L’Abri Rochester

Phenomena of teachings or doctrines changing or not getting passed on to the next generation.

Discusses history of psychology, comparing viewpoints and usefulness over against the Word of God.

A look at those in evangelical history who boldly stood up against Racism.

Who Wrote the Bible?

The Concept of Authorship in the

Old Testament and Ancient Near East

Have you ever wondered why so many of the books of the Old Testament appear to be written by 'anonymous'? For example, Samuel died about halfway through the first book named after himself. Surely he did not write 2 Samuel! Did a Moabite peasant girl write the book of Ruth? Did Jonah write an unflattering story about himself as the anti-hero? How about the end of the book of Deuteronomy; did Moses write about his own death? Who collected the oracles of the prophet Jeremiah, or the oracles of Isaiah?

From our modern perspective, we think of a book as written by an individual author. We even copyright our work so it cannot be reproduced. It becomes the author's intellectual property. But this is not how 'authorship' was viewed in the world of the Old Testament. In viewing literary works from Mesopotamia, for example, we find that the authors are almost never named. In fact, authority was located in the text, not the author(s), who was either anonymous, or at best, deemphasized. When a person is named, it is unclear whether he or she is the 'first one' (i.e., the originator), or the copyist, or editor, or all of these things (the term used for this is 'tradent'). At best, authorship was considered a collective enterprise, with the content handed down (and sometimes updated or modified) to succeeding generations.

With this in mind, for Bible believing Christians, my goal in this presentation is to show that we can still believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture, even if the concept of individual authorship in the biblical world was different than our own.

Mark Chavalas is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he taught ancient Near Eastern and Biblical history for thirty-five years. He is the author or editor of a number of works on Mesopotamia and Israel, including Mesopotamia and the Bible, and the IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. Currently, Mark does a podcast on Bible backgrounds with Keagan Walz. https://www.youtube.com/@BuriedBiblePodcast. He and his wife Kimberlee live in La Crosse, WI and have six adult children and four grandchildren.

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(Handout below the Blurb)

A Brief History of the Soul

 

We will look at the idea of the soul from ancient times to the present. Questions will be raised about the effort to banish the soul altogether in the name of contemporary science. A Christian account of soul-body integration will be defended.

 

 

Charles Taliaferro Ph.D. MA (Brown) MTS (Harvard) MA (URI) BA (Goddard)

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Emeritus Overby Distinguished Professor, St. Olaf College, has taught at Notre Dame and U. Mass Boston. He is the author or co-author or editor of 40 books (3 are audio books, available on Amazon).

For a profile, see: https://wp.stolaf.edu/philosophy/charles-taliaferro-profile/

In The PICTURE: Prof. (Dr.) Charles Taliafero holds a pen, which he dropped during the discussion after his lecture, He was talking about the speed of the Earth's rotation and then asked us what the speed of the pen was, was it the speed of the earth plus the rate of fall? I guess you would have had to have been there - he was talking about how we evaluate or perceive things as stable.

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Friday Night Lecture @ L’Abri

September 4th, 2026

Prof. Charles Taliaferro

A Brief History of the Soul

 

It is now widely recognized by cognitive scientists, psychologists, historians, and philosophers that some distinction between the person (soul, mind, self) and body is a natural, even "common sense" assumption. But we know from ancient philosophy onwards, there have been thinkers that embrace this distinction (Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Augustine) and those who see the soul or mind as a mode or dimension of the body (Aristotle) or the very same thing as the body (Epicurus, perhaps Tertullian).

 

The early books of the Bible suggest an earthy anthropology (God breathes on dust or earth in Genesis 2:7) which is why (to this day) some orthodox Jews measure human death, not by brain death or the irreversible loss of consciousness but by expiration --inability to breathe. In later Old Testament texts we see a gradual acknowledgement of humans being (or having) souls --Wisdom literature, Daniel, Ezekiel. The New Testament affirms a holistic approach (body and soul are unified in this life) but allows for separability --one's body may be destroyed and yet the soul is with God. This is in keeping with medieval theology, the Reformation (Luther, Calvin)

 

Historically, west and east, there has been a tension between MONISM (everything is one kind of thing, matter or mind, for example) and PLURALISM (there are multiple different kinds of things / realities). I offer comments on three issues.

 

Christian Holism. In this view, in a healthy, integrated embodiment, one has the virtues of the 5 senses, proprioception, cognitive powers, memory, reason, emotions, agentive powers. This has a bearing on health and "final things" or eschatology.

 

The prospects of Christian Materialism today: Advocates claim it is more scientific, more Jewish, less Platonic. Critics reply that science has not established a single case of mind-brain identity (correlation is not identity) and it conflicts with Christian teaching about death and the incarnation.

 

AI and the Self: AI has encouraged a mechanistic view of the self. Intelligence is equated with information processing and problem solving; memory = data retrieval; agency = optimized decision-making, etc. Some argue for the distinction between intelligence and consciousness, but arguably the simulation of intelligence is not itself (robust) intelligence. Reasons will be provided for recognizing the irreducible reality of the self as a conscious subject enduring over time as opposed to our being processes or events or an illusion.

 

 

Charles Taliaferro Ph.D. MA (Brown) MTS (Harvard) MA (URI) BA (Goddard)

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Emeritus Overby Distinguished Professor, St. Olaf College, USA. Editor-in-Chief of Open Theology, editorial board member Agatheos, RSR, PC, Kanz Philosophia: A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism.

For a profile, see:

https://wp.stolaf.edu/philosophy/charles-taliaferro-profile/

 

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