指天途人見 :: slay the dragon

The 3rd one in a row. Yet another tributary parody of old Cantonese pop songs from Hong Kong 30 years ago. This one is, again, about my PhD journey. Of course, again, untranslatable. (Warning: Don't EVER try to use Google Translate on these — or on anything, I would actually say.)

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指天途人見

• 《倚天屠龍記》主題曲30週年紀念特別版
• bonus track：熊熊聖火+陸小鳳+倚天屠龍記 in one clip

論點繞心中有幾多重，

題目又確係難個種，

日夜兩不分，我通宵猛揼，

點會唔攰？

拿林快趣世上有真英雄，

常人只可逐隻字慢慢摸，

難忘記D footnotes 每篇塞到埳，

都知難做。

神如天，萬里廣闊，

學如海，百般洶湧，

要讀晒亦難，偷雞不可，

每日狂衝。

迷迷惘惘咁思考有幾千重，

埋頭咁寫待哪日才可終？

途人都指天叫慘不斷，

呢舖難做。

途人都指天叫慘不斷，

呢舖難做 ... 呢舖難做。

• flashbacks：少理飛嘟；陸少飲之決戰前後

受難節思考 :: being messy and particular

... the Judeo-Christian tradition is one that emphasises the scandal of particularity that stems from understanding God's actions in the messy arena of history and of particular people with all their strengths, faults, and idiosyncrasies. The particularity of situatedness does not, however, isolate religion from the rest of life. A fideistic [*] approach that attempts to segregate faith from other currents of life is, on this reading, a gnostic or docetic impossibility, contrary to the postmodern rejection of the modern 'unencumbered self '. (my italics)

Dan R. Stiver, 'Theological Method', in Kevin J. Vanhoozer (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 180.

Theology is therefore ideally suited to handle life's messiness. Far from avoiding what life throws up, theology as a discipline is about handling a living tradition, fed by insights of a living body of people, in the service of understanding and living life to the full. (my italics)

Clive Marsh, Theology Goes to the Movies (Routledge, 2007), 163.

• rejoining 卡卡西：黑白之間 / 意義 / 宗教生活的基本形式

復活節預表之鹹蛋翻生 :: resurrection of the salted egg

My Taiwanese colleague TY shared some of his newest products with us — his home-made salted eggs. I opened one for supper last night, only to find that it was totally unsalted and uncooked. How come this miracle of resurrection? I was sure somebody made a mistake somewhere. (Spoiler underneath the Chinese text.)

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日前鹹蛋超人同學TY再相贈自製鹹雞蛋兩隻，經夢教父同學交Ben同學帶到學校放在雪櫃/冰箱裡等我拿。

昨晚回家煮飯，為了獎勵自己尚未完成論文，慶祝自己有排做，決定開一隻來加料。

不開還可，一開就發現，鹹蛋未熟 (超人的做法是把鹹蛋煮熟才送出的)，而且一點都不鹹，結果要跟菜一起炒熟它。然而心裡十分困惑，不知道是鹹蛋超人失手，還是運送過程發生 「人為錯誤」。【題外話：香港政府和傳媒常用的這句 「人為錯誤」其實十分離奇，有甚麼錯誤不是人為的呢？】

碰巧夜裡鹹蛋超人在MSN問我收到了鹹蛋沒有 ...

飲：收到，不過有點奇怪，完全不鹹的，不知道是否Ben拿錯了給我...

鹹：噢？完全不鹹，是像煮熟雞蛋一樣？我要先跟太太檢討一下...

飲：不，是生蛋

鹹：那不可能，我是先煮過的，一定是拿錯了，要問問Ben

飲：明天就問他

這件 「鹹蛋翻生」奇案，由於涉案人數眾多，偵查有點難度，但是也在十六小時之後給我不動聲息地迅速偵破了...

破案的關鍵，是第二天(今日)發生的一件更離奇的事件...

今日打開家裡的雪櫃/冰箱，一望，咦？怎麼我的雞蛋少了一個！Pan右八吋，兩隻鹹蛋和盛載的藍膠袋竟然原封不動。頂！

果真是 「人為錯誤」。

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The next day, I found that one of my fresh eggs was missing, and the salted ones were still there, untouched.

陸少飲之決戰前後 :: countdown to showdown

Another tributary parody of another old Cantonese pop song from Hong Kong 32 years ago. This one is again about my mental state in these very final days before thesis submission. To avoid lost in translation, I better not do it.

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陸少飲之決戰前後

• 《陸小鳳之決戰前後》32週年紀念特別版
• 月缺之夜，學府之顛 ...

捱吓夜，食D柑，

七章去，導論去，冇遺憾。

為deadline，通宵又何憾？

為viva，必須的起個心，

眼淚未曾流，此刻雖好抿，

有誰人，真會問？

望北海，寫thesis令人 「恨」，

盡一煲，始終好多要諗。

咪學做閒人，朝朝係恕揼，

我份人，唔咁笨 ... 唔咁笨 ... 唔咁笨 ...

