Browsing by Author "England, Frank"

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    CREDO UT INTELLIGAM: Irony in John 9
    (New Testament Society of Southern Africa, 2014) England, Frank
    Many commentators read John 9, inclusive of verses 38 and 39a, within the frame of baptism, and some commentators read this passage, exclusive of verses 38 and 39a, within the same frame. Examining John 9 through a baptismal optic, this article proposes that the "corrective additions" of verses 38 and 39a to the early manuscripts of John 9, inter alia, p75 and א*, envisage readers and auditors that, ultimately, may remain as blind as the man born blind, and yet whose physical sight is restored by Jesus. It is argued that the presence of John 9:38, in particular, fails to foreground the concomitant requirement of the baptismal ritual, namely, the confession of faith in Jesus, and, as a result, actually dissipates the focus upon baptism. It is asked whether, unable to read or hear ironically, the "scribal correctors" have not suppressed, rather than highlighted, precisely what is essential to discipleship.
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    Postcolonial Anxieties and Biblical Criticism in (South) Africa
    (2009) England, Frank
    Using Francis Watson's metaphor of a "three-way conversation," this article undertakes an analysis of Paul's recourse to Deuteronomy in light of the Temple Scroll and its own engagement with Deuteronomy. After a brief introduction to the Temple Scroll, the article first explores the question of hermeneutical stance toward Deuteronomy, suggesting that both Paul and the Temple Scroll interpret scriptural passages from Deuteronomy in light of other scriptural loci and rewrite Deuteronomy with a certain amount of actualizing interpretation as a word to the present. Second, the Temple Scroll's well-known stress on halakhah is compared with Paul's letters, and several key areas of Paul's ethical engagement with Deuteronomy are shown to be engaged in similar questions, though not always with the same answers. Finally, a concluding comparison sets forth their similarities and differences as each engages in a very different act of correlation between Deuteronomy and the present.
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    Symbolic warfare: the battle for the ownership of symbols in an Anglican community
    (1987) England, Frank; Chidester, David
    The uncovering and investigating of those meaningful aspects of human existence which emerge as a result of one's location in life and experience of life and are appropriated, interpreted and operated by individuals and· groups is the focus of this thesis. This is an enquiry into 'living meaning', the symbolic configurations and conceptions which lie hidden in the recesses of the human psyche as feelings, images, words and associations and are displayed in combinations and concatenations in the public square. The initial belief that I would discover a common language and find cohesion and unity in the theological college which formed the research arena was soon shattered, and this project came to centre around the use and abuse, manipulation, exploitation and stealing of symbols and the complex procedures of negotiation and collective bargaining. In fact, we entered a battle zone from which we would not emerge unscathed because symbolic warfare was being waged! While at one stage there was the attempt to carry out the task before me by primarily using questionaires and interviews, I came to realize that in dealing with the complex nature of pre-apprehended and apprehended symbols, participant-observation and reflective analysis was far more fitting. Here I focused on a representative South African community which, I believe, contained almost all the permutations found in our society- political, social, economic, cultural and educational. This complexity may have been compounded by the comprehensive nature of Anglicanism. I believe that symbolic warfare is endemic to the very nature of religion and I endeavour to show this by analysing the discourse, ritual and community aspects of the seminary. But it is also my belief that there are some things of the sacred which defy appropriation and thwart the claims to ownership and it is these which prevent the disintegration of a community. My hope is that men and women will assimilate the multiplex nature of being human and seek to relinquish the tenacious grip they have on their own symbols which have, in fact, become idols! Bound in these chains there can be no freedom, because liberation comes in recognizing the interdependent and interconnected nature of human living in a universal theatre of symbols. To die to one's own symbols is indeed a real death but the lesson has not been learnt that while the crucifixion brings death, the flickering light of the resurrection is still shining as it did on that first Easter morn.