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Text of the page (random words):
ed on anything so i m not going to say that this is a series of anything but maybe a refocusing of the kinds of topics i like to think about but with a sharper more critical edge an edge that i use when i teach my religious courses thus while my academic work mostly concentrates on antiquity i want to apply some of what i do to stuff in my faith tradition that just drive me nuts this will require a lot of blending of theory and method with the stuff so in this first post let s get some of that out of the way some basic things that i assume stuff doesn t just exist societies human relationships social and cultural artifacts and religions are created things products of languages practices and habits of social and historical conditions in relationship to powers and authorities the world we live in does not exist as something natural when i look at certain elements of a religion i generally start from this point and i ask what social and historical conditions allowed this to come into existence how is this similar or different from the way this idea or element was presented in the past whose interests are served by this element and by the way it is presented take the bible for instance which is outside of the figure of jesus the single most powerful icon in christianity the sight of a bible will trigger in most christians a stimulus response that is at first biological and electrical that sends signals to the brain that identifies a book as a bible but those bioelectric signals are then interpreted by many christians to signal not just a book but sacred book i am less interested in whether the bible is by some internal eternal virtue sacred and much more interested in questions like how and why was it written who wrote the different parts of it what social and historical circumstances caused the writers to interpret their reality in such a way that they wrote these texts what social and historical circumstances have required some groups to apprehend this text as authoritative and why whose interests are served by understanding the bible this way another point here critical does not mean tear down or attack something instead i use the word critic and critical in its academic sense which is simply to seriously check out what is taken for granted myself included sometimes oftentimes for religious people the results can be unflattering or downright destructive to long cherished notions no doubt about it nevertheless i have found that this kind of analysis can be liberating and exhilarating and open up new doors for understanding and practicing faith that can inject some much needed life into a faith tradition it goes without saying that there is also the risk that successful criticism will drive people away from faith an unfortunate risk but one that is unavoidable it might be thought of as analogous to major surgery if you don t have this surgery you will have major problems later in your life but if you decide to do it it could also kill you with those preliminaries out of the way then we can get right to it perhaps the blog might pick up the readership again in the next post whenever that is i ll take up the subject of religion generally like i do in my classes what is it can we define it is there some essence that all religions have 3 may 2011 the return of the blogger posted by stbenedict under always we begin again 1 comment i miss blogging and miss the critical jump start it gave me in my work when i was studying for comps writing my prospectus and getting going with the dissertation outlining now i find myself in a position to actually start writing again hopefully somewhat regularly the diss is done at least until further committee notice and i have no job at the moment hopefully that will change in the very near future until then though i m looking forward to getting back into the blog one of the things i m going to do is add a section for short book reviews i may actually create an entirely new blog for this but as aedificium i does i mean library i d like to have it here somehow as always the blog is a work in progress look for something new in the coming hours i have that series on religions i want to get back to and i will but right now the interesting and hot button topic is a favorite darwin creation science bible and rhetoric look for something tonight 9 october 2010 on a side note posted by stbenedict under bible evangelicalism fundamentalism scriptures 1 comment on a side note this isn t really part of the sequence i m working on but it is related to the overall topic lately i ve been kind of challenged by some folks over what i believe or more precisely don t seem to believe i m trying to avoid an inquisition but the basic issue seems to come down to interpretation of scripture so a few thoughts on bible and interpretation seem to be in order many christians and practically all evangelicals regard their position vis a vis the bible to be the real litmus test of authentic christian faith sure jesus is important but on any issue whether its what we think of jesus or of ethics or of science or anything else when the rubber meets the road it comes down to well what does the bible say and this is where things get dicey often the straight up literal answer can only be nothing the bible doesn t talk about abortion it has little to say about homosexuality it has nothing to contribute positively or negatively to evolution it certainly is completely unhelpful in determining what translation we should read and so on most of us realize this which is good but we are then forced into the realm of interpretation even though the bible doesn t talk about the scientific theory of evolution it does provide a story about how the universe was created and so it s possible to line these two things up so the thinking goes and then start labeling people as in or out based on their opinion of cretaceous fossil remains real christians don t believe in evolution they believe in the bible s creation story in rejecting the evidence of science we are also rejecting interpretation s of the bible that we do not share whether we realize it or not we all bring to the interpretive table a certain perspective on the biblical text evangelicals like to use words like bible believing a pop version of the more technical theological concepts inerrancy and infallibility another important theological label in the bible believing understanding is the bible s homogeneity the notion that the bible uniformly speaks with one voice on every subject last year i taught logic at a local college and we spent a considerable amount of time working with the distinction between inductive and deductive logic for those who aren t familiar with this deductive logic works by applying a known general truth or idea to specific situations or experiences it is known to be generally true for example that cats enjoy catching mice and birds armed with this knowledge then we can predict that if we put a cat in a room with mice the cat is most likely going to at least try to catch a few or take the example of a gps device we know going in that the gps is going to get us where we want to go and so when it tells us to turn left even if we think we should perhaps go straight it will still get us to our destination inductive logic works the other way around in inductive thinking we work from the specific to the general in the example of cats from above let s assume that we don