Experiencing God’s love

One of the joys of working with university students is to hear and see how God has become real to them. I'd like to share about two students in the nursing program in Fribourg, Gloire and Simona.

Gloire says that he was a teenager like the others: he liked football, friends, and naturally...girls. One week, some of his friends asked him to go to a concert in their church at the end of the week. On the moment, he said yes, forgetting that there was a party at the same time. So, when the day of the concert came, he was looking for excuses the whole day to avoid the concert. Yet, since he promised to go, and being a man of his word, he finally decided to go. He got there late, and people were already praising God and dancing. He felt like joining them, but his pride kept him from doing it. When the preacher asked people if they wanted to receive Christ as their savior, he didn't get up. But when a friend pronounced the word "divine," that really struck him and he really felt the fulness of God's love for him. That evening was an awesome experience that gave him a new start and direction in his life! Gloire is in one of our Bible groups, and his love for God really shines through him.

Simona grew up in a Christian home. Her family attended church regularly and her faith was growing. She learned about Jesus and loved him. Yet, when she was in early teens, her world fell apart one day when her parents told her and her sister that they were going to divorce. Three days later, Simona’s mother left the country. Simona didn’t see her again for six months. In fact, Simona didn’t want to see her ever again, but at this point she had to live with her. She was angry with her parents and with God. She thought: Why didn’t God help me? Why didn’t he help my parents understand and love each other again? At that point, she decided that she wasn’t going to pray anymore. Yet, that didn’t last long, she remembered the special moments that she had experienced with God in her childhood. She couldn’t forget God. She realized that he was calling her to draw close to him. Through prayer and reading the Bible, her world began to make sense again because God was consoling her and giving her a new joy. Simona's life continues to demonstrate God's love and joy in tangible ways.

Gloire and Simona have two things in common. They are both training for the nursing field, and they have a contagious, joyful faith in Jesus Christ. What a blessing they are to their fellow students, hospital patients and staff!

The Swiss Linguistic Landscape: Challenge and Opportunity

Swiss Linguistic Landscape (2000) - www.bfs.admin.ch

We live very close to the so-called "Röstigrabe" or "Barrière de Rösti," that is, the term for the linguistic border, especially between French and German-speaking populations. (Click here for a linguistic map.)

This is not to be confused with the Swiss borders with France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. That's challenging enough when you consider that Switzerland (15,940 sq mi/41,285 km²) is smaller than my home state of Virginia (42,774.2 sq mi/110,785.67 km²).

To give you an idea of this linguistic landscape, look on a Swiss map for Senèdes (where we live, hard to find!) and Giffers (where Lilian works, also hard to find!). Senèdes is a French-speaking village. There are no road signs or shops in German to help those from the other side. Lilian drives ten minutes to the east and she's in Giffers, a German-speaking village. Now, politically, Senèdes and Giffers are both in the same canton (similar to a state). Official documents are always in both languages. Kids learn German, French, and English, so they are supposed to be able to communicate well with each other. Many are bilingual, even trilingual. Swiss people grow up with visual and audible reminders that they live near "other speakers." This ranges from multilingual ingredients on food products, technical instructions, media, and public announcements like in trains. Or on a more personal level, you might meet someone who just speaks to you in their language, since you are supposed to understand it, and you have the right to answer back in your language. This happened one day when I was trying to figure out how to get a bus ticket from the vending machine on the French-speaking side of Fribourg. The bus driver noticed my perplexity and compassionately got out of the bus to help me. So, I started to speak to him in French, but he let out the ticket for me explaining the whole process in his German dialect. It worked. Sometimes this linguistic encounter can be quite simple like when you enter Fribourg (where I work), you are greeted by a bilingual sign with "Fribourg" and "Freiburg." Not too hard to figure that out. Yet, if it were only that easy...the difference in place names can be so drastic as "Düdingen" (in German) and "Guin" (in French)!

Besides these obvious differences between languages, a few things complicate real communication. First, on the German-speaking side, they also speak dialects. So, you can imagine how the French-speaking population feel...they learn standard German in school and not one of the Swiss German dialects (because there are in fact many Swiss German dialects!). This problem can be overcome by the fact that French speakers can just speak standard German, because the German dialect speakers know standard German well...or at least they should...You see they are very proud of their own language and in general don't really like to speak standard German. Ugh. You see how it's complicated...and this leads to the next challenge or opportunity, namely, the use of English!

Second, these days most Swiss youth like to learn and speak English. This is true on both sides of the linguistic border. So, what often happens is that when young people from German and French-speaking sides meet, they often choose English as their common language. It works quite well when both parties feel comfortable expressing themselves in English. This happens in private conversation, but even in university classrooms and research centers. At the University of Fribourg/Freiburg, I constantly here German, Swiss German, French, Italian, and English. Sometimes you can hear people switch from one  language to another in mid-sentence.

So, for English speakers, this means it is fairly easy to mix with Swiss people, right? Yes and no. Yes, with the younger folks, but much less with the older generations. Also, English can only get you so far socially, since it isn't reasonable to expect an entire group (class, family, club, etc.) to switch to English just because you are there. Swiss are hospitable...but let them be Swiss, please. There simply has to be an agreement when English is necessary to allow communication to happen or to get the job done.

