Subject: Re: Church blasts ‘new age’ Star Wars

Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 01:23:03 GMT

From:  (Nigel B. Mitchell)

Newsgroups: aus.religion,aus.religion.christian,nz.soc.religion

In <>, Chris Ho-Stuart

<> wrote:
>You have a good point on the parting of the Red Sea, as I have said.

>But your failure to see meaning in anything other than historical

>terms, or to distinguish different kinds of literature or ways of

>expressing ideas, is not particularly sensible.
I think you are being a bit rough on Allister here, Chris.
If he has managed to get through his education without studying the

humanities at all, then it is quite likely that he has only learnt to

used literary styles in which factual and objective reporting is the

object of the exercise. Allister’s mistake is in thinkiing that

historians, poets and theologians ever write such literature. For all

three (and many other fields in the humanities) the truth of a text is

in the meaning it conveys, not the events it describes.
BTW –

In <37a0>,  (Allistar

Melville) wrote:
>The existence of Julius Caesar is well documented.
So is the existence of Jesus.
cheers
N+
Nigel B. Mitchell

In <>, Chris Ho-Stuart

<> wrote:

>You have a good point on the parting of the Red Sea, as I have said.

>But your failure to see meaning in anything other than historical

>terms, or to distinguish different kinds of literature or ways of

>expressing ideas, is not particularly sensible.
I think you are being a bit rough on Allister here, Chris.
If he has managed to get through his education without studying the

humanities at all, then it is quite likely that he has only learnt to

used literary styles in which factual and objective reporting is the

object of the exercise. Allister’s mistake is in thinkiing that

historians, poets and theologians ever write such literature. For all

three (and many other fields in the humanities) the truth of a text is

in the meaning it conveys, not the events it describes.
BTW –

In <37a0>,  (Allistar

Melville) wrote:

I think you are being a bit rough on Allister here, Chris.

If he has managed to get through his education without studying the humanities at all, then it is quite likely that he has only learnt to used literary styles in which factual and objective reporting is the object of the exercise. Allister’s mistake is in thinkiing that historians, poets and theologians ever write such literature. For all three (and many other fields in the humanities) the truth of a text is in the meaning it conveys, not the events it describes.