Cars, Coffee, Theology (1:4) Christian Brady

my guest today is dr. Christian Brady anglican priest and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Kentucky we discuss his work on the Jewish targum and how he understands God's presence in the midst of great loss so welcome thrilled you're here happy to be here it's a note it's good one of the questions I'd like to ask my guests or what was your first car my first car was in 1978 on the Civic CVCC 1500 which I had about nine months before I blew the head gas of a motor I think my parents paid about $1,100 I guess not yes you didn't get a new no no it was in 1980 I think which it felt older than now I realized now I realize it was only six years old but you know in the early to mid 80s car development happened fast choke on that really Wow we replaced it with a two-year old Plymouth Colt which was actually a Mitsubishi alright and I need had both both were manual cars though yeah I learned on stick I enjoy cars and racing and I don't race myself when I'm throat watching and all well yes but I mean I enjoy like Formula One is of it oh they're images I used to reflect on why's that I like it is this too worldly could articulate some others it's just I don't know it's fun to watch it's cool so if you didn't do the job you're doing would it be racecars oh no I don't know yes not that question if you didn't do what you're doing what would you do yeah it's well actually I do know exactly what I'd like to do in fact talk with my wife about it this morning I would I would love to be able to be a fiction writer I love possible detective fiction like Dorothy L sayers I don't think she's yeah you know she's the unlisted inkling and I think she was the greatest theologian of the bunch but her her mysteries were brilliant so Chesterton's but mostly because the dialogue and and but I've never yet written any fiction but if I could swap my talent well we'll see whether I've got the talent or no [Music] if you give me a number a random number between 100 and 150 give me a number between 132 132 okay I happen to have with me here Oh - you're a binax argumentations I have you turn to page 132 I don't know if it got that far I don't know okay well it should I always I always sometimes I've given the wrong oh yes we're know we're in first paragraph or anything I've just read that alone actually this this works pretty well this is a conclusion to chapter three finally the conclusion of the Book of Lamentations is anxious and uncertain in its outlook for the future lamentations 5:19 affirms that the Lord is sovereign and that his throne endures forever while verse 20 asks why have you forgotten us completely we find in these verses elements common to the communal lament yet it is disjointed quote their survivors have not forgotten to praise God when they do offer praise however a note of bitterness in truths and that is am i quoting Wester mom no yes I'm quoting buster mom there that is some very readable very listenable - for an academic book so ten days well I will tell you so this is this was published in brill but apparently one of the one of the criticisms was that I did not use enough technical language Wow so I readability is something I do pride myself on actually I going before fall you know Helen Seward stylish academic writing no I don't change your life she's a very ugly cover yeah well actually when he told me the thesis of this overall so the like like many doctoral theses it is what my advisor gave me Philip Alexander was my advisor oh he had been working he had been working on lamentations targum lamentations for a number of years already and so what my doctorate was and I'm still working to get it in an e-book format to get it out there the fonts make it difficult but was basically a verse by verse commentary I got really heavily detailed on the targum itself targum being Aaron versions of the biblical text so these are rabbinic period in fact of the megaload they're there probably six to eight century CE e ad and so what I my shtick is to look not so much the linguistic or main script issues but but rather to see ok what are the what's the material that's added so targum is sua generous it offers a word-for-word rendering of the Hebrew in order but then it adds into the flow it's it's own rendering and so actually I'll give an example and you feel free to add or delete it's almost one of a reductio issue in gospel studies of sorts well there that cheering that's that's what I'm doing talks to them yeah so so the targum itself for example the the Biblical Book of Lamentations begin FAS Java Dada you ever bought um how lonely sits the city which once was full of people see who was the princess among the nations has become its vassal the targum however begins jeremiah the prophet and high priest told how it was decreed that jerusalem and her people should be punished with banishment and that they should be mourned with essa how the first word of the book of lamentations justice when Adam and Eve were punished and expelled from the Garden of Eden in the past of the universe mourn them with Asia which is a play on Genesis I yeah how where are you the attribute attribute of justice spoke and said because of the greatness of her rebellious sin that was within her thus she will dwell alone and as a man plagued with leprosy upon his skin who sits alone and the city which was full of crowds and many peoples has been emptied of them and she has become like a widow she who was great among the nations and a ruler over provinces which had brought her tribute has become lowly again and gives head tax to them from there after quite an expansion huge expansion so my thesis is relatively simple which is what are the additions and the transformations and how does that change the reading of the Book of Lamentations this particular publication is pulled out the analysis and did further analysis that I didn't have time for it in the doctorate and and so there's not as much verse by verse well there's no verse perverse commentary here as I've dealt with particular passages I've worked on so if you got a need if you would do an e-book of the original they have so I'm yeah so the PDF is available anybody can target man org welcome to to download it from there the almost two years ago now my second book like a Ruth King I was gonna ask you about that so and I that when I did provide more of the verse-by-verse commentary it's a similar sort of approach one of the things when I started into this area there were several senior scholars who were Jewish who