“Reading is just as creative an activity as writing and most intellectual developement depends upon new readings of old texts."
Ask any evangelical Christian where do their beliefs come from, and they will tell you they believe what’s in the Bible. In churches all over the world, it’s common to hear the phrase worded in a hundred variations, ‘We follow what the Bible says.’
Beliefs never just come from a book (even a Holy Book), but from the context that surrounds the book… or let me put it this way: The beliefs of evangelicals have not existed since the Beginning, they have a history. In fact, it is a recent history.
This is the first in a series of posts about the history of Christianity. It’s for everyone, Christian, agnostics, pagans, and atheists. But I have certain people in mind who I am writing this for.
In the end, I hope to reform some beliefs.
Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, Christianity has never been static, it was and is always changing.
How people view the so-called ‘word of God’ has also changed throughout the ages, and hopefully… is changing now.
***
A man I used to admire once said, “When you only obey the parts of the Bible that make sense to you, you aren’t letting God be God.”
There’s something in this sentence that seems to stand against a notion I hold very dear; the importance of ‘thinking for yourself.’
When I was little, I remember there was a Bible story that didn’t make sense to me: Abraham and Isaac. I was told that our loving God told Abraham to offer his son to God as a human sacrifice, and Abraham trusting God obeyed. He took Isaac, tied him up and was about to stab him when and Angle came down and stopped him at the last moment. The moral of the story according to my Sunday School teachers was, “Always trust in God; and also what he says in his word the Bible.”
In those days, I didn’t have a problem with that; the problem was that God was asking Abraham to murder his son.
And Abraham obeyed. I thought, ‘What if God asked my father to kill me? Isn’t obeying an order to kill one’s own child… Crazy?
Of course, that wasn’t a valid question in Sunday School. I was told I needed to trust in God like Abraham did: “When you only obey the parts of the Bible that make sense to you, you aren’t letting God be God.”
Years later, when I read C.S. Lewis, I came across the phrase: ‘Who are you to question God?’
I’m just a mortal, so I took that point to heart and now only question men.
I questions their interpretations of what God is saying. The fact is I’ve never heard God speak a word of English to me, but I listened to millions of words—supposedly His—coming from the mouths of men.
When they say, “Who are you to question God?” They really mean, “Who are you to question us?” And so the Bible, like a sword, gets bent to the will of whoever wields it. At it’s worst, rather than challenging the beliefs people hold, it makes them completely and utterly convinced that they are vessels of the Truth. Which is ironically a dangerous lie.
And then…
“We shape our gods. Then our gods shape us.”
(Up next: Columbus and his God)
could you speak a little to what you mean by "thinking for yourself"?
ReplyDeletealso, as you mentioned lewis and suggest that you'll explore the history of ideas, have you come across his "bulverism" essay? (http://www.barking-moonbat.com/God_in_the_Dock.html)
Sure.
ReplyDeleteThinking for yourself is not (necessarily) accepting what people or books in the position of authority tell you. It's obvious, but often times what people are telling you can be only one side of the story. In other words, "decide for yourself." Rather than just accepting things because you are told to accept them, you question.
In religion, often they don't allow you to think for yourself. Disagreeing makes you "unsaved" or not a 'real' Christian. The phrase I quoted above, "When you only obey the parts of the Bible that make sense to you, you aren’t letting God be God.” was spoken to me by a man who used it to bully people into his way of thinking. He would say, 'some parts of the Bible may make you uncomfortable, but they are parts of the Bible.' People accepted this and for awhile I went to my room and cried because some of my friends were going to Hell and because my two gay uncles who I love very much were "spawn of satan." Two words: Fuck that shit. My philosophy: I'm not going to have anyone tell me what's real, I'm going to go out and live and see if they things I believe hold up under pressure… because if they don't they're not worth holding on to.
If you were being told by your priest, that slavery was right because it is mentioned in the Bible, or that the time of tribulation is nearly begun… I hope that all the readers of this blog would think, 'that poor ignorant soul is crazy.'
People, Christians especially, are afraid to lump the Bible into the "Think for yourself" category (perhaps that's why you asked?). But what I hope to point out as I continue to write these posts is that "Biblical" is not all it's cracked up to be, and is in fact rooted more in theological traditions than the 'word of God.'
Still, the fact is I’ve never heard God speak a word of English to me, but I listened to millions of words—supposedly His—coming from the mouths of men.
So think for yourself.
Anyways, thanks for the comment. Keep them coming!
Peace,
Jake
P.S. I've read nearly all of Lewis… but he's soooo 1940's.
Is God a fool?
ReplyDeleteIs there a way that we can avoid a radical skepticism in our speech about God? I agree that the Truth of Scripture often becomes the pseudo-truth of men when it is interpreted and espoused and I wonder at our ability to speak for God at all. Can we know what God is really saying if in reading his word we are necessarily interpreting, even before we have even begun to preach it aloud or write our interpretation down?
But if we are always skeptical of our interpretation, why would the Word come to us in the first place?
I see a tension here between holding our interpretations with humility and with conviction: humility to know we don't have the last word, but conviction to know we have a sure word (yes, I just stole this from Jerry Root). It's a difficult thing to do and I could see an argument that would say that it's inherently impossible.
But I wonder: if I hold to a belief in God and that he is speaking to us in some way, then wouldn't I be making him out to be a fool if I didn't think that he gave me and others the ability to make concrete sense of his words?
Maybe my critique of the skepticism that I saw in your post is off-base. Let me know what you think. I guess my basic question is: how can we speak of God and can our speech have any weight?
-Will Chester
And actually, I don't want to cut you off too soon. If you want to address this question later after a few more posts I would be content. Thanks for writing and giving a space for these thoughts Jake
ReplyDelete: ) Thanks Will. I do think your critique is 'off base,' but at the same time I think it has the right kind of spirit behind it. You don't want us to descend into nihilism or skepticism, and you are concerned for "how we can speak of God and can our speech have any weight?" These are good feelings to have. You are concerned about Truth, and should be.
ReplyDeleteYou write, "But if we are always skeptical of our interpretation, why would the Word come to us in the first place?"
There's a lot of assumptions wrapped up in this phrase, and I'm pretty sure my more agnostic readers don't follow this logic. Perhaps they would say, "why is the Word different from any other word?"
You write, "if I hold to a belief in God and that he is speaking to us in some way, then wouldn't I be making him out to be a fool if I didn't think that he gave me and others the ability to make concrete sense of his words?"
Is that really true?
Who is the real fool?
Finally, what's wrong with tension?
Thanks for your comments Will! I miss you guys a lot! Keep them coming and keep reading! The next post is juicy. : )
Sincerely,
Jake
P.S. Don't worry, I'm not a nihilist. I'm just here to knock down a house built on sand, and then rebuild one on rock. First destruction, then creation. Bear with me!
ReplyDelete