Mike's musings

The Wrestlers - and the Canon

Mike Bond came round to the office today, and we went out to lunch at the Wrestlers. We met Mark and Andy, and I had the red chicken curry. The canonical curry is actually beef (red, I think), but I was trying hard to be good diet-wise (particularly as I knew that Moo and I were due to have a beef curry tonight). It was good to see mark and Andy - it's been a while since we last got together. There's a vague plan to meet up for poker (and drinks, obviously) (and probably food, too) around Christmas.

Speaking of canonical issues (did you see the way I did that? Smooth, huh?), the Aichele book that I ordered (Control of Biblical Meaning: Canon as Semiotic Mechanism) arrived today, and it's brilliant. It's the book I've been looking for all term, and I'm definitely going to write about authority and the Canon for one of my assignments. The book is strongly based on the entire Christian Canon (with an accent on the Protestant Canon), which includes the Old Testament, of course, but this means that there should be a good chance for me to do some thinking of my own on the OT side. Good quote:

• "You are the product of ideology, which is a form of power. Ideology controls the texts that you select, the ways that you read them, and the reality that you perceive. There can be no correct, neutral, or comprehensive reading of any text, including the Bible. However, although ideology is not entirely unconscious, it is not entirely voluntary. You cannot choose your ideology, and you are always trapped by it." (p. 17)

I like this book, and I feel like I've got the hook I was looking for this term, the intellectual focus that gives me a starting point to make the topics work within my discourse or - if you'll pardon the term - ideology.