“Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock” (Ps. 137:9). Reading a passage like that one, it’s easy enough to leap to a condemnation of fundamentalism. (As should be clear from the following, I don’t use the word “fundamentalism” invidiously, but merely as shorthand for Bible literalism/inerrantism.) But earlier this weekend, I was reminded of the original reason I personally was attracted to fundamentalism — of the kind Carter is rejecting — a few years ago, and left the Catholicism of my youth to travel in that direction. I was leafing through the new edition of the Oxford Catholic Study Bible and saw some of the types of assertions that were commonplace when I was a boy: “Some aspects of the [Exodus] story cannot be historical.” “Many of the stories of David and Solomon are either legendary tales or creations of the Biblical writer.” You get the idea. The problem with this is that it is dramatically corrosive of the foundations of Jewish and Christian religious faith, as historically understood. If we reduce either of these religions to some metaphysical or ethical essence (an attempt commonly referred to, usually invidiously, as gnosticism), there is somewhat less of a problem; but even then, the problem remains that one is basically trying to interpret the religion against the grain of its original claims. Judaism and Christianity are historical religions, claiming specific intersections of the divine and the human. If these are “myths” in the religious-studies-department sense, these are intended to be myths of a very specific kind: true myths, ones that actually took place in the real world of history. But if these assertions are false, how trustworthy can the overall literary work, and the faiths based on it, be?
The most common argument I encountered among Catholics was that most of the problems were in the Old Testament, and that this should not affect my faith in the New Testament (and thus in the Church): an attitude that one might call neo-Marcionism. (Which I would summarize, with a certain degree of hostility — and, no doubt, unfairness — as follows: “The part of the book about some fellow named Moses crossing a lake is pure fanciful invention, but the part about some other fellow named Jesus rising from the dead is sober historical fact.”)
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/294348/jimmy-carter-s-bible-michael-potemra
Couldn't have put it better myself, Steve.
ReplyDeleteI know I puzzle and pause when one draws attention to those realities of the written Word of the Old Testament all the while we read these verses from the "first" Pope of Rome:
ReplyDelete2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2Pe 3:11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
2Pe 3:13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
I guess this time He's killing every living creation, man, woman, baby and baby in the womb, including all those bad politicians, medical doctors who uphold the Hippocritical oath and not for gain and all donkeys and car owners?
I kind of like this Old Testament concept as it fits me well:
Isa 66:1 Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
Isa 66:2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
Isa 66:3 "He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig's blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;
Isa 66:4 I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight."
Isa 66:5 Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame.
Isa 66:6 "The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the LORD, rendering recompense to his enemies!