December 26, 2007

• Context-Sensitive Theology

  A Wonderful Life

  Part I:
   
  Language
  Games
   
  on December 19:
  
  
  

  See also the noir entry on "Nightmare Alley" for Winter Solstice 2002, as well as a solstice-related commentary on I Ching Hexagram 41, Decrease.

  Part II:

  Language Game
  on Christmas Day

  Pennsylvania Lottery
  December 25, 2007:

  

  Part III:
   
  
  A Wonderful Life

  The Pennsylvania Lottery on Christmas at mid-day paired the number of the I Ching Hexagram 41, "Decrease," with the number 2911, which may be interpreted as a reference to I
  Chronicles 29:11--

  "Thine, O
  LORD is the
  greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the
  majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine
  is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all."

  This verse is sometimes cited as influencing the Protestant conclusion of the
  Lord's Prayer:

  "Thine
  is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever" (Mt 6.13b;
  compare 1 Chr 29.11-13)....

  This
  traditional epilogue to the Lord's prayer protects the petition for the
  coming of the kingdom from being understood as an exorcism, which we
  derive from the Jewish prayer, the Kaddish,
  which belonged at the time
  to the synagogical liturgy.

  -- World
  Alliance of Reformed Churches

  The Pennsylvania Lottery on Christmas evening paired 173 with the beastly number 0666. 
  The latter number suggests that perhaps being "understood
  as an
  exorcism" might not, in this case, be such a bad thing. What,
  therefore, might
  "173" have to do with exorcism?  A search in the context of the
  phrase "language games" yields a reference to Wittgenstein's Zettel,
  section 173:

  

  From Charles L. Creegan, Wittgenstein
  and Kierkegaard:

  Language-games give general guidelines of the
  application of language. Wittgenstein suggests that there are
  innumerably many language-games: innumerably many kinds of
  use of the components of language.²⁴
  The grammar of the
  language-game influences the possible relations of words,
  and things, within that game. But the players may modify the
  rules gradually. Some utterances within a given
  language-game are applications; others are 'grammatical
  remarks' or definitions of what is or should be possible. (Hence
  Wittgenstein's remark, 'Theology as grammar'²⁵
  - the
  grammar of religion.)

  The idea of the 'form of life' is a reminder about even more
  basic phenomena. It is clearly bound up with the idea of
  language. (Language and 'form of life' are explicitly connected
  in four of the five passages from the Investigations in
  which the term 'form of life' appears.) Just as grammar is
  subject to change through language-uses, so 'form of life'
  is subject to change through changes in language. (The
  Copernican revolution is a paradigm case of this.) Nevertheless, 'form
  of life' expresses a
  deeper level of 'agreement.' It is the level of 'what has to be
  accepted, the given.'²⁶
  This is an agreement
  prior to agreement in opinions and decisions. Not everything can
  be doubted or judged at once.

  This suggests that 'form of life' does not denote static
  phenomena of fixed scope. Rather, it serves to remind us of the
  general need for context in our activity of meaning. But the
  context of our meaning is a constantly changing mosaic involving
  both broad strokes and fine-grained distinctions.

  The more commonly understood point of the 'Private Language
  Argument' - concerning the root of meaning in something public -
  comes into play here. But it is important to show just what
  public phenomenon Wittgenstein has in mind. He remarks: 'Only in
  the stream of thought and life do words have meaning.'²⁷
  

  24

  Investigations, sec. 23.

  25

  Investigations, sec. 373; compare Zettel, sec.
  717.

  26

  Investigations, p. 226e.

  27

  Zettel,
  sec. 173. The thought is
  expressed many times in similar words.

  And from an
  earlier chapter of Creegan:

  The 'possibility of religion' manifested itself in
  considerable reading of religious works, and this in a person who
  chose his reading matter very carefully. Drury's recollections
  include conversations about Thomas à Kempis, Samuel
  Johnson's Prayers, Karl Barth, and, many times, the New
  Testament, which Wittgenstein had clearly read often and thought
  about.²⁵
  Wittgenstein had also
  thought about what it would mean to be a Christian. Some time
  during the 1930s, he remarked to Drury: 'There is a sense in
  which you and I are both Christians.'²⁶
  In this context it is
  certainly worth noting that he had for a time said the Lord's
  Prayer each day.²⁷

  Wittgenstein's last words were: 'Tell them I've had a
  wonderful life!'²⁸
  

  25

  Drury (1981) 'Conversations with
  Wittgenstein,' in Ludwig Wittgenstein: Personal
  Recollections, pp. 112ff.

  26

  Drury, 'Conversations,' p. 130.

  27

  Drury, 'Some notes,' p. 109.

  28

  Reported by Mrs. Bevan, the wife of the
  doctor in whose house Wittgenstein was staying. Malcolm, Memoir,
  p. 81.

  Part IV:
   
  
  L'Envoi

  For more on the Christmas evening
  number of the beast, see Dec. 3:
    "Santa's Polar Opposite?" --

  "Did he who made the Lamb
  make thee?"

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