t in fact know that cats are good mousers but if we watch our cat catch mice every day and then we hear from our neighbor that her cat catches 6 mice every evening and then my mother calls me and tells me that her cat caught three this morning we can make a general conclusion that based on all this evidence cats are good mousers now where am i going with this in general christians who believe in biblical inerrancy are approaching the bible deductively the general truth here is god is all powerful and perfect and so if he were to write a book it would also be completely authoritative reliable and of course perfect meaning free from errors inconsistencies discrepancies and the like usually christians will then turn to 2 timothy 3 16 often in the king james which is more poetically powerful than more modern translations at least on this point to prove the point all scripture is given by god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for inauguration in righteousness i feel obligated to point out here that this verse doesn t really mean what people think it means all the writer is saying here is that the hebrew bible old testament should continue to be read as scripture by the church secondly the word translated as inspired or god breathed theopneustos simply refers to scripture s ultimate origins and has nothing to do with god writing or dictating the texts of the ot finally there are almost 90 direct quotations of the hebrew bible in the entire pauline collection and paul is notorious for rewording adjusting and otherwise fixing his quotes from the old testament to suit his arguments so which would be god breathed scripture paul s wording of it quoting from the greek translation of the bible or the hebrew text it certainly does not include what we know as the new testament because a there was no new testament b the letters of paul and pseudopaul were not scripture and c the gospels hadn t even been written yet the deductive approach is attractive for its simplicity but as i taught my logic students there are no simple answers because there are no simple questions this is especially true with the bible a book written over nearly a thousand year period by many writers from different societies dealing with different experiences and crises it simply will not do to recite god said it i believe it that settles it but the simplicity of the deductive logic behind inerrancy overpowers the problems it presents to the point that when i engage with those who hold to it i am told that you re making it way too difficult or you re just being too academic just give me a simple direct response for interrantists if you have to explain why you don t subscribe to the inerrancy of scripture you re too academic apparently the simplicity of the deductive inerrant approach though is also what causes all the trouble obviously on purely deductive logical ground if there are reasons to believe that the bible is not in fact perfect inerrant or what have you those who defend this position will immediately accuse you of not believing in a perfect sovereign god but the fact is that there are problems how many times did jesus clear out the temple and when did he do it john records it at the beginning of jesus career while the synoptics place it near the end in order to protect inerrancy it must have happened twice not likely another classic case here is the last supper john places it the day before the others at the end of the day the logic is circular and the conclusions are already written into the premises of inerrancy contrary evidence errors and inconsistencies in the text are ruled out before even a word of it is read the other approach however helps a great deal an inductive approach to the bible starts with the texts themselves and lets them teach us about the rest of the bible and its author s only through thorough reading of individual texts can we formulate opinions about the entire bible and about the god and the christ it presents an inductive approach doesn t presuppose a result to which the bible must conform and it certainly isn t intimidated by inconsistencies factual errors unscientific presentation of the origins of the cosmos and so forth and that s all i have to say about that for now at least 22 september 2010 apologia part deux guess what christianity is a religion and not only a relationship posted by stbenedict under religion 1 comment apologies in advance for the longish title but it works and apologies for the delay but remember that i said i wasn t going to put myself on a schedule looking over the first part of this sequence again i thought i d just move right into the jewishness of jesus or something but it s apparent to me at least that i need to make sure that we understand something more fundamental christianity is a religion this is a tough concept for many to grasp there is a popular bumper sticker that reads something to the effect of christianity isn t a religion it s a relationship i used to think this was cool i now think it is to put it mildly ignorant i understand the sentiment christian theology particularly evangelical protestant theology emphasizes that not only is jesus alive now but that he also is readily available and interested in having a personal relationship with you with me and anyone who is interested the idea is that jesus isn t interested in what we call religion but in being our friend our brother our bff or our buddy after all jesus is as the old hymn asserts our ever present help in trouble someone who like our best friend would run through a brick wall for us at any hour of the night who doesn t want that in a digital age where so many of us now experience an unprecedented lonliness as a result of our addiction to online social media the idea of an ever present jesus who is available to have a bona fide relationship with is simultaneously unbelievably attractive on the one hand and completely incredible and incomprehensible on the other fine but evangelical christianity misses out on an awful lot by limiting itself to only this appreciation of jesus christianity may well have started out exclusively as an intense bond of relationships between jesus and 12 hand picked men and who knows how many other women and men but the tradition that claims the name of christ in his wake became very much what scholars understand as a religion and it didn t take very long either there are dozens if not hundreds of definitions of religion and all of them are somewhat incomplete but i generally work with a descriptive definition that runs something like this a religion is is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful pervasive and long lasting moods and motivations props to clifford geertz that orients us to whatever we understand as having ultimate significance for individual and communal lives through creeds rites symbols memory behaviors beliefs and other cultural elements of our lives it may serve a deep psychological need and it functions as a tie or bind that creates and sustains meaning and promote healing in our experiences in the world it doesn t take much to pick out some examples from the christian religious tradition that we could drop into each one of these elements in my description here and in fact every different christian denomination is likely to be different from another on certain ingredients here christianity has its system s of symbols and those symbols are able to promote moods and motivations that orient us to the ultimate as paul tillich calls...