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Too many of my Christian co-religionists read the Bible as though it were a blueprint, a reference book for all possible moral eventualities, or a magic eight-ball, which if followed exactingly, will produce answers to any question put to it. Unfortunately, these are bad metaphors to use for a book that, all things taken together, is a dynamic narrative that seeks to tell the story of God’s interaction with humanity over time, and under radically different circumstances. Fundamentalist Christianity understands the bible as a static document that is constrained by the shibboleth of “original intention”—which has always been a contested, and therefore not especially helpful or faithful way to interpret scripture. In fact, we do violence to the text (and to the whole discipline of biblical interpretation) when we treat it as a quick start guide to any complex moral deliberation.
A blueprint is static. It’s intended to be a detailed, step-by-step guide, from beginning to end, about how to build something. An ethical reference book is too constraining, too blunt an instrument. A magic eight-ball, if taken seriously, is magical thinking at its worst. The Bible is a lot of things (a repository of poetry, history, theology, law, homilies, proverbs, etc.), but it is never systematic in its presentation—largely because the writers didn’t seem to have set out to give people a step-by-step guide to anything, let alone a blueprint or a set of instructions like the one that comes in that Lego Death Star set.
Think about Jesus, for a minute. People in the Gospels always seem to be approaching him for just that kind of explicit guidance (e.g., “Who is my neighbor?” “What is the the greatest commandment?” “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” “What’s the rule I should follow when it comes to X?” etc.). But Jesus doesn’t set down a series of rules, instructions, or blueprints for people in his own culture, speaking his own language (let alone us, who satisfy none of those criteria). Instead, he gives infuriatingly opaque answers that most people didn’t understand at all even when heard directly from the source—which is exactly the opposite of good blueprints or reference books, which are designed to be read by anyone with training, regardless (for the most part) of context.
The Bible is the collected wisdom of a people who have tried, over generations and amazingly diverse geographies, to figure out the most faithful way to live as faithful to God’s vision of a creation shaped by a justice that allows for the flourishing of all. And for God’s part, there’s a whole lot of loving and cajoling and excoriating and wooing. All of which makes the arc of the bible an extended story, not a fixed set of maxims.
We look to the Bible to shed light on what it looks like to try to embody love, peace, and justice in a community that glorifies God and that the plot trajectory of scripture reveals. It’s best seen as the kind of book that seeks to form character in such a way that renders rule books and blueprints unnecessary. It’s like a great piece of music that, once you’ve absorbed it, cries out to be performed in new and interesting ways depending on different contexts—not in sclerotically rule-beholden ways that run counter to the spirit of the music (story). It is meant to be read in ways designed to the meet the needs of a world unanticipated when the music was first written, but upon which excellent musicians can engage improvisationally to create beautiful new possibilities for helping to make space for the world God desires.
It’s possible to read the bible like a quick reference guide to moral decision-making—it’s just not the best way.
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Photo credit: Flickr/4thglryofgod
Makes great practical sense to me. Thank you Derek Penwell. Also appreciate podcasts of your sermons on Sundays which we use at our Goolwa Church of Christ Home Church, South Australia.
Admittedly, God really isn’t a chicken (Psalm 91:4). Yet, if we don’t look for the most literal interpretation of scripture available, then the Bible becomes a quaint and meaningless collection of folklore and fairy tales.
Always clear, wise thinking from Derek Penwell.