challenged whether or not I should go into rabbinic literature and exegesis knowledge you you're not a yeshiva buffer is to quote someone and the advice I night and I should quickly add that to senior colleagues Seth Schwartz and Moshe Bernstein have on the other hand been incredibly supportive and it's basically saying look be who you are so the irony is most non-jews working in rabbinic literature tend to focus on linguistic issues and manuscript traditions and so forth I just am I'm not that talented in it and I'm not that interested in it you like literature more I like blue trail I like theology and and this is part of the reason I think Moshe Bernstein in particular appreciates and likes my work or so he's told me is because I actually care what the texts are saying I am and I'm sympathetic to that reading and in fact one of my most amusing reviews of my book the rabbinic targum of lamentations I conclude in the book that and I'll just go ahead and read the conclusion if I can find it so what if any relevance does this study have for today several scholars have written recently about how and why readings of Lamentations such as found in the targum are untenable in opposed holocaust world targum lamentations is accepted since it is a product of a time long past it would be comfortable to leave it as a theological relic and i have no doubt that the destructions of 586 BCE and 70 CE II we're every bit as devastating to those communities as the atrocities of the second world war are to us today we may not as individuals be persuaded by targum lamentations interpretation of events but it would be wrong of us to negate them even when applied to modern crises for those who accept God as a guiding and determining force in history there is in fact a little other interpretation available nothing else program limitations affirms and reminds us that there are consequences of our actions there will be suffering in this world the targa miss asked his congregation if they will suffer for their disobedience or for the sake of the name of the Lord and a reviewer criticized my conclusion to this reading well no miss reading that you know in saying in fact that it's untenable in post-holocaust world and and my point was for you yeah sure I can understand that but if one says God maintains and directs every jot and tittle of history then then there's not many other options out there right and so the targa mist is trying to address that and work within that theological framework by what do you know well I just finished a chapter for Chris Keith's project on three volumes series on reception of Jesus in the first three centuries and I'll be speaking today at the seminary about Jesus in the Talmud but right now my my biggest project is is actually something more for the clergy and the laity more pastoral in nature I'm calling it beautiful and terrible things biblical theology of suffering and grace okay our son Mac as you know died very unexpectedly New Year's Eve 2012 of a blood infection that looked like the flu turned out to be substance and within 36 hours Mac was gone and owing not least to this project on lamentations I was about as theologically prepared as anybody could be actually that thought across my head yeah so you know immediately sort of bring that to bear having been trained and informed as a priest to have been going through clinical pastoral education and hospitals but you know and people were amazing the community the Penn State community the soccer community came around us and of course aren't the faith community so this is a work and and I've gone back and forth like the first sort of draft of it was very mechanical and just for working my way through scripture and I found that that actually a handful of us will appreciate it but it doesn't meet people where they live and so that's really what I'm trying to work on in front of that work you can't just still know yeah what I've done is I've reframed them as essays and taking there's still certain amounts of organization to it that you might expect I I think it's really important that we start with a good solid understanding of Genesis 1 through 3 the creation narrative and what it's telling us theologically which is we do live in a fallen in a broken world it shouldn't surprise us when what I call unmerited suffering occurs where there's no clear correlation with sin or punishment or or guidance or correction or Direction either just that it's because we live in a sinful world our son didn't send them yes he was not perfect but there's nothing he did to deserve his death we didn't do anything to to bring his death on and and I don't think God took him for to lead us to something else I wouldn't say that God took max so that my wife would write her collection of essays which have been very influential and comforting for people nor the things that I've written some of which have been encouraging to people but rather it's then how we respond to those events is what I think's going on so I think we begin into that understanding of Genesis 1 that this is what happens to us and then we work our way through it and so when I come back to the pastoral question I find I have found I should say and listening to others struggling particularly where they're in churches that are saying it's God's will you need to accept that and move on never share that phrase with someone who's so grieving moving on is you always carry that with you we do grow but that language of just it's God's will accept it that is not comforting even if one does believe absolutely theologically every jot and tiddle God managers in our lives that's not comforting and so I think what we can find instead is the promises of God's grace that he will be with us as we walk through this life and these journeys that he will be present he will place people who are present with us he allows us to make our own choices which is why so many of us are miserable why so many folks do struggle to overcome breathe but we're in a broken world that it not only includes blood infections in cancer but mental health issues and environmental concerns that can bring that kind of hardship into our lives so if I have you I'm brennick thank you for sharing all that really personally I that was the illogically no it's great it's good Eleanor stump Christian philosopher at Saint Louis University are both wandering in darkness so I haven't no I have things you find a lot of life there she is an analytic philosopher I'm more on the continental sigh hey yeah so but she is this brilliant analyst for who