Comments on: Foreshadowing: Why Literature Helps Us Understand the Scriptures http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2012/08/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-the-scriptures/ A First Things Blog Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:35:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Raymond Takashi Swenson http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2012/08/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-the-scriptures/#comment-21360 Raymond Takashi Swenson Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:31:53 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=12420#comment-21360 This insight, that God has acted as the author of the scriptures, is one that is only available to those who have faith in God. But God is not just the author of the individual books of the Old and New Testaments, he is the author of history itself. We do not need to believe that God predestines all things to have faith that God himself is an active director, that the Bible is not so much a poem but a script that is written as God directs the action. And surely the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled, about the return of the protagonist, Jesus Christ, foreshadows events on the stage of this world that are yet to be played out, and will be tecorded in due time as the fulfillment of that foreshadowing prophecy. In other words, God is a living author, not a dead one, and we can expect more from his pen as the play continues to its prophesied closure. And when the next installment in the serial is offered to us, will we accept it, or reject it because we don't want the labor of understanding new work from this author? This insight, that God has acted as the author of the scriptures, is one that is only available to those who have faith in God. But God is not just the author of the individual books of the Old and New Testaments, he is the author of history itself. We do not need to believe that God predestines all things to have faith that God himself is an active director, that the Bible is not so much a poem but a script that is written as God directs the action. And surely the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled, about the return of the protagonist, Jesus Christ, foreshadows events on the stage of this world that are yet to be played out, and will be tecorded in due time as the fulfillment of that foreshadowing prophecy. In other words, God is a living author, not a dead one, and we can expect more from his pen as the play continues to its prophesied closure. And when the next installment in the serial is offered to us, will we accept it, or reject it because we don’t want the labor of understanding new work from this author?

]]> By: Laura http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2012/08/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-the-scriptures/#comment-21353 Laura Mon, 20 Aug 2012 18:52:01 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=12420#comment-21353 Interesting tie in -prophecy as foreshadowing. This article has been reposted to Athenians, A Christian news/article aggregator. To join in the discussion it generates, see http://www.athenians.info/stories/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-scripture Interesting tie in -prophecy as foreshadowing. This article has been reposted to Athenians, A Christian news/article aggregator. To join in the discussion it generates, see http://www.athenians.info/stories/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-scripture

]]> By: Flotsam and jetsam (8/20) | Everyday Theology http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2012/08/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-the-scriptures/#comment-21352 Flotsam and jetsam (8/20) | Everyday Theology Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:24:17 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=12420#comment-21352 [...] Foreshadowing: Why Literature Helps Us Understand the Scriptures: Foreshadowing is the way that writers hint about upcoming events or twists in a story.  For the careful reader, foreshadowing creates a particularly effective form of engagement, ultimately moving into the territory of dramatic irony, where the reader knows more than the characters in the story. [...] [...] Foreshadowing: Why Literature Helps Us Understand the Scriptures: Foreshadowing is the way that writers hint about upcoming events or twists in a story.  For the careful reader, foreshadowing creates a particularly effective form of engagement, ultimately moving into the territory of dramatic irony, where the reader knows more than the characters in the story. [...]

]]> By: Craig H Robinson http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2012/08/foreshadowing-why-literature-helps-us-understand-the-scriptures/#comment-21351 Craig H Robinson Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:55:35 +0000 http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/?p=12420#comment-21351 Nice article. I like your approach and the direction you go. One thing I am starting to think more and more is that not all early verses of the Bible are meant to be understood fully in their immediate context. In many verses, it seems that the intent of the author is to raise questions rather than answer them. It seems we are often uncomfortable with that in the Bible, although it is truly necessary for a good story. Nice article. I like your approach and the direction you go.

One thing I am starting to think more and more is that not all early verses of the Bible are meant to be understood fully in their immediate context. In many verses, it seems that the intent of the author is to raise questions rather than answer them. It seems we are often uncomfortable with that in the Bible, although it is truly necessary for a good story.

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