Quote of the Day (Phillip Lopate, on Samson’s Resemblance to Greek Tragic Heroes)

“With his last noble words, he exiles himself from his own people and joins the Diaspora of the dead: a bitter ending. But he has come a long way from the younger, self-righteous Samson who petulantly said before wreaking havoc: Now am I blameless for the harm I will do them. Like a hero in a Greek tragedy, he has finished his journey from warrior pride to humility, by taking responsibility for violating the tribal laws.”—Phillip Lopate, “Judges: Tests of Weakness: Samson and Delilah,” Congregation: Contemporary Writers Read the Jewish Bible, edited by David Rosenberg (1987)

Lopate’s essay in the marvelous anthology Congregation is a dazzler, incorporating close Biblical reading, film criticism (his explication of Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah is hilarious), and autobiography.

Quote of the Day (Cackie Upchurch, on the Bible as Source of Comfort, Courage—And More)

“It should also disturb us. It should also stir us into action. And if it’s not doing those things, and if it’s just in our heads, then I do not think we’re doing justice to the living Word of God.... If you read this stuff and really believe it, you might have to change how you live.”—Cackie Upchurch, director of the Little Rock Scripture Study (LRSS), quoted in David Gibson, “A Literate Church: The State of Catholic Bible Study Today,” America, Dec. 8, 2008

(With considerable historical perspective and contemporary insight, Gibson’s article examines how the old stereotype about how Roman Catholics “don’t read the Bible” has been changing—both at the grass-roots level, where groups such as LRSS have been making a difference in the close readings offered in small-group study, and at the highest level, where, like Catholic social teaching, Gibson reports, some are wondering whether the Scriptural scholarship might be “becoming one of the Church’s best-kept secrets.”)