During my undergraduate studies at (The University of) Mississippi State University, I took a business ethics class taught by a prof in the philosophy department. The prof had us read a book called Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns by Peter A. French. The book sythesizes the “cowboy way” as presented in classic western films.
I don’t remember many things about the book. But the one thing I do remember is that the villians wear the black hats. In their zeal to promote the “Texan way,” the SWBTS brass has overlooked this important aspect. Since the interpretation of signs and symbols is the name of the game in the School of Theology, they should have thought through their own “cowboy hermenteutics.” How do they expect people outside their “interpretive community,” who don’t have much love for them, much less a “hermeneutic of charity,” to interpret this?
I am currently reading James A. Herrick’s The History and Theory of Rhetoric. In the first chapter, he overviews the modern interpretive theory of assigning meaning to signs and symbols. At one place, he talks about how music, works of art, and architecture convey meaning. He then proceeds to give a rather shocking depiction on how the authorial intent of the author is not always received by the audience through these mediums. His example is the inauguration of the Vietnam Memorial. He says:
For example, much of the monument is below ground, perhaps suggesting invisiblity or even death. Is it significant that the monument, because it is below ground, cannot be seen from Capitol Hill? The principal material used in the monument is black granite rather than the more traditional and triumphal white marble. The memorial’s polished surface is covered with the names of the 50,000 Americans who died in the war rather than with carved scense of battle and victory. What does the Vietnam Memorial mean? On would be hard pressed to find its meaning to be ‘A united America triumphs again in a foreign war’ (6).
So, is the SWBTS administration’s message as simple as “black hats and black robes?”
Photo: Spring Convocation 2008 http://www.swbts.edu/pressreleases/images/SpringConvo01.jpg