a breath addresses the problem of evil the problem of suffering in particular and says you know philosophy and an analytic approach is not sufficient to deal with the problem of suffering in our lives we need narrative right exactly a more complex and so she goes through the biblical stories is a big long book and does this sort of brilliant exposition what's the name it's called wandering and darkness I think you'd really enjoyed him one of the cool things but Stumpf does she's just growing in a very good writer and everything but she starts with taxonomy she makes up which is what Foster's do best you know a great exon of guys and it's she calls it the Franciscan versus the Dominican way of doing and so she uses Saint Francis I didn't don't let have threads so they're both she's it's quite good because she's saying you know both of these epistemological ways are good and and helpful like to know logically and to know by deduction is the Dominican way and that's good and but you it's not sufficient you also need a Franciscan way of note which is learn experiential and naritai right way exactly it so just that's it's really that's very much where I'm coming from to about lots of things and I share with people about the loss of our son not because I want sympathy always grateful for it but but because it's an important part of my life if you want to know anything about me you have to know that it has shaped and formed me it you know one of the reasons why Elizabeth and I and Izzy our daughter - we've been so fervent about creating a foundation to remember Mac and making that around the goalkeepers at Penn State something positive and fun and ready was because we wanted people when they remember Mac not to remember the parents who collapsed when their child passed away but rather to remember the boy who loved goalkeeping wanted to play for Penn State in the national team as a goalkeeper you know and I think that's that's analogous with with all these aspects of our lives when we hit hardship when we hit difficult times you know we should not forget those I don't believe that God has necessarily sent them to us but I know God is present with us as we walk from that moment I mean Epictetus which I frankly only learned in the last few years the epictetus the philosophy our stoic philosopher who basically said the same thing which is we can't control what happens to us in our lives but we can control our reactions to them and I think that one of the great promises of grace in Scripture is that not only has God given us that that agency that opportunity that will to make those choices of decisions but he has also said we don't make them alone and even when we make the bad or wrong choices and decisions or the not best ones he's still present with us well the title of the book is beautiful and terrible things and it actually comes from a Frederik Bikaner quote here is the world beautiful and terrible things will happen don't be afraid and I liked it I used it a few times you know going sending out of students to say this is what the world is like so be ready but also be excited yes it's gonna be hard terrible things will happen but beautiful things too don't be afraid I thought well if I'm gonna use it for the title I need to go find it Institute scholar you got to find that book well the only place I found it is in one of his Albus Etna alphabet etceteras ABCs under G for grace and I'm not gonna remember the full quote but he says something like God's grace is something like this God is saying to you the party is here it would not be complete without you so I have made you here is the world beautiful and terrible things will happen don't be afraid for I will always be with you so kind of D theologizing exactly so two things that occurred to me one is I wonder how many people who have used that in graduation speeches really know the fuller context and the two and I've written I've written the introduction to my book already and it's on the blog target man.org you're never supposed to do that till the end but what I did is I wrote wrote a little little piece about it and I said basically go meditate on this for about three months and you've got the biblical theology of suffering and grace if you reach down there to there there are some envelopes and you can choose where you want all right and these are random questions I don't know what olds in there either and you'll give an answer I'll give it to answering the same question as well all right all right so we're gonna go with the blue it's not quite a kentucky blue more of a Penn State blue but that'll work what happens if I get carsick and throw up all over you well great video of it okay great oh and do it right into the camera are you an organ donor why or why not I am an organ donor okay and I am because of the lives it will save our son we were unable to donate his organs because of a blood infection but I have known so many people who have lived because of it it how about you yes I have to admit that I'm 90% sure I am there's no reason why I wouldn't have at the time and so I'm pretty sure I can I can say there are of course some theological and ethical questions about that a genetic research and organ harvesting which I which I understand but I do think I do think that it's appropriate I did have a one of our directors of philanthropy fundraiser in our college she was with us a year devout Roman Catholic and a devout animal lover and she would make the sign of the Cross every time we pass roadkill and when we drove in the south it was so frequent I said look let me make the sign of the Cross for you so you can keep both hands on the steering wheel while we're driving because it I was appreciative of her direction well it's been great I'm ready to marry please I'm starving all right thanks for holding off on the barbecue you know I can't wait my favorite hey thanks so much for watching three really quick things if you like this video subscribe to our YouTube channel and connect with us on social media we'd really appreciate it secondly check out the comments section below we've put a bunch of program notes and links to interesting things there and third check out some of our episodes you can see linked here thanks we'll see on the road peace

Channel: Cars, Coffee, Theology

Views: 1,759

Rating: 4.891892 out of 5

Keywords: suffering, Aramaic, targums, ruth, lamentations, rx8, theology, christianbrady, jonathanpennington, buechner

Id: q-Vok5Owoz4

Length: 21min 20sec (1280 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 29 2018