So, I have now seen the Mamma Mia! movie for the third time. And, because I am the same age as Sophia’s parents and because I like the music of ABBA, it appeals to me. But, I found myself catching one line, when the three putative fathers and Sophie are out on the boat reminiscing […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 07
Here is the bottom line of what I have been saying. In almost all scholarly fields, when questions of knowledge come up that are hard to solve, they are referred to a group that represents the community. The larger the “truth” that is being debated, the larger and more representative is the group to which the argument is […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 06
So, what solutions have the law, science, and, yes, the Church come up with in order to minimize bias and misinterpretation? Yes, what do all three fields share in common as a way to overcome the inherent bias of humans? Interestingly enough, all three fields have “developed” the use of a panel of multiple people […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 05
In 1950, a work destined to become a classic was released, Protestant Biblical Interpretation by Bernard Ramm. It quickly became a textbook used by a huge number of Protestant seminaries. It was one of the last hermeneutics textbooks of wide acceptance that still took the viewpoint that by the use of a type of “scientific” […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 04
So, if our civil system relies on both written law and common law, are there any western systems that fully and only rely on written laws, with no common law? Well, actually there was an attempt at such a system. What is that system? The Code Napoleón of France, promulgated by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 03
OK, so in the USA (and the entire British Empire) we run a mixture of written law and common law. While we say in the USA that the Constitution is the maximum law of the land, that actually does not say as much as we think it does for a two reasons. One is the […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 02
Now yesterday, I laid out just some of the very conservative approaches to constitutional law in the United States. But, those are not the only interpretations, and they do not take into account a very important concept called “common law.” You see, our system of justice is not purely written law based, it is also […]
Of Bible, interpretation, and Supreme Court judges, part 01
Strict interpretation or not strict interpretation, that is the question. Actually, it is the question that we have been debating for many years. With Judge Sotomayor the question came back to the fore. No, I am not going to take a position on the judge herself, lest you lose the point of these next couple […]
Duck Dodgers, to space and beyond . . .
Father Orthoduck can remember being a duckling and watching anxiously as now-Senator John Glenn orbited the Earth in Friendship 7 on 20 February 1962. At that point Father Orthoduck was still an immigrant duckling having arrived in the USA only 13 months before. He can remember the great wonder he felt when he watched those […]
On fireflies and the Kingdom of God
On another blog there is a discussion about the Kingdom of God. As we all know, the Kingdom of God was a constant theme in Jesus’ preaching according to the Synoptic Gospels. “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” “The Kingdom of God is among you.” Even to the last, when Jesus stands before Pilate, he speaks […]
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