tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3931921496989071942.post8039252982194823214..comments2023-06-08T07:32:39.725-05:00Comments on Aristotle's Feminist Subject: Rod: Ain't He a Womanist?J. K. Gaylehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07600312868663460988noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3931921496989071942.post-63864683499727395862011-03-12T05:13:04.572-06:002011-03-12T05:13:04.572-06:00Katherine, Thanks very much for your thoughtful an...Katherine, Thanks very much for your thoughtful and passionate comment. I'm afraid somehow the blog technology here isn't allowing it to show under the post - although it's showing in the comments feed. You're signing in with your google account? If so and there's still the issue, would you please feel free to email me about how you've posted exactly, and I'll work with blogger to fix this issue.J. K. Gaylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07600312868663460988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3931921496989071942.post-85588816459598690302011-03-10T14:35:58.711-06:002011-03-10T14:35:58.711-06:00Oh hello! All these new posts to catch up on. I ap...Oh hello! All these new posts to catch up on. I apologize for commenting on an old post—new to me?<br /><br />I really enjoyed Rod’s post, and felt a sense of commonality with his views on infallibility and inerrancy. In my life those who’ve talked the loudest about the inerrancy of the Bible were really talking about the inerrancy of their own interpretation. As Rod points out, the terms have a history, and that history is fraught and problematic. Nowadays if anyone ever asks I say I affirm the Bible’s authority and reliability but I can’t talk about it in those terms. Not that anyone’s asked lately.<br /><br />In terms of influence in reading the Bible, I’d have to say Julian of Norwich, though she’s an odd influence. I first read her Revelations of Divine Love in college, and had a strong and mixed reaction to her, but her words about God whose love wins in the end seeped into my heart ever so slowly, ever so surely; a creeping vine that grows and twines and luxuriates till it is full and green and shimmering; a hazelnut that is so very small, but in the end means the world. And, it’s not like I’ve reread her frequently, and there are still parts of her work that I’m kinda meh about, but looking back I see her influence nudged me firmly in a different kind of direction that touched many things for me. <br /><br />So how do I find myself outside what other people tell me is in the Bible? Oh my, that would be a post. I don’t believe in 7-day creationism, so that put me outside the Bible, obviously. My sister is called by God to ordained pastoral ministry, and I believe her, so I’m way outside the Bible there, too. (Where do you GET these things?! an old pastor of ours asks, in disbelief)<br /><br />(I’m reminded of some lines of Mary Oliver, who I’ve recently discovered and delight in the new-but-familiar: “They could not tame me / so they would not keep me / alas”)<br /><br />I identify as both a Christian and a feminist, and both in similar ways (covers a broad range of people who can’t agree who all belongs where, not a monolith despite how there’re often discussed, I’m ashamed of some of the things done by the groups but I still think they are names worth claiming). I grew up Southern Baptist but am now an Episcopalian, but I never felt and even now don’t feel wholly a part of those groups. <br /><br />I’m reminded of the words I read somewhere—I can’t remember who or what book—and she put it as “belonging from the outside”. I fell like I’ve learned how to sojourn in many lands, but none of them quite feel like home. So how do I read it? I suppose I read that part in Hebrews a lot, where Jesus suffered outside the city gate and let us go outside the camp to him bearing his disgrace “for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come”. So, in aiming for the center of things I should work the margins, and I wait for God’s good future.<br /><br />. . .<br /><br />That was a very long-winded comment, or whatever it is in typing. Thanks for your indulgence. Your blog is an encouragement to me, and in it I re-mind and re-member a lot, so I feel more whole.Katherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00574613265955035061noreply@blogger.com