Hello, my name is Rachel, and I'm a recovering Bible snob.
I haven't always been this way. As a child, the stories of the Bible enthralled me. I believed in them the way one believes in dinosaurs, Camelot, Abraham Lincoln, and other magical things that happened once upon a time.
As a teenager, the Bible evolved into a collection of affirmations designed to ease my angst-riddled existence (a hermeneutical shortcut Scot refers to as "morsels of blessings and promises" in The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
), and in college, it served as my favorite answer book (Scot's "big puzzle" shortcut).
How has your approach to the Bible changed over the years? Have you ever found yourself behaving like a Bible snob? How do you engage Scripture analytically without losing your childlike fondness for its stories?
Manfred Brauch, now retired from many years of teaching at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer), calls us to a more serious approach to Scripture in order to end the all-too-common abuse of Scripture.
Scripture is used for everything by everyone ... what I mean is that everyone thinks the Bible is on their side. Which means we've tamed the "blue parakeet" passages.
But I've been thinking of the many who have a great idea, know the texts where that idea is found, and then run everything in the Bible -- and I mean everything -- through that one idea. These folks "use" the Bible and end up "abusing" the Bible. That's why we need more Bible studies that focus on what the Bible does say in its context.
Brauch addresses just that concern and his book is called
Abusing Scripture: The Consequences of Misreading the Bible
. I'm not hearing much about this book, even though it deserves a wide hearing and would make an excellent textbook for college students and a good Bible study book for the serious student of the Bible.
In the process of urging us to take more seriously what we are doing -- and he's smack-on in this appeals -- Brauch illustrates his points. The focus of his illustrations revolve around three biblical themes: the use and justification of force and violence, the relationship of men and women -- home and church and society -- and the concern for justice and the sanctity of life.
After a welcome sketch of the inspiration and authority of Scripture, in which sketch he shows a moderate traditional view, Brauch addresses the following "abuses" of Scripture that can be found on too many church corners:
Which of these abuses do you see the most? Do you see others that concern you?
I just spent a bundle of time with John H. Walton, who is the General Editor of a brand new series on the Old Testament, and it is a series we desperately need.
This new series is a commentary unlike any commentary series ever because, instead of just being a commentary, it is a commentary only and specially-focused on historical background.
John Walton, editor: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Set: Old Testament
.
The only way I can put it is this: every church and every pastor and ever seminarian, especially those who are evangelical, will want this commentary series within arm's reach on his or her desk. There is nothing like it -- and we all know commentaries repeat one another endlessly -- and this one doesn't.
We have learned so much about the ancient world -- the Ancient Near East -- in the last fifty years, but more and more it has become increasingly difficult to keep all of this stuff in our heads or within memory's reach. But that has now been partially resolved for us with this new series written by experts on these materials. It's focus is on the backgrounds and historical contexts for each book of the Old Testament.
[We've added the captcha text because we were bombarded by a spammer Monday. We hope the captcha text will disappear with the spammer soon.]
Last week I posted a question by a reader asking about categories of biblical literature and their "wooden historicity". There was another aspect to the comment though, and another question well worth consideration.
The original comment continued...
Speaking of that RJS, this reminds me of something that you've
said before in response to my question on why you believe a certain
thing to be the case. Your response, on occasion, has been to say that
this is what has been handed down in Christian tradition, from the
early church on. But, following our discussion here, surely the early
church and
much of Christian tradition thought the weather was directly, and in
real-time, controlled by God. So if we so easily question that
assumption now, why not others? The tradition argument alone seems
rather weak in that regard.
This leads to the question for today.
What role does tradition play in our interpretation of scripture and understanding of the faith?
(The picture above is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem, the traditional site of the crucifixion and burial. We
visited fall 2001 - when the lines were rather short.)
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This study guide, as noted at the bottom of the study, is from Barb Murphy, and I'm grateful for her efforts. Maybe this can be of use to you in using The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible...
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We have been working through Kent Sparks's book God's Word in Human Words (GWHW). A couple of posts ago (here) I suggested a way of looking at scripture as light rather than foundation; a change in perspective that I...
We continue our discussion of Kent Sparks's book God's Word in Human Words (GWHW) moving into Chapters 2 and 3: Historical Criticism and Assyriology and The Problem of Biblical Criticism. Before diving into the topic of Biblical Criticism, Sparks considers...
I don't ever jump in to introduce posts by RJS. But this post today is a summary and sketch of a very serious proposal for how to understand the doctrine of Scripture and our knowledge of Scripture/theology. Give this a...
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Categories: Bible,
Third Way
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