How Aristotle Reads Psalm 68
2007 September 7
[Updated: see comments]
The infamous J.K. Gayle has some great comments on the various posts flying around about Psalm 68. He has an extended quote from Luther on translating 68 which I was glad for (online source would be nice…).
In fact he goes way beyond what most of us have achieved in reflecting on this psalm and should be the fifth pillar in our shaky edifice of analysis. He hits Aristotle, Luther, C.S. Lewis. Wow! Keep it up J.K.
Also, a quick note on the book I mentioned yesterday. It is really good. Short, devotional, but this is no mamby-pamby eisegesis. The Doc is smart and I’m going to steal most of his insights and use them as my own (just kidding).
So get going: Aristotle’s Feminist Subject: How Aristotle Reads Psalm 68.
Thanks for this link.
Actually J.K. is a “he”. I’m not surprised you are confused, as he is a student of feminism, goes by his initials (as do many women who don’t want their gender to be obvious), doesn’t specify his gender in his Blogger profile, and shares the Rowling’s woman’s initials (but also those of the man Galbraith). But he clearly describes himself here as “a grandson, a son, the husband of an amazing woman, and the father of three wonderful people”.
Whoops. I wondered but didn’t check it out. The picture in the sidebar is of a woman so I assumed… Will update that.
Thanks for the kind acknowledgments, David. With the fuss over my gender, Peter, I suppose I should make some infamous American Declaration of Sentiments: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;”
The picture on my blog is from Rafael’s The School of Athens (in the Vatican Museum). Rafael paints mostly men there, with Aristotle front and center, of course. What the photo on the blog does is show how the painter has to proportion the woman in the painting bigger than Aristotle though he paints her down in the margin. Quiz for the day: Who is this woman in Rafael’s School of Athens?
The source for the Luther quotations on Psalm 68 is Luther’s Works, Volume 35: Word and Sacrament I, translated from the German into English by editor E. Theodore Bachmann.
Yes, J. K. I thought you were a woman too for five or six minutes. That photo, you know. But, also, J. K. (Rowling, of course)
Ah, well, now we all know. We could call you Jack though.