{"id":17916,"date":"2019-03-26T09:25:41","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T13:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17916"},"modified":"2019-03-26T09:25:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T13:25:41","slug":"human-development-in-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17916","title":{"rendered":"Human Development in Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Growing in Christ: Week 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/human-development-in-scripture-2019-03-26\/\"><strong>Human Development in Scripture<\/strong><\/a><br>\n<strong>Tuesday, March 26, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cGd5Y31i6oM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite Scripture scholars, brilliantly connects the development of the Hebrew Scriptures with the development of human consciousness. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brueggemann says there are three major parts of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Literature. The Torah, or the first five books, corresponds to the first half of life. This is the period in which the people of Israel were given their identity through law, tradition, structure, certitude, group ritual, clarity, and chosenness. As individuals, we each must begin with some clear structure and predictability for normal healthy development (a la Maria Montessori). That\u2019s what parents are giving their little ones\u2014containment, security, safety, specialness. Ideally, you first learn you are beloved by being mirrored in the loving gaze of your parents and those around you. You realize you are special and life is good\u2014and thus you feel safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second major section of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Prophets, introduces the necessary suffering, \u201cstumbling stones,\u201d and failures that initiate you into the second half of life. Prophetic thinking is the capacity for healthy self-criticism, the ability to recognize your own dark side. Without failure, suffering, and shadowboxing, most people (and most of religion) never move beyond narcissism and clannish thinking (egoism extended to the group). This has been most of human history up to now, which is why war has been the norm. But healthy self-criticism helps you realize you are not&nbsp;<em>that<\/em>&nbsp;good and neither is your group. It begins to break down either\/or, dualistic thinking as you realize all things are&nbsp;<em>both<\/em>&nbsp;good&nbsp;<em>and<\/em>&nbsp;bad. This makes idolatry, and the delusions that go with it, impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mother could give me \u201cprophetic criticism\u201d and discipline me and it didn\u2019t hurt me indefinitely because she gave me all the loving and kissing and holding in advance. I knew the beloved status first of all, and because of that I could take being criticized and told I wasn\u2019t the center of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The leaven of self-criticism, added to the certainty of your own specialness, will allow you to move to the third section of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Wisdom Literature (many of the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and the Book of Job). Here you discover the language of mystery and paradox. This is the second half of life. You are strong enough now to hold together contradictions in yourself and others with compassion, forgiveness, and patience. You realize that <em>your chosenness is for the sake of letting others know they are also chosen.<\/em> You have moved from the Torah\u2019s exclusivity and \u201cseparation as holiness\u201d to inclusivity and allowing everything to belong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing in Christ: Week 2 Human Development in Scripture Tuesday, March 26, 2019 Walter Brueggemann, one of my favorite Scripture scholars, brilliantly connects the development of the Hebrew Scriptures with the development of human consciousness. [1] Brueggemann says there are three major parts of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Literature. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17917,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17916\/revisions\/17917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}