TSR Christian Society (X-SOC) Episode IV: A New Hope

'Suppose there exists a Shakespeare play whose fifth act had been lost.**The first four acts provide, let us suppose, such a wealth of characterization, such a crescendo of excitement within the plot, that it is generally agreed that the play ought to be staged.**Nevertheless, it is felt inappropriate actually to write a fifth act once and for all: it would freeze the play into one form, and commit Shakespeare as it were to being prospectively responsible for work not in fact his own.**Better, it might be felt, to give the key parts to highly trained, sensitive and experienced Shakespearian actors, who would immerse themselves in the first four acts, and in the language and culture of Shakespeare and his time,*and who would then be told to work out a fifth act for themselves.

Consider the result.**The first four acts, existing as they did, would be the undoubted ‘authority’ for the task in hand.**That is, anyone could properly object to the new improvisation on the grounds that this or that character was now behaving inconsistently, or that this or that sub-plot or theme, adumbrated earlier, had not reached its proper resolution.**This ‘authority’ of the first four acts would not consist in an implicit command that the actors should repeat the earlier pans of the play over and over again.*It would consist in the fact of an as yet unfinished drama, which contained its own impetus, its own forward movement, which demanded to be concluded in the proper manner but which required of the actors a responsible entering in to the story as it stood, in order first to understand how the threads could appropriately be drawn together, and then to put that understanding into effect by speaking and acting with both*innovation*and consistency.


This model could and perhaps should be adapted further; it offers in fact quite a range of possibilities.**Among the detailed moves available within this model, which I shall explore and pursue elsewhere, is the possibility of seeing the five acts as follows: (1) Creation; (2) Fall; (3) Israel; (4) Jesus.**The New Testament would then form the first scene in the fifth act, giving hints as well (Rom 8; 1 Car 15; parts of the Apocalypse) of how the play is supposed to end.**The church would then live under the ‘authority’ of the extant story, being required to offer something between an improvisation and an actual performance of the final act.**Appeal could always be made to the inconsistency of what was being offered with a major theme or characterization in the earlier material.**Such an appeal—and such an offering!—would of course require sensitivity of a high order to the whole nature of the story and to the ways in which it would be (of course) inappropriate simply to repeat verbatim passages from earlier sections.**Such sensitivity (cashing out the model in terms of church life) is precisely what one would have expected to be required; did we ever imagine that the application of biblical authority ought to be something that could be done by a well-programmed computer?'

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What do you think of this model of approaching the bible as authority?

My brains a bit dead at the moment But it does seem an interesting stance, if I am reading it correctly?

So if one were toperform a five act play, but the fifth act had been lost, one would not perform the first four acts, and then for the fifth act, repeat the first act again. Instead, one would, using reason and intellect, continue from act four in the direction that the act is leading. But as nobody can ultimately say what the fifth act might have contained, there exists an element of subjectivity in how an individual may approach the fifth act.

Is that how you would understand it?

Happy 2016 everyone! Wishing you all a blessed year

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My brains a bit dead at the moment But it does seem an interesting stance, if I am reading it correctly?

So if one were toperform a five act play, but the fifth act had been lost, one would not perform the first four acts, and then for the fifth act, repeat the first act again. Instead, one would, using reason and intellect, continue from act four in the direction that the act is leading. But as nobody can ultimately say what the fifth act might have contained, there exists an element of subjectivity in how an individual may approach the fifth act.

Is that how you would understand it?

I have such a soft spot for literary approaches and parallels to theology/philosophy <3 It's certainly my reading of the quote, reminds me a wee tad of Tullich and his view of God's method of relation to humanity changing throughout the eras. Wright has quite a nice playful way about him - appears to me as well it's advocating more of a spirit of the law approach as we cannot say what was applicable in an earlier act works now and so must work off what we see as the underlying themes and trends.

Wright's allusion to actors inhabiting the play so fully that its continuity is almost natural is a nice touch, although Shakespeare may not be the best parallel given his penchant for bloody, senseless murder

Jeremiah 29:11


“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

My favourite bible verse. Got me through some really hard times.

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It's a quote from a lecture by NT Wright on the authority of scripture. This was under the heading 'the authority of a story' which tried to answer how a story can be authoritative. This was an example of how the bible is to new used by the church.

http://ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Bible_Authoritative.htm

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Aww its been a while since I posted on here. Uni has taken over my life. Hope you all are having a beautiful new year so far

Ooh, hope it's all going well!

Hello all! I'm looking to be more active here, and make some more friends. I'm feeling a little lonely ;(

Hello all! I'm looking to be more active here, and make some more friends. I'm feeling a little lonely ;(

Hello there I hope you're doing great!

I don't post here often but I have to shout out to TLGH, Racoon and Aula who keep this thread going and are always here. Well done guys God bless.

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