I'm trying to work out a biblical theology.
It's a bit rough going.
Here are some of my own questions:
Is the Bible sacred because it has been revered for thousands of years, or has it been revered for thousands of years because it is sacred? I'm (not surprisingly) into both of these ideas. Any item, church, text, mosque, song, land etc... which has been the focus of human religious experience over long periods of time, becomes imbued with an energy or vibration of some sort (not to sound too new age-y). When I've walked into a gothic cathedral or sang "Amazing Grace" or heard the Qur'an recited, there is a distinctly holy quality to the experience, quite different from when I walk into Safeway or sing "Happy Birthday" or when I hear the phone book recited. Why is this? Is the recitation of the phone book experienced differently than the Qur'an because it is mundane, or is the phone book mundane because it is experienced differently?
I think the Bible is sacred because it is sacred.
What does it mean that the Bible is inspired? Do I believe that a transcendent all -powerful God, the heavenly being, caused by God's own volition and only the volition of God, for the biblical text to be transmitted, composed and redacted into the form we have today? No, that just seems silly. Do I think the bible is an account of the human experience of God as best we could describe that experience? Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as inspired. The reason I think the bible is inspired is because it has for thousands of years been a source of discovery and reflection of what it means to be human and how God shows up in the world. Each generation has struggled with the text and discovered how it comes to life in their own historical and cultural context. This is not possible with Green eggs and Ham , the hermeneutical possibilities of which are limited, but the Bible, wow, it is boundless in what it brings to us and what it will bring to our children and our children’s children. Seriously, there is something for everyone in there: war, betrayal, satire, poetry, sex, poetry about sex, riches, poverty, miracles, mad men, talking donkeys and much more. The bible is revelation about us and God, a revelation which comes to its fullness in the incarnation of Christ.
Because I feel so deeply about this text, you can imagine how crazy it makes me when people insist that every text within the Bible is equally authoritative and we must conform to a literal reading of it. Forget that taking contradictory accounts literally is only possible if you’re insane, the fact that anyone can claim that their reading of biblical text is not interpretive or informed by their own historical context is, like the “God wrote the Bible” claim, simply silly.
Here’s What Del Brown (Pacific School of Religion) has to say, and he’s much smarter than me:
“The Bible is not our authority in the sense of legalistically mandating conformity to its every teaching. The Bible is our authority because it “authors” us. In its rich, provocative, empowering diversity, the Bible is the continuing source of our identity as Christians. Reflecting the exousia [authority] of Jesus, Christian Scripture grants us freedom, grounds our creativity, guides our thinking, challenges our conclusions, inspires out hearts, and thus empowers us to act responsively today as thinking Christians. The authority of the Bible is its power to “author” what we do and who we are - our very being - as Christians.
-Dr. Del Brown
I am 100% behind you on that! Great post.
Posted by: stayathomemotherdom | March 05, 2007 at 11:08 PM
What a great quote -- just in time to share with some very literal thinkers on a particularly frustrating-yet-addictive discussion forum I frequent. Of course, they won't understand any of what Brown is saying, but I'll feel better for having posted it.
Posted by: LutheranChik | March 06, 2007 at 06:11 AM
What you said. Yeah. Amen.
Posted by: towanda | March 06, 2007 at 09:13 AM
With regard to your comment on conforming to a literal reading of Scripture, I preached on the encounter between Nicodemus & Jesus (John 3) for last Wednesday's Lenten service, and I borrowed liberally from Eugene Peterson (Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places) on how Nicodemus' misunderstanding of 'born from above' is based in how he tries to interpret it literally: "Shall I try to crawl back into my mother's womb?" To which I'm sure his mother would say, "No! Trust me, once was more than enough, and besides, you've grown." And maybe that's the rub: our experience with Scripture has grown, but we've failed to mature accordingly.
Posted by: Pastor Tim | March 06, 2007 at 01:32 PM
this bible thing can be awfully tricky. don't know how people can even begin to take it literally when Jesus contradicts so much of it. where does jesus ever promote violence? from my understanding jesus derides peter and says that's a "no-no". and yet judges shares a different story of violence, as well as a number of other texts.
you wrestle with some good questions. your quote is great too. i'm not convinced that 'the bible is the continuing source of our identity' as she speaks about it. so does that mean that people didn't have an identity before the source was written? i think i understand what she's trying to say, but don't want to put words in her mouth. our identity is "testified" through scripture that God's Spirit gives us our identity. a no duh moment perhaps, but a significant difference.
have you ever read any marcus borg? he got a great book i've appreciated called reading the bible again for the first time. you probably have...anyway, hope all is well. stay in touch. d
Posted by: dave hahn | March 06, 2007 at 10:06 PM