Your creative juices are petitioned:
As you perhaps know, I am writing a doctorate on the debate concerning whether Pauline Christology was divine or not, on whether, to use Bauckham's language, Paul's Christ was 'on the divine side of the line which monotheism must draw between God and creatures' (Richard Bauckham, "The Worship of Jesus in Apocalyptic Christianity," TS 27 [1981]: 335).
I think I have mounted a very strong argument that Paul's Christology is indeed 'divine' in Bauckham's sense, and this, of course, brings me into conflict with Dunn's claim that Paul's Christology evidences 'reserve' (Dunn, Theology of the Apostle Paul, 257.)
I want to write a sentence like the following:
'Dunn argues that Paul's christological instincts involved "reserve", but this thesis has shown that his Christology was about as reserved as ...'
So how would you complete that sentence? There is some creative and comic potential here, hence my first drafts began with 'about as reserved as Pamela Anderson's ...' ... I'll leave the rest of that draft to your imagination (I wrote 'watermelon love-pillows'). But I am guessing that that wouldn't go down too well in the Viva, or at a job-interview. Still, I might just leave my original version in the chapter I send my supervisor, to help him stay awake while reading!
How would you end the sentence? Any ideas?
23 comments:
Homer Simpson at an all-you-can-eat donut shop.
Richard Simmons on meth.
Michael Jackson with children.
Jim West's response to "Zwingli was a fundamentalist".
...a window dresser in Amsterdam's red light district.
Larry Flint living in an Amish community.
OK, these are all funny, but I've been laughing my head off at "Michael Jackson with children". That is just so wrong in so many ways!!
...John Hagee at an all you can eat buffet
...David dancing before the Ark
...Todd Bentley at a healing service
...Paul's acceptance of the Judaizers ("As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and castrate themselves!"--CLASSIC)
About as reserved as Pamela Anderson is serious when she takes a wedding vow
...as a charismatic worship service where someone has just prophesied that Jesus will come back in the next 12-18 months.
. . . seven cardinals at an all-night bingo parlor and fish fry
...as Chris Tilling sharing a hotel room with Jim West!
a tom with a torty on heat
I can't help with the sentence (at least not in a way that would improve on the suggestive suggestions already made).
The reservation I have with Bauckham's way of defining the "unique divine identity" is that the divine name was apparently shared with others - the angel Yahoel, the "little Yahweh" of 3 Enoch, Moses in Samaritanism, and of course Jesus in Philippians 2.
Paul's theology was about as reserved as...
...the praise of those who worshiped Augustus Caeser throughout the Roman Empire as, "the son of God," who was depicted as being "in the image of God," whose "gospel" brought salvation to the world, and whose body vanished after death.
(Have you studied the swift rise of the worship of Augustus Ceaser as a divine being which occured BEFORE the rise of Christianity? I've been reading some interesting stuff about that. There's also of course some interesting pre-Christian Dead Sea scrolls that mention divine-human saviors, chosen by God to judge the world like Melchizadek. And according to Josephus tens of thousands followed one Egyptian fellow out into the desert, a fellow who convinced them he could make the walls of Jerusalem fall down. What wouldn't people believe back then?)
...the admonitions of Calvin during the heyday of the Consistory of Geneva, when a few people even committed suicide rather report to the Consistory.
...a televangelist during fund raising week.
Amy Winehouse with some crack.
I like "...a televangelist during fund raising week" too!
Rev Jeremiah Wright
as ... Paris Hilton in front of her boyfriend's video camera.
John
I have been resisting the temptation to add a comment, but this is still at the top of the blog, so ...
... Bill Clinton in a sorority.
Some brilliant potentials here. With a couple of new additions of my own, thus far my favourites are:
'Dunn argues that Paul's christological instincts involved "reserve", but this thesis has shown that his Christology was ...
about as reserved as Michael Jackson with children’
about as reserved as Freddy Kruger in a room full of children’
I may even be able to get away with keeping one of the following two in:
about as reserved as Santa Claus in a roomful of mince pies’
about as reserved as a televangelist during fund raising week’
...Benny Hinn during a healing service.
. . .the pope's feelings toward Galilao
:-))
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