REV . GRAHAM BRADBEER OSCA CHAPLAIN
INSPIRATION FOR EVERYONE
We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal , that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights , that among these are life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness .
Strange as it may now seem , the elevated rhetoric of the American Declaration of Independence written in 1776 by white men , only applied to white , land-owning males .
Changes have been slow . Eventually , in 1948 , the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , proposing equality of ‘ all human beings ’, was endorsed by a vote of most of the world ’ s nations . However , some nations abstained . This raises a question . Not all the world agrees that all people are created equal , so how ‘ self-evident ’ is human equality ?
Locked-down , I listened as Dr Sarah Irving- Stonebraker of the University of Western Sydney delivered the Richard Johnson Lecture for 2020 . By a series of historical vignettes , she made it clear that human rights go back beyond the Enlightenment to a Judaeo-Christian cradle . It ’ s there in Genesis One .
Jesus viewed the Hebrew Scriptures as ‘ inspired ’, and this is the reason Christians read what they call the ‘ Old Testament ’. The New Testament pulls together the apostolic testimony to Jesus . It contains the claim that the Scriptures are ‘ God-breathed ’: their power comes from this ‘ inspiration ’.
If human rights needed elaboration Galatians 3:28 pinpoints the apostolic perspective . Jesus is the lens through which the Apostles view the Holy Scriptures . ‘ You are ’, says St Paul , bridging the principal divisions of the ancient Jewish world , ‘ all one in Christ Jesus ’.
Not everyone has signed up to our shared humanity , and the theory is easier than the practice . But the Bible is a good place to seek inspiration . Fifty years ago , Donald Jackson , calligrapher of renown , expressed a dream to illuminate a manuscript Bible . Jackson ’ s unlikely dream became a reality when the monks of St John ’ s Abbey in Minnesota commissioned the first handwritten Bible since the invention of printing .
The Benedictine Abbey wanted to ignite spiritual imagination for the 21st century . The seven folio-sized volumes of the Bible are totally engrossing . The illuminations , one discovers , are , in their own right , a commentary on the text . Donald Jackson ’ s team has delivered a Bible that is a totally beautiful work of art .
AN ILLUMINATION FROM THE ST JOHN ’ S BIBLE BY CALLIGRAPHER DONALD JACKSON . THE ST JOHN ’ S IS THE FIRST HANDWRITTEN BIBLE TO BE CREATED SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING .
What other creativity might the Bible inspire ? Time has failed me to talk of the impact of the Bible on the lyricism of Leonard ( forgive the continual stutter of the word being made into flesh ) Cohen , or Nobel Prizewinning Bob Dylan ; or , just watch Bono ’ s conversation with Eugene Peterson ( Bible scholar and translator ) on YouTube ; to mention just three white male musicians .
Or move beyond the world of the sciences . Read Francis Collins , the American physician-geneticist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases and led the Human Genome Project . His book is an exploration of The Language of God .
Or Mathematics teaching ? Speaking at a conference last year ‘ Local Hero of the Year ’ Eddie Woo , of WooTube fame , said he would be mentioning three key Bible passages in his educational presentation : Jeremiah 29 , Colossians 3:23 and 1 Corinthians 9 .
Looking for creativity and seeking inspiration ? Read your Bible ! www . scotch . vic . edu . au Great Scot 71