少理飛嘟 :: The Panic Candidate

A tributary parody to The Romantic Swordsman, an iconic Cantonese popular song from Hong Kong, to commemorate its 30th anniversary. Also called The Doctoral Candidate's Fear of the Viva (a la Wim Wenders). Ultimately untranslatable.

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Ben同學日前無啦啦說我唱《小李飛刀》的時候好豪邁 (還是豪氣？)，刺激我連續兩天上學院的路上，不唱《上學歌》而改為邊走邊作此曲，成『上行之D』(不是詩)。

少理飛嘟

• 《小李飛刀》30週年紀念特別版
• 又名：《博士生對論文口試的恐懼》— tribute to Wim Wenders

難得一身好本領，難關好驚闖不過，

闖不過論文大試，亂揮keyboard無結果。

文章篇篇寫不斷，神學百結解不破，

Keyboard冷，電池未冷，通頂更是難過。

無情board猛挑點錯，

無能力，只嘆奈何！

做到死不會驚怕，唔掂心悽楚。

人間幾許PhD，唔通偏偏隊冧我？

點都要，做埋佢，deadline鐵定唔過。

• 附：原版歌詞 (謝謝提供*)

the horror, the horror ...

As one of us recently discovered when teaching a module on biblical hermeneutics to a class of divinity students training for the priesthood, work undertaken at the interface between the Bible and popular culture ... is often met with derision and disdain within theology. ...... the mere mention of Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990) or Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003) led to at least one cry of 'blasphemy', and a general consensus among the students that the 'serious' business of theology was being dumbed down.

Christopher Deacy and Gaye Ortiz, Theology and Film: Challenging the Sacred/Secular Divide (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), x.

So, you see how far out I am?

Gracious God, have mercy on us.

神探 :: Mad Detective

(dir. Johnnie To 杜琪峰 and Wai Ka Fai 韋家輝, Hong Kong, 2007)

『我睇到人心裡面隻鬼。佢有七隻。』(I can see the ghost inside people. He has 7.)

『如果人人都有隻鬼，你冇，就係你有問題。』(If everyone has a ghost inside, and you don't, then the problem is with you.)

Abnormality = ab-NORM-ality = not the same as the others, not following the crowd.

Treading the border between the natural and the supernatural, and how the two worlds inform / intercept / interrogate / infringe upon each other.

Brilliant creative idea, beautiful directorial execution.

But, alas, the storyline messes up the logic of its own created world. (Yes, I do hold to the notion that every story, no matter how crazily fictitious and imaginary and wild it is, is supposed to have an internal logic of its own.)

So, ultimately, this film is 'dog fart cannot get through' (狗屁不通).

Falls short. What a shame.

Sunday special: 2 theogags

星期日鉅獻之笑爆嘴神學笑話。

From Ben Witherington:

Jesus vs Satan - the computing showdown 【終極對決】

Three Good Arguments that Jesus was a ... ? 【耶穌的真正身份】

(Don't ask me to explain what's so hilarious about them. If you don't find them funny, they are not funny. Period.)

(And don't throw stones at me!)

調景嶺上* :: breathing on the cliff

Earlier this past week, I pretended to have completed revising 5 thesis chapters and gave myself some breathing time while hanging on the cliff. Went to 3 seminars of different subject areas at school. The most fascinating was of course the one by Michael Ward on his new book Planet Narnia. Even more fascinating is my newly created dish offered to the potluck supper at the Mitchell's — light pan fried tofu with vegetarian mince (picture below).

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過去一週連續三天出席了學院裡三個完全不同範圍的研討會。

不是說超級終極閉關的嗎？我好得閒麼？

非也。只不過剛剛星期二下午暫時假扮姑且算做完了五章的修改，大業雖未成，吊頸也透氣，而且真的很累了。況且天天十多小時(從上週末到星期二中午是每天十九小時)對著同一堆看了九萬次的東西，都好悶啦。碰巧有稍感興趣的題目，人又反正在學院，到樓下花它一個小時還是負擔得起的。

那麼無啦啦突然何來那麼多研討會？

非也。話說敝學院大約一百五十名研究生，分屬五個學科組別 (神學與倫理、聖經研究、教會歷史、世界基督教、宗教研究)，各自都有每週定期研討會。還未計其他每年一度或者每年數度或者數年一度的特別系列，譬如大約在秋季的Gunning Lectures和世界著名的春季Gifford Lectures等等等等。

雖然很少人會經常跨組別參加研討會，但偶一踩過界還是普遍的。

星期二，我去了世界基督教那邊 (好像自從第一個學期去過幾次之後都沒再去了)，有位編輯《世界基督教百科全書》的仁弟，從我的波士頓母校東來，講全球基督教人口分布和統計。

