h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Spent last night thinking about my 'children' essay, got the introduction, which is theological, and seeing the Bible through that theological lens.

Lot of spade work still to be done on it.

Nice day today. Went out in Wilfie to the bottle store. Was florid online. Nolita came and was happy about her chair. That made me very happy. Went out this afternoon to get my hair washed. She asked me why I wasn't married. Always an awkward one. Told her I didn't want kids - my usual response. She said neither did a lot of women these days. I don't believe it. I think they all want kids. Unless they can't, of course. Even then the spectre of adoption rears its fearsome head.

I'm going to try to work hard on my children essay but within strictly defined limits to try to keep it to 6,000 words max. Also to try to keep a strongly defined argument going, picking flowers on the side of the path but not straying onto the grass. Generation / generations / regeneration being the co-ordinating metaphor. Got to go some language work on the Bible to trace those words and their relatives through the texts.

Eternal generation of Son in face of Father

provides basis for

Physical generations of Israel, expressions of love and desire

God's plan is to make his nature known to creation and to bring it to participate in him, and that through analogy, so our generative action is analogous to his eternal generation.

This is obviously a theological essay.

Nexus of analogies of man and wife = children, Father and Word + Spirit = children

Love, the dynamic of love (I've expressed this fortuitously in my notes)

So we use part One to set up the theological framework for my essay.

Part Two is looking at actual kids. OT figures, Moses, Samuel, etc. God desires us to have kids but every now and then he brings out a special one to move his purpose along a step further. Abraham and Sarah, do a special section on him, with the stars. Compare Ishmael and Hagar.

Wisdom realistic about kids.

Central Section: Song of Songs, describing Jesus' desire for his Bride

Israel not like pagans, not sacrifice kids, but teach them commandments of Yahweh.

The basic meaning of children leading up the Special Holy Child, Jesus.

Who changes the game altogether, bringing in a new kind of generation, not of "bloods", but of water and the Spirit.

Stars (link back to Abraham) and battle of children of flesh and children of spirit

Bringing many sons to glory, not ashamed to call them brothers, etc (Hebrews)

New Testament Biblical theology of "children"

God's children = Jesus' Bride. This appears to be the point of the whole exercise, to provide the Son with a created but eternal Bride.

God is love and made us for love.

Children come about through the self-yielding unto death (I've formulated that too)

Analogous to Christ giving his life for his brothers, the children the LORD has given me.

Basically, ANALOGY between generation in God and generations in man.

God's purposes carried out through a series of generative events symbolic of his own trinitarian generation.

The Earth generates animals and so on. (this belongs near the start)

Children teach men how to be a father. Mothers saved through bearing children.

Family teaches us love. ANALOGY to God, you see.

But we are God's children and He is our Father. Jesus our Brother. Holy family of the Church made up of lots of physically generated people.

Things running in parallel you see. Temporal with the Eternal.

Analogy all the time.

God basically wants to bring many sons to glory and obviously he uses physical generations to bring this about.

Based on the internal relations of the Trinity.

Onto-relations of the Trinity.

But we must keep this at a layperson's level of understanding.

So we end where we started: God has through a salvation history of Israel, generations of people (NT genealogies), created for himself a Bride for his Son, a Beloved for his Son, answering to him.

So it's circular you see, everything coming from God, and ending up in God. All in all.

I'm going to rewrite my theological introduction in 300 words just like the old days. That should help me achieve my goals of formal beauty and economy and concision.