As an adolescent, George Welch thought he would become a monk. Throughout his youth, he spent many hours at the local Carmelite monastery.
“I was in high school, and I would spend my days with them, painting and doing odd jobs around the monastery,” Welch said. “But then the other thing was that we would spend an hour in silence every day when I was with them.”
“Today, we’re going to talk about the widow and the judge. I have no clue what this thing means,” Amy-Jill Levine said. “The more I look at this, the more disturbed I get. The good news there is that if I’m disturbed by a parable, at least the parable is working.”
Levine, professor of New Testament and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School, returned to the Hall of Philosophy lectern at 2 p.m. Thursday to discuss the parable of the wily widow and the unjust judge. “Wiley Widow and Unjust Judge” was the fourth in the Week Eight lecture series theme, “Human Creativity, The Spark of the Divine.”
“I should admit right up front: I don’t like this kid,” Amy-Jill Levine said.
The kid in question was the prodigal son of Jesus’ parable.
Levine, a New Testament and Jewish studies professor at Vanderbilt University, continued her weeklong study of Jesus’ parables at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Hall of Philosophy. In Wednesday’s lecture, “The Provocation of the Prodigal,” Levine examined the parable of the prodigal son. The parable comes from Luke 15:11-32.
Jewish and New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine returned to the Hall of Philosophy lectern Tuesday with “Dangers on the Road to Jericho” to focus on the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Like all parables, the Good Samaritan is subject to interpretation, Levine said.
Survive Week Eight in three easy steps: avoid allegory, listen for humor and exaggeration and find a message to look at the world in a new way.
These are tips Amy-Jill Levine gave the Hall of Philosophy audience at 2 p.m. Monday during her lecture, “Hearing the Parables: Pearls, Pharisees, Publicans and Pounds.”
Dev Patnaik, author and founder of hybrid strategy firm Jump Associates, will speak on the challenges of ambiguity in innovation at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.
John Dominic Crossan addressed “Finale: Violence and Nonviolence,” and Joerg Rieger discussed “Economics and Resistance: Reshaping Desire from the Bottom Up” for Friday’s joint presentation in the Hall of Philosophy, concluding their Week Seven examination of “The Heart and Soul of Money.”
Subagh Singh Khalsa, Mystic Heart Program founder and co-director, will reprise his role as meditation facilitator during Week Eight.
The Mystic Heart Program seeks to educate Chautauquans about a variety of spiritual traditions, including those outside of the Abrahamic canopy. Subagh and his wife, Subagh Kaur, co-direct the program.
Authors and theologians John Dominic Crossan and Joerg Rieger returned Thursday to the Hall of Philosophy to discuss “The Heart and Soul of Money.”
‘Paul: Caesar or Christ?’
In his lecture Wednesday, Crossan placed Jesus in the northwest quadrant of his matrix of power and justice, in the midst of nonviolent power and distributive justice.
“So what if this Jesus that (John Dominic) Crossan is talking about, that I am starting to talk about here, is really taking us to the core of reality? What would be the implications for politics and economics, the way we live together?” Joerg Rieger asked.
Authors and theologians Crossan and Rieger returned to the Hall of Philosophy platform at 2 p.m. Wednesday to continue their afternoon lecture series, “The Heart and Soul of Money.”
