Day 12: From the Bible to Shakespeare……and back again.

1/27 This week our colloquies switched times, and mine began at 8:30 sharp, which means that it started at 8:26 because that room’s clock is 4/5 minutes fast. It was a discussion that I cannot fully comprehend. We discussed the Bible, our reading for Tuesday, and the first question addressed to us was “do you think that the Bible is true, and where does your validation for that belief come from?” The question itself wasn’t that shocking because it was in relation to our discussion of epistemic authorities (the Bible, tradition, reason, experience) from shortly before.

What I discovered though, was that many of the people in the room were under the impression that the Bible was not necessarily historically accurate (specifically the Old Testament), but rather it displayed “true characteristics” of God through the telling of some stories or through the interpretation by men of what they thought God was like, and how they best felt to explain him. I personally take a very different view that the Old Testament is very historically accurate, and that is the testament to God’s nature. I can’t imagine how God, in his perfect and true nature, would be conveyed through false stories. And by false stories I mean stories that were told like historical narratives that make up most of the Old Testament, for example the story of Job. Laura made the point that if part of the Bible isn’t true, then you really can’t distinguish the truth from the fiction and the whole Bible is not authoritative because you can find fault with part of it.

Anyways, it was a very interesting and surprising lecture. I was completely caught off guard by being in the minority opinion, or at least minority of voiced opinions, and I was very grateful for the input of my fellow classmates in agreement with me. Eventually we moved on to another facet of our readings, and overall I found this discussion to be the most fascinating and thought provoking. Afterwards I talked with people in the later colloquy to discover that they had come to the opposite conclusion than my group had (that the Bible was infallible). So it was a very interesting morning.

After I finished my colloquy I borrowed the mole (our handy dandy map of London & tube, with random notes) and set off with David Boegin (long Island Dave) and Steve downtown to see about theatre tickets. We navigated our way successfully and sought out tickets to Midsummer Night’s dream at the Novello Theatre, which houses the Royal Shakespeare Company. We got tickets close up in the stalls for 5 pounds each! It was pretty exciting…that is until after we left the show.

We diligently read for most of the afternoon, and then head to King’s Cross station to the British Library. At the library we hit it up to a really dark room (that contained the Magna Carta!) and searched out the Codex Sinaiticus. That book is the oldest manuscript of the complete New Testament, and the majority of the Old Testament. It’s from the 4th c AD, but it is in phenomenal condition, and was really inspiring to look at.

We hit it up for a super quick dinner and quick changing into dressy clothes, and Steve, David P (tall Dave), Daniel, Katie and I swiftly made our way to the show. The building was beautiful; I love the inside of theatres. The play was.. interesting. I don’t know how else to put it. There were some actors who I liked, some who weren’t very good. There were many interesting artistic liberties taken, many of which I disagreed with on several different levels. Overall, I thought that they did a poor job in many aspects with how they interpreted the text. It was very bizarre, and they flew a couple of the gods, but the fly lines looked like they did in 7th grade Peter Pan at SouthView. The fairies were a less-enjoyed aspect, but I liked puck at least. He was one of the few well-done characters. I also enjoyed the main plot with the 4 lovers, which was tastefully (for the most part) done. However, the 5th act was atrocious and we all avoided our eyes for most of the scenes. It was a horrible way to end the show, and was disgustingly inappropriate. The worst part was that our TA’s and Prof’s kids had given us glowing reviews, without once mentioning any vulgarity. It was a disappointing way to end the show, and I have never been so eager to get back to my Bible readings (which were Luke, Acts 1-15, and Romans).