Now, you might be wondering what this "Rösti" is all about. It is a Swiss dish like "hashed potatoes," which represents one of those national myths that Rösti is a defining factor between the regions, that is, that the Swiss Germans actually eat more Rösti than their French-speaking compatriots! In fact, people on both sides enjoy this dish and there are different competing recipes for it. So, if you want to eat well, come to Switzerland (there's more than just Rösti!), but even more so, come to Switzerland if you want to experience a linguistic challenge or opportunity!

Salut, Tschüss, Ciao, Bye!

My new book on the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles

I'm pleased to announce that my book on the thoroughfare motif in "Luke-Acts" has been published. Many thanks to God, my family, and many friends for their help and encouragement in this project. I certainly have a sense of relief and satisfaction.

For those interested, here is the abstract: 
"Luke-Acts is an impressive two-volume narrative seeking to convince and engage readers regarding the spiritual impact of Jesus of Nazareth on the Jewish people and other nations. To this end, Luke employs an impressive arsenal of literary and narrative techniques. This book focuses on a motif and its performance, the thoroughfare motif, which includes those figurative and concrete expressions involving ways, roads, city streets, and country paths. This study traces this motif's performance within the unfolding plot asking what difference the motif makes—progressively and cumulatively—to the reader's encounter with the story's emphasis on salvation. For example, why does Luke take pleasure in describing transformational events on or in relation to thoroughfares? What are the connections between expressions like "the way of peace," "the way of salvation," and "the way of God/Lord"? Why does Luke use such an unusual expression like "the Way" to describe Jesus' followers? How do such expressions contribute to the spiritual landscape of Luke-Acts, the intermingling of concrete and figurative uses of physical imagery? Like an instrument in an orchestra, the thoroughfare motif works together with other motifs and themes to create a captivating exploration of spiritual transformation, received and opposed."

Click here for the publisher's link to the book.

Let me know if you have questions or comments on this book.

So, what is plot anyway? Here's my go at it...

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While I was working on my dissertation, I spent a good deal of mental energy trying to understand various definitions of plot and then formulating a definition that I could use to analyze the thoroughfare motif in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
In fact, we often hear about the great plot of a movie or book. But what does "plot" mean anyway, and how can that notion help in analyzing a literary or cinematic work? And perhaps even more challenging, what does it mean for the study of ancient texts like biblical narratives? By the way, did you know that Aristotle wrote about plot in his Poetics? It's amazing to think that we are still working with some of the ideas that he introduced there!

Here's the abstract of an article I wrote entitled "Emplotment, Plot and Explotment:
Refining Plot Analysis of Biblical Narratives 
from the Reader’s Perspective" (Biblical Interpretation, volume 21, Issue 1, pages 64 – 98):

The notion of plot has a long history of various nuances and uses in literary and biblical studies. Consequently, the practice of plot analysis is quite variable. Although most definitions of plot privilege other elements than the reader, this tendency has recently begun to change. This article argues that plot is more comprehensible and constructive when it is located within the reader’s encounter of the storyworld on the cognitive and affective levels. Thus, the activities of composition and reception, emplotment and plot are best considered distinct activities. An evaluation of definitions illustrates this necessary distinction and leads to a fresh formulation of plot, especially in relation to narratives purporting to be factual. As a complementary step, ‘explotment’ is proposed as a link between the interpretation of the past and the evaluation of the reader, thus explaining the immersive and emersive exploration of the story’s central question(s). Equipped with this heuristic, the interpreter can investigate various questions in the study of biblical narratives on the macro and micro levels; for example, the narrative’s progressive ideological and pragmatic force and development as well as single plot-enhancing elements such as various types of pericopes, literary devices and narrative techniques. With this emphasis on reception theory, this type of plot analysis can be especially beneficial to narrative-critical and reader-response studies. The value of plot theory for biblical exegesis is further demonstrated through illustrations and discussion applied to Luke-Acts.

You might notice that I use complementary terms like "emplotment" (used by P. Ricoeur and H. White) and "explotment" (a new term for literary theory as far as I can tell).

Here's the link to My article on plot theory and analysis if you have access through your school. You might want to read it or copy it at a local school of theology or seminary, because to buy it online is quite expensive (in my opinion).

Let me know what you think about plot and these other terms!

An Action Packed Year 2012

Dear friends,

What an action packed year 2012 was...but we're not going to repeat all that happened. Our transition from Niger to Switzerland was right in the middle (June). 

We have so much to be thankful for...including you all, our friends and family around the world. 

Here are a few recent items for praise and prayer from each of us. We'll start with the kids. 

• Christina moved up to another class mid-December because of her excellent grades. She really likes her new class. We're thankful that she's doing so well in French. 
• Melinda had a great first semester at the Bible School Schloss Klaus in Austria. She will go back for another four months. Pray for the next step: what to study and where? 
• Daniel really likes his apprenticeship in the architect's office in Heimberg. He's enjoying learning high German (at school) and Swiss German (at office and home). This program will continue another three years after this year. So, he's set for awhile!
• Lilian received an apprenticeship/job on December 31st in a nearby nursing home. It will go until the end of April and is renewable. If she continues there, she will also do more studies in geriatrics. This is a huge encouragement to her and our family!
• James (Maurice) sent his book manuscript to Wipf & Stock on Dec. 28th according to contract. So good to have that behind (now for the proofs, last corrections, and printing). I'm thankful that my work with Inter-Varsity (on loan from SIM) and the University of Fribourg is going well. I have agreed to join a group of pastors and theologians about developing ministerial training for churches in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. There is huge potential for equipping servant-leaders. We need God's guidance! 

With thanksgiving for your friendship! 

The Morgans