitting that mark. The form and focus of a sermon as well as the context for delivery and the amount of time allowed to preach it determine word selection during the writing process. Inclusion, exclusion, and selection of vocabulary must be deliberate. Every week the process of preparation is as much a matter of controlled omission as it is principled inclusion. Every word matters when you must limit the number of words that you can use. And, because a sermon is an aural experience, the preacher needs to write for the ear as well as the eye. There are a lot of things that look pretty good on the screen which will not communicate nearly so well when spoken. 

    Much of what we read is for information, but not all. We also need to read as a form of “exercise.” The more you read, the better you will be at it. Your skills at evaluating, summarizing, and integrating what you read into your own work will improve. Poetry is a genre that allows you to sharpen different tools than you use in reading commentaries and other Biblical studies works. Some poetry will be filled with images and word pictures that will broaden your understanding when you approach sections of scripture that are likewise filled with imagery and symbolism. Some poetry will evoke emotions with greater immediacy than reading otherwise creates. As a critic, you can question the source of this emotive power. Does the poet do this intentionally? Is emotive content determined more by vocabulary or form? Is affect the goal of the poet or an unintended consequence? These are questions we should ask all our reading. Because we need to be asking them when we write. Poetry, due to its deliberate structure, brings an immediacy to this process of evaluating content by vocabulary, syntax, and structure. 

    And it need not take a great deal of time. For many years, one of my favorite sources of poetry has been Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. I commonly listened to NPR (classical music, opera, jazz) and made certain to be paying attention when the Almanac came on the local station. In the brief program Keillor provided a few historical, literary, and biographical facts for that date. Then he read a poem. For the last 15 years, the Email version lands in my Mailbox first thing in the morning. I shoot the Email to Evernote and file it under the tags “Poetry”, “Poem”, and “writing” If at some point I need some flavor for a sermon or lesson, I can easily search and find a poem that works. The use is noted in the database. This is about as easy as it gets. A daily poem finds me rather than the other way around. If you want something more traditional you can readily find poetry online or access it through iBooks or Kindle. You could likely find a good anthology of English verse on Amazon and have it delivered to your office tomorrow. 

    I have and will mention several times in this month’s series that we read for many reasons. Information to include in messages. Data to provide evidence for points we wish to make. Illustrations and color to help our preaching connect. Poetry reminds us that one of the reasons we should read is for pleasure. We need to read because we like to read. 

Reading “Greats” 6.2.2022

    This week I am going to write about reading, of which I hope to do much this summer. (That sentence may not make it past Grammarly.) I hope that you have some things laid aside to read over the next several weeks. There will be some hot days (for staying indoors.) There will be (for some of you) beach days, which are good for reading. The days will be longer which brings more opportunities. Reading will improve every area of your writing. Your sermons will be richer because reading provides a depth of color. Any articles you write should be accurate and informed because solid reading makes our thinking accurate and informed. Even camp lessons will be more effective if you have read yourself full prior to preparing. 

    Over each of the next several weeks, I will highlight different kinds of reading that make for a well-rounded intellectual diet. I am assuming of course, that you are keeping up with your “work reading.” Biblical exegesis, theology, relevant periodical literature, reading for specific projects, that sort of thing. I really should not need to tell you about that. I hope. Beyond reading and research which is transformed directly into data for upcoming preaching, there are subjects, genres, and areas of concentration that broaden our outlook. I have chosen a month’s worth though there certainly are more. Each of us has areas in which we are interested or enlighten us in such a way that we can find illustrations, truisms, and anecdotes that others might miss. 

    This week’s area of study will require a bit of explanation because 1) The term is rarely used in the United States. 2) It is a subject that has been contracting for more than a century. I am talking about what our English brethren call “Greats” which I shall hitherto not enclose in quotation marks.

    Greats is a term used to define a well-rounded humanities-driven education. It is what we think of when we think of a “classical” education. 150 years ago, it simply meant “educated.” Now it tends to describe antiquarians. What a shame. All that learning has now been shown the door so that we can Tik Tok one another.  

    A traditional “classical” education or “reading Greats” meant the study of Greek and Latin, Linguistics, Greco-Roman History, Philosophy, and Archeology. Presuming you are familiar with the development of our mutual faith during the Hellenistic period, it should be clear why reading Greats would enhance your understanding of the world in which the New Testament was written and our faith first flourished. 

    Much of this is what we think of as “backgrounds.” And while that is true, as far as the work of preaching is concerned, it has been, for centuries, a proving ground for great thinkers. 

Now, I understand that having focused on Hellenistic Greek does not mean reading Classical Greek will be easy. There are many "helps", however, and at least being able to reference the original is helpful when reading good translations. The Loeb Classical Library featured editions that included the text and translation on facing pages which is a great way to bulk up your nascent language skills. Anyway, as you read Herodotus,  Plato, or Aesop— or whoever I would recommend focusing on the following.

1. Focus on Language as the Glue of Culture

2. Focus on History as the Record of Culture

3. Focus on Philosophy as Conversation in Culture

4. Focus on Archaeology as Residue of Culture.

    You are going to find if you pay attention to what is going on around you, that the language, history, philosophy, and archaeology of the ancient world still inform our world to a remarkable degree. Human beings are stubborn and resilient. We also prefer to do what we know works. Reading Greats reminds us that many of the mistakes, as well as many of the successes of the ancient world, still occur today. 

    Where to start? If you have never spent a great amount of time reading ancient humanities it can be difficult to figure out where to start, particularly with all the other reading you should be doing.  (You are, right?) I would recommend beginning with the Apostolic, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers. Technically they are Hellenistic rather than classical, but if your Greek is rusty you can begin with the English and then muddle through the Greek. You can begin to understand this historic way of thinking as you sharpen your language skills—a win-win situation. 

    Anthologies of ancient literature, history, archaeology, and philosophy are abundant. If you do not, you should have some of these sorts of books on your analog or digital shelves. And this stuff is on the internet for crying out loud. If you’re going to surf, at least ride some waves that will improve your work. These kinds of anthologies are otherwise practical for checking facts, figures, and citations.  It is good to be able to check quotations in our Biblically focused literature, particularly when they are citing historical, philosophical, or textual information which is widely available. I know that “fact-checking” has gotten a bad rap recently but if you ever, ever, ever speak in public—you. Had. Better. Fact. Check. 

    For hundreds of years, what we are talking about was the basis of education. Gradually this sort of interdisciplinary, text-focused learning process was displaced by a practicum, laboratories, and lectures. So, in some sense with all that practical learning behind you, regardless of your age you are in the perfect position to continue your education, reading yourself full in order that everything you learn may be brought to bear on your pulpit work.