He had just these two books in his bag when he was shot, the book on Wyclif saved his life because the bullet got lodged in the thick text mere inches from his back.

The coolest part about this is that my religions professor wrote this book. 

Stephen Lahey is my Exploring Religions professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and this was his comment (well one of them) on this incident

"That’s what happens when you write impenetrable prose"

OK, so what I'm basically going to to in this essay is examine the hermeneutics of Wyclif and Gerson. I'll be looked at how they treat the Bible, what they think it is, how they think it should be read, and why. Then, I'ma take this, and fit it into the scheme of late medieval intellectualism. See if it changes the flow, forming a clear divergence from scholasticism, or if enough elements of continuity can be found to suggest it as a new phase, rather than a total break. Some thing which will be important are the methods both use in their hermeneutic pursuits: do they adopt the methods of scholastic pursuit - reason, logical, theology as a science - or the methods of sapientia - revelation, dependance on character rather than intellect, etc-. (What I'm expecting to find there is that Gerson embraces the sapiential method with far more alacrity that Wyclif, as shown in he True Revelations. Wyclif wants desperately to embrace it, in order to counter the 'sophisms' of philosophers, but can't quite bring himself to go all the way (why?)). The methods are also important. How do each think that the Bible should be approached? Wyclif wants a fusion of scientia and sapientia, a close critical reading of the text, seeking the literal sense as defined by authorial intent, but ultimately realised through the experience of revelation, transforming the Bible into a supra-textual object, the signifiers of which constitute the physical Bible, but are of far less value. (read: almost none). Haven't read Gerson on this yet, but I'm expecting a more fully sapiential approach based on his mystical theology, using reason and scientia to guide the way to revelation by mystical means, which allows one the full appreciation of the mind of God. On the surface, there methods seem similar; are they? Review Ghosh. Having detailed and deconstructed the two approaches, I will then attempt to place them in their context in terms of the intellectual development of the LMA. Are they scholastic? How do they fit into the realist/nominalist conflict? Based on these questions, do they represent 'continuity or change'? (But not that simplistic. Never that simplistic.)

So, for tomorrow:

Read the thing on Gerson's Biblical Theology.

Think about the sense in which Gerson's mystical theology is representative of a sapiential approach.

Get more reading on Gerson's hermeneutics.

Overall goal is to try and have a clear understanding of Gerson's hermeneutic approach by the end of Saturday, then I can spend Sunday going back to Wyclif and comparing the two.

So, today I've been reading Wyclif's De Veritate, and I've managed to extract a fair bit from it. Firstly, I've decided that my essay is going to be something on hermeneutics, and the differing ways of understanding and reading the bible that were emerging ni the late 14th and early 15th centuries, coupled with an analysis of the impact of these 'new hermeneutics' on intellectual thought and practice. With that in mind, I've got some good stuff from Wyclif. The main points I want to focus on are:

The constant tension in DV between scientia and sapientia. On the one hand, Wyclif is introducing his new from of hermeneutics, based on the ideas of scriptural logic and the literal sense, while of the other, he adopts an Augustinian mode of understanding the Bible which almost completely eliminates any need for hermeneutics.

The methods of reading that Wyclif advocates, particularly the literal sense, and how they contribute to this tension. The literal sense is defined by Wyclif as the authorial intention, (the author being the Holy Spirit) and therefore it is the sense that we should try to reach when reading the Bible. Further, the first sense of understanding that becomes apparent to the reader can be taken as the literal sense. This has a variety of impacts. Firstly, it reduces the Bible to absolute, there is no room for interpretation, as any interpretation contrary to the literal sense is both the fault of the reader, and violates the concept of Scripture.

The monologic nature of Scripture. Wyclif attempts, as part of the polemical aspect of DV to reduce the interaction between reader and text. The reader no longer imposes their reason on the text, as in the Aquinian model. Instead, the literal sense of the text, being the inviolate word of the Holy Spirit is imposed on the reader. Polemically, this is massively important. It both condemns the disputational scholastic model of hermeneutics, by stating the the addition of human glossing to the Bible is tantamount to heresy, and also broadens access to the Bible, as it removes the need for a specific set of hermeneutical skills in order to access the literal sense. Once again, the tension is apparent. Wyclif provides a set of tool (Scriptural Logic) for accessing the literal sense, and then goes on to obviate the need for such tools, and also render the text itself superfluous, as what should be understood is the word of God itself (what is signified by 'Scripture') rather than Scripture as the textual object.

Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) - Wyclif Jean ft Akon and Lil Wayne.

Cash rules everything around me.

The opening for the Haiti Art Expo 2010 was amazing to say the least. Frank Ishman, Kevin Sharply, I had the pleasure and honor to have pieces of my work included in the show. We donated our work via The Empowerment Project for The Love of Haiti I've started working on recently. The show took place at the mosaic bldg. in the design district of Miami. The event was presented by Plum TV's Jerry Powers, promoter Michael Capponi, who has helped in relief efforts, and Haitian relief advocate Jeff Feldman, the party is hosted by Serina Williams, Haitian-born World Welterweight championship boxer Andrea Berto and Fabrice and Patrick Tardieu of the clothing line Bogosse. The event from open night was a star studded event and it was a pleasure to see people supporting this great cause. Frank sold and I sold more than half of our images we donated to this United Way benefit, which 100% goes back to the U.W. organization to help build a village in Haiti. Check out the pictures below to see what you missed.