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At the same SBL seminar, Rusty Reno examined Genesis 3:1, following the traditional interpretation that the serpent is a disguise for the devil. He dealt with the larger pattern of biblical evidence first, showing that the Bible links the devil and the serpent, and links the devil to acts of temptation. The bulk of his paper focused on two themes associated with Satan throughout the Bible. References to Satan signal the universal or cosmic dimensions of a local event; and references to the devil, especially in Genesis 3, serve the purposes of theodicy. Reno developed the second point a... [read more]

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J. Richard Middleton gave an intriguing paper on Genesis 2-3 at an SBL seminar on the theological interpretation of Scripture. He was trying to answer the question of the nature of the first sin, and concluded that the first sin, which led to a proliferation of sin in succeeding generations, was the violation of the limit that God set. Violation of the boundaries that God sets, the failure to respect the radical otherness of the "Primal Other" unleashed boundary-busting sin that violated the limits and otherness of human others. Along the way, Middleton made some good observations on the... [read more]

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An article in the current issue of Sociological Theory explores the status-hierarchy created by celebrity, a kind of status ignored by Weber in his treatment of status in capitalist societies. The abstract says, "Max Weber's fragmentary writings on social status suggest that differentiation on this basis should disappear as capitalism develops. However, many of Weber's examples of status refer to the United States, which Weber held to be the epitome of capitalist development. Weber hints at a second form of status, one generated by capitalism, which might reconcile this contradiction, an... [read more]

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In the December issue of The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan describes Barak Obama's conversion. In an interview with Sullivan, Obama said, "I didn't have an epiphany. What I really did was to take a set of values or ideals that were first instilled in my from my mother, who was, as I called her in my book, the last of the secular humanists - you know, belief in kindness and empathy and discipline, responsibility - those kinds of values. And I found in the Church a vessel or a repository for those values and a way to connect those values to a larger community and a belief in God and a belief... [read more]

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David Bevington points out in his performance history of Shakespeare that in both Measure for Measure and The Tempest, the villainous characters are those that attempt to elude the all-seeing surveillance of the Duke and Prospero. Villains are particularly villainous when they think they can do evil without detection.

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It has been customary since the middle ages to define sacrifice in terms of death. To sacrifice is to give something over to destruction. Roy Gane points out in his Cult and Character that this does not conform to the biblical usage. The bread of the presence is described as a "food-offering to Yahweh" (Leviticus 24:7), yet it was never destroyed but only consumed by the priests. It was a presentation offering before the Lord, and there was clearly no killing but also no destruction at all.

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In a 1997 review in First Things, Andrew McKenna suggests that Derrida's most important contribution might ultimately be to deconstruct philosophy so thoroughly that one is left only with theology: "the Sermon on the Mount performs a critique of difference to which any deconstructor can subscribe. Subject to serious misuses, deconstruction is nonetheless, in its right use, not a simple trashing of culture and tradition, but a critique of differences-of the arbitrary semantic and institutional constructs that impose rather than reflect order. Accordingly, it naturally provides a critique of ... [read more]

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Jordan's reflections on "leprosy" help to explain why Miriam, and not Aaron, becomes leprous in Numbers 12. Jordan notes that the term for "plague" used in Leviticus 13 is actually "touch," and suggests that the leper is "touched" by Yahweh, sometimes in response to sacrilege, a violation of God's holiness. Touch Yahweh's stuff; Yahweh touches you. This touch communicates holiness, in part or in whole. When the "leper" becomes completely covered with white skin, he is pronounced clean; he is wholly holy, and is able to function in the sanctuary without fear. In other words, the comp... [read more]

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In his stimulating essay on Leviticus 13 (available from Biblical Horizons), Jim Jordan reflects on the fact that a white hair in the flesh makes a man unclean. White hair is associated with glory, and so the uncleanness results from the contradiction between glorification and flesh. The unclean "leper" is partially, not fully, glorified; his flesh is white but not wholly; he is prematurely glorified. This is also the situation of Adam: He seeks glory before his time, the white crown of wisdom before he has grown up from fleshliness.

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