First Day of School

You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.

I just remembered why I love college: I feel my brain exercising itself by the day - maybe that's just my head expanding before it explodes, but humor me in my crazed condition, I beg you, oh non-existent readers.
Today in honors, we discussed whether there is absolute truth. This discussion is I believe a fool-proof way to begin a heated and stimulating debate, and today was a flawless example of this general trend. Of course, the idea of "absolute truth" takes on an entirely different flavor in an honors class where one professor is going on ego trips every few minutes and buttering us up in a semi-sarcastic way about being "smart, and especially intelligent." Well, from the discussion today, I believe I have figured out what "smart, and especially intelligent" means, and I am determined to not be such! Direct quote from said professor, "Any fool can read a text and tell us what it said. It is for us to dig deeper." GREAT! I love digging deeply into a text, but he had not yet made himself entirely clear. What he means by digging into the text is fundamentally ignoring anything concrete that it might be suggesting. The classic example which he brought up is with regard to the Creation account. "Clearly, we do not believe that it is referring to seven literal days, but we being sophisticated know that this means something else and by unpacking the esoteric we understand the figurative, allegorical meaning." I'm not sure, but I think I've just been labeled ignorant.
Not so, Professor! Sometimes in the search for the esoteric, intelligence ignores the essential exoteric. Last semester, a professor of mine dragged out many interesting and enlightening details of the book of John, which I had never known. Of course, some of her conclusions were fallacious, but many of her historical observations and connections were valid and strong. Nevertheless, in the search for esoteric and something deeper than the surface, she missed the whole point of John. "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31) She knows so much theoretically, but so little exponentially. If sophistication means an inability to take God at His word, then count me out.
Okay, well for all you nitpicky people, I know I haven't yet really addressed the debate about absolute truth. I will try to now. Without a doubt, many books and even certain illustrations and parables of the Bible are not literally true and must be analyzed to even understand what the text is saying. Further, almost every author intentionally creates many levels to his text. This is why the Bible, written by the Master of all Authors, is "shallow enough for a child to splash in, but deep enough to an elephant to swim in." However, this is not what my professors mean, as far as I can tell. One of my fellow students brought up the fact that scriptures are so important because they must be read repeatedly and not just put on a shelf. They are in fact vitally applicable to our daily lives. Bingo! I was very excited. Well, my balloon quickly came crashing down, as my other professor concluded that this therefore means that the scriptures are "living documents for our personal interpretation." (Is something applicable for life necessarily living?)As I picked me jaw up off the ground, we had moved on to somehow conclude that if there is a more sophisticated understanding of the text than the basic obvious understanding for poor old Joe the Plumber, than that obvious one is of no effect. This is where I disagree. That a more "sophisticated," deeper, insightful understanding of texts exists I gladly grant or half of my education would have been and will be a waste, but that this somehow invalidates any simple understanding of that text is foolishly elitist.
Further, as my professors concluded, if the author could never have really thought about all the brilliant things others are going to conclude about his work, and that, therefore, his intentions are pointless, because people have used his text to say things entirely unintended and yet remarkably stunning, then I never want to write again. . . In fact, you have probably interpretted from this post that I love spinach and would like some day to travel to Ireland, and therefore all these words mean nothing but what you want at this moment. Congratulations! You have successfully passed Postmodernism 101 and will consequentially drive me into an insane asylum.
To wrap up class, we read Maemonides "Apple of Gold" analysis of the Torah. In that passage, he describes the meaning of the Torah as a girl who evades her lover, allowing him only glimpses of herself for the longest time, until eventually after much seeking and much evading, she gives herself to him. Hooray! The girl is findable; Truth is merely evading. Well, somehow this is not the conclusion much of my class came to, and my professor wrote off another student who said these things by saying "Well, even when you have her, do you understand all of her?" What? Praise God that Truth is not contingent upon my understanding it all, because if I could understand every nuance of Truth then it would be quickly worn out to be discarded. Instead, Incarnate Truth as revealed in the Son of God is so deep a subject, so vast a knowledge, so transcendent a Being that I will continue to learn of Him for all eternity! Why, Lord, have you revealed this to me, a popper in the way of understanding, a simpleton in intellectual sophistication? I would ask with Pilate, "What is Truth?" but unlike him, accept and rejoice in the answer: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes through the Father, but by me."