Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Quest for the Historical NT Wrong: Requiem for a Discipline

There has been much ado throughout the biblioblogosphere concerning the quest for the historical NT Wrong. Blogging stalwarts such as Jim West, James McGrath, and many others have allocated their scholarly acumen to the worthy task. But it seems that Wrong has evaded historical inquiry. For those daring academics who expended their efforts in the quest, as Dale Allison said of Jesus, the reconstruction of the historical man frequently appeared more like the inquirer, a reflection in the well as it were.

I wonder, might scribal tradition have modified Wrong. Might the orthodox have melded his sarcasm and humor to serve their own means, to further their own diabolical plan, writ in the shadow government headquarters in the basement of Wal-Mart? Was it Cheney's evil minions who wrangled the manuscripts, manipulated the theology, and reconstructed the Wrong of history to suit the advancement of their own imperial dreams?

"I played a song and you did not dance,
I played a dirge and you did not mourn..."

I hear the sound now, the requiem, the quest has ended and Schweitzer himself has declared it, the Wrong of history has been lost to the Wrong of faith.

Therefore, I quip, "Wrong to me is the actualization of the hope of the disenfranchised scholar, the resistant, witty collegue and friend. Wrong is you, Wrong is me."

1 comment:

Michael said...

Well said, Rob. There's no way to move backwards from the Wrong of Faith to the Wrong of History. The best we can do is to develop a mere construct. Lessings Ditch proves impossible to ford...