我不算非常有興趣不過頗感好奇，一聽無妨。對此等涉及大量無法求證的demographics and statistics，我愈來愈skeptical。還是阿飛講師夠玩野：我不擅長統計學，但請問為甚麼統計數字總是以零零零結尾的呢？直插此類統計和估計渾然天成而舖天蓋地人口數字的arbitrariness。

星期三，到宗教研究那組聽已畢業的SO學姊講她的博士研究 —— 加拿大印第安人的本土宗教，到底是實證(empirical)身份還是政治分類？

我對此當然零點一竅不通，不過以往閒聊中聽過學姊講她實地研究的一鱗半爪，也有點好奇。原來印第安人並非從來都以印第安人自居，而是隨著政治政策/形勢擺動的，令我想起世界上無數地區的原居民/原住民身份問題，誰是本地人？誰是比本地人更本地人的本地人？

星期四，回到自己本行的神學與倫理科，Michael Ward談他的新書，分析CS Lewis的Chronicles of Narnia的世界觀，認為是建基於中古世界的七重天觀念，十分fascinating。

那夜，到老師府上pot luck supper，我就貢獻了這道技驚八座的新創作：

【醒神愛丁豆腐：輕煎豆腐粒配薑蒜炒素肉藻】

漂亮的師母給我一個漂亮的盤子盛載，更添醒神。

臨別，吾師說，聽說你帶來那道素食好評如潮，不過我只吃到一小粒而已。

我只懂嘻嘻嘻問他夠不夠飽，應該說下次專誠炒給他吃嘛。真不夠尊師，又不夠醒目。

* 調景嶺：香港地區名，原名吊頸嶺，本篇因以為題。

Hurray! Dr Titus Chung!

With his thesis on T.F. Torrance's epistemology, our beloved Rev. Titus Chung from Singapore has passed his viva at noon today. No corrections required (except typos). Orz.

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剛才研討會上遙遙見到坐在一角的章劍文牧師(又名T同學)，西裝畢挺。接通真理的師妹說，一看就知道是考口試了。

交換一個眼神，我用問號的眼神樹起拇指，他用滿懷信心的眼神樹起拇指。掂了。我再回敬一個恭賀的拇指。

研討會後再講，他說，完全通過，評分二級(即只用修改打錯字之類)。而且口試裡基本上沒有質疑過他的論據，而是各舒己見地談論對托倫斯神學的看法，跟著談出版論文的計畫。嘩真神奇。

T同學的論文，批判愛丁堡一代神學宗師托倫斯的知識論，從他開課到今天，應該還差十天至兩週才到兩年半，是我認識/知道/聽聞的人之中最超速的了。

學無先後，達者為師。Cheers!

• 延伸：Titus' guest post - remembrance of TF Torrance

prefix-less theology

In times past, it was easy for Western, white, male Caucasians to label other theologies with a prefix such as African American theology, Latin American theology, feminist theology, Asian theology, and so on, without recognising the white, masculine, Western flavour to their own theology. They were doing 'prefix-less' theology while everyone else was not! This is no longer possible. It is incumbent, then, upon theologians to be conscious of the tradition and perspective out of which they write ...

Dan R. Stiver, 'Theological Method', in Kevin J. Vanhoozer (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 179.

(as I've said HERE)

evangelicals and East Asian contextual theology

The history of evangelicalism suggests that the success of the movement rests on its willingness to correlate Scripture with the context in which it finds itself, rather than simply reaching backward into evangelical history to draw out past correlations, such as the way in which a text was applied by Calvin in his sixteenth-century Genevan context. Sixteenth-century Geneva bears little resemblance to today's Hong Kong or Singapore!

..... it was well known that Calvin was interested in --- and, to some extent, influenced by --- the language and concepts of the classical Roman philosophical and rhetorical tradition. China has an older philosophical and rhetorical tradition. Why should Asian Christians use the same ideas that Calvin borrowed when they have a distinguished heritage of their own from which to draw?

Alister E. McGrath, 'Evangelical Theological Method: The State of the Art', in John G. Stackhouse, Jr. (ed.) Evangelical Futures: A Conversation on Theological Method (Regent College / Baker / IVP, 2000), 36-37 (my italics).

I am a bit -- just a little bit -- surprised. Didn't quite expect a self-professed evangelical theologian and a professor of historical theology to say such things.

After all, I am happy that it is Alister McGrath who have said this. If they were my words, I could be stoned to death (figuratively, of course) for straying away from orthodoxy and betraying the Way, and setting a bad example for the kids (離經叛道，教壞細路).

So, thank you, Alister. When one day I face the heresy trial, I can have something to quote. And be mindful, all my ethnic Chinese Edinburgh colleagues!