Beautifully articulated. I'm theologically liberal and I attended a conservative evangelical church for a good while despite that, so the bulk of what you've written here had me nodding in agreement. I think that at the end of the piece, where you encourage the reader to "read faithfully," there may be a bit of a gap. Meaning the question "faithfully to what or whom" remains, since both Jesus as man and Christ as deity are going to mean different things to different people. In the end, I suspect much of this comes down to the character and conscience of the individual believer/interpreter.
The two best teachers of scripture I ever had were chastised for their beliefs. One was fired from the Baptist seminary because he dared to challenge inerrancy. And the other was challenged by a youth minister in our church because he relied on NT Wright as a Biblical scholar which the minister disagreed with. It led to division in the church because the teacher, a Messianic Christian was very popular in the church.
I believe that there are facts in the Bible. Some is written in plain narrative prose. Some is written in poetry. Some is in parables. There are many figures of speech that may be understood easily or may be obscure. My Bible footnotes indicate that there are some Hebrew words that the translators simply don’t know what they mean, but those are rare.
I work in a recovery program at our church where we deal with people struggling with shame. We’re a theologically conservative church, but believe that Jesus death and resurrection dealt with our shame as well as our guilt.
Teaching that emphasizes shame is a distortion of orthodox (little o) Christianity.
To your point though, I respect other people’s interpretation of Scripture even if I disagree with it. I’m getting stretched right now reading N T Wright’s commentary on Romans. My best friend in college, the best man at my wedding, son of a Southern Baptist pastor, is now an Episcopal priest. I highly respect him and enjoy reading his sermons.
Excellent and interesting! Really makes me think about things because I have been struggling with what I really believe lately. A lot of shame and control were part of my Catholic upbringing. I am very happy to have found the Episcopal church which "lets" and usually "encourages" you to use the brain God gave us.
Growing up I was told "the Bible is true". Therefore I read the Bible looking for facts. As I grew in my faith as an adult my reading shifted to "what does it mean that this is true?, what does it tell me about God, the world and my place in it?"
Hello! I had a wonderful ex-priest Bible instructor. Don’t remember which order. He had lived in the Middle East while he was a priest and in person learned the culture & the history. He particularly taught the OT as it meant to the culture at the time in history when it was written. His teaching of the NT was mostly as it applied to us today. I will always be thankful for his instruction.
Beautifully articulated. I'm theologically liberal and I attended a conservative evangelical church for a good while despite that, so the bulk of what you've written here had me nodding in agreement. I think that at the end of the piece, where you encourage the reader to "read faithfully," there may be a bit of a gap. Meaning the question "faithfully to what or whom" remains, since both Jesus as man and Christ as deity are going to mean different things to different people. In the end, I suspect much of this comes down to the character and conscience of the individual believer/interpreter.
You raise a great point. I’ll spend some time thinking about that. Thank you!
The two best teachers of scripture I ever had were chastised for their beliefs. One was fired from the Baptist seminary because he dared to challenge inerrancy. And the other was challenged by a youth minister in our church because he relied on NT Wright as a Biblical scholar which the minister disagreed with. It led to division in the church because the teacher, a Messianic Christian was very popular in the church.
Wow! That’s sad. I’m a big NT Wright fan. I think he’s brilliant.
I believe that there are facts in the Bible. Some is written in plain narrative prose. Some is written in poetry. Some is in parables. There are many figures of speech that may be understood easily or may be obscure. My Bible footnotes indicate that there are some Hebrew words that the translators simply don’t know what they mean, but those are rare.
I work in a recovery program at our church where we deal with people struggling with shame. We’re a theologically conservative church, but believe that Jesus death and resurrection dealt with our shame as well as our guilt.
Teaching that emphasizes shame is a distortion of orthodox (little o) Christianity.
To your point though, I respect other people’s interpretation of Scripture even if I disagree with it. I’m getting stretched right now reading N T Wright’s commentary on Romans. My best friend in college, the best man at my wedding, son of a Southern Baptist pastor, is now an Episcopal priest. I highly respect him and enjoy reading his sermons.
Here's a very good article written by a gay woman.
https://www.livingout.org/resources/articles/105/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-truly-inclusive-church
if its not Love, its not God.
Excellent and interesting! Really makes me think about things because I have been struggling with what I really believe lately. A lot of shame and control were part of my Catholic upbringing. I am very happy to have found the Episcopal church which "lets" and usually "encourages" you to use the brain God gave us.
Growing up I was told "the Bible is true". Therefore I read the Bible looking for facts. As I grew in my faith as an adult my reading shifted to "what does it mean that this is true?, what does it tell me about God, the world and my place in it?"
I also used to read it looking for “facts.” Thanks for sharing that!
Hello! I had a wonderful ex-priest Bible instructor. Don’t remember which order. He had lived in the Middle East while he was a priest and in person learned the culture & the history. He particularly taught the OT as it meant to the culture at the time in history when it was written. His teaching of the NT was mostly as it applied to us today. I will always be thankful for his instruction.
That’s awesome, Connie! What a gift!
Well-written!