tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post3169671721715636298..comments2024-03-28T09:52:15.415-04:00Comments on Common Denominator: 5. Postlude: The Effect of ScriptureKen Schenckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-69668485482601647442012-08-06T12:26:13.709-04:002012-08-06T12:26:13.709-04:00Ken, someone asked me yesterday: have we come to a...Ken, someone asked me yesterday: have we come to a place where as in Luther's day we think the Bible can only be read by experts, and laymen can't really be trusted to read scripture--not without some help from priest or preacher? The obvious answer is no,of course, but I hope your textbook will deal with the way that redaction, form, historical, textual and any other types of criticism change how the common man approaches reading scripture. <br />Of course the man in the pew isn't generally even aware of words such as biblicism, or of demythologizing the Bible. Younger people do seem to be aware of what they see as a misguided insistence to take Leviticus as determinative today. This is odd to me, for in all my years no one ever taught this to me. <br />I am wrestling with how to answer the question, as you can see, and struggling with lots of issues; Genesis as 'myth'--how to discover the central theme of the OT, and as I am largely an autodidact with ADD it is slow going for me. I look forward to your textbook which I will most likely purchase even if expensive.John Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00060404930391236792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-92118846949014473092012-07-29T20:26:26.561-04:002012-07-29T20:26:26.561-04:00Again, thanks for this series, and especially this...Again, thanks for this series, and especially this post.Martin LaBarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14629053725732957599noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-43293448901731271242012-07-29T10:55:31.182-04:002012-07-29T10:55:31.182-04:00There IS a problem in the Church though that suppo...There IS a problem in the Church though that supposes that creating the "right environment" will help further the development...such assumptions presume that all human beings experience their reality in the same way. They do not. And who is to say what is "created" to further some "cause" (religious, scientific, or moral) will not put someone over the edge, when it seems just an insignificant experiment? http://bigthink.com/think-tank/seeing-sound-tasting-color-synesthesiaAngie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-52869161023389632032012-07-29T09:59:22.634-04:002012-07-29T09:59:22.634-04:00http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loevinger's_stage...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loevinger's_stages_of_ego_development<br /><br />Ego development doesn't happen within the confines of Church, unless there are those in Church that understand that man was meant to develop to autonomy. That is man's innate nature, not to be tied to what someone else thinks or says, even scripture. This is where the "progressive" academic understands human nature a lot better than scripture and most Christians.Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-25634835511019848832012-07-28T23:22:08.750-04:002012-07-28T23:22:08.750-04:00The idea of Scripture as you expound it Ken is ver...The idea of Scripture as you expound it Ken is very challenging. For example black American Christians during the Civil Rights movement were rooted in praxis and the church. Whites who were their allies unfortunately did not find many allies in the southern church. We all need to be part of a community and to experience Christ with our hearts, souls, minds and all our strength. Scripture is revelation but it is revelation which must go to the essence of our existential selves. We need to be guided by the Holy Spirit, experience real transformation and spread Scriptural holiness across the land. All of us are created with a defaced image of God(due to the Fall) but God himself died for us and rose from the dead. All of us must love others as Christ loves us.John C. Gardnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-39235289188912570582012-07-28T21:15:57.920-04:002012-07-28T21:15:57.920-04:00Children think in literal ways, they cannot disass...Children think in literal ways, they cannot disassociate themselves from how they understand or "see" things. For them, every difference is an attack upon them personally. This describes childlike "faith"....there doesn't need to be analysis or assessment, only "trust" in the "Biggest" and "Most Powerful" (which is Daddy when you are young, and Government if you are old!)...no, a "grown up" is one that can decide for themselves and seek to "make it happen". Hermeneutics then, is about what and how one chooses to let their life "speak"!Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-79202173378371610182012-07-28T20:19:23.600-04:002012-07-28T20:19:23.600-04:00John Mark, I didn't even notice anything to ta...John Mark, I didn't even notice anything to take offense over, so there is not need for "deep breathes" unless there is something you feel I did, that was wrong..... but that is okay as I'm very unsophisticated....<br /><br />Ken, Do some brains tend to interpret life more in scientific ways than others who use metaphor? Are such tendencies innately one's "disposition" or one's genes? How does a child's handicap(s) due to childhood traumas enter into their ability to think in metaphorical ways? (since I assume that "God" is a projection of a "Father image"? ) Are mentors always mistrusted when children have such "problems" to overcome?Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-80314296396290725072012-07-28T18:47:52.727-04:002012-07-28T18:47:52.727-04:00Did I never response JM? I didn't take any com...Did I never response JM? I didn't take any comment badly under math. The atheism and politics comment there was for Angie ;-)<br /><br />I am in dialog with a publisher to write a textbook for Bible study method. Dick, it would be mainstream and have much less of me in it, one where it has to be for everyone.Ken Schenckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-14504824603101149542012-07-28T18:43:33.595-04:002012-07-28T18:43:33.595-04:00Ken, I have a question, but first I need to apolog...Ken, I have a question, but first I need to apologize to you, and (deep breath) Angie. Your recent post on math concluded with a sentence that struck me as funny and I gave in to an a rather unsanctified temptation....so I am sorry.<br /> <br />Now, I know you have written several brief books on 'how to understand the Bible.' I own one of them, but was wondering how much overlap there is in the books. Have you ever considered a longer, say 250-300 page work on interpretation written, if not to a popular audience (though that would be great) for pastors? Perhaps there is material enough from your short works to compile and expand on. <br />I don't know what it takes to become widely known as an author, but the work you do with hermeneutics, while not necessarily orginal (it may be, I just don't know enough about the subject to be sure one way or the other) is worthy of a wider audience. <br />I'm sure you would have your critics, all scholars do, but I believe that many might find such a work helpful, especially if you included some material such as you have in this series, such as the history of the developments in interpretation. <br />My thoughts, anyway for what they are worth.....John Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00060404930391236792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-8460691832949944402012-07-28T13:49:07.657-04:002012-07-28T13:49:07.657-04:00Doesn't the evangelical Church....Doesn't the evangelical Church....Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-43787265579264919652012-07-28T13:35:28.780-04:002012-07-28T13:35:28.780-04:00Isn't what the evangelical Church wants to pro...Isn't what the evangelical Church wants to promote is "spirituality" within community, while the liberals, Biblical scholars, Catholics and social scientists stand by and watch the experiment?! Isn't the point of the "reader response" existential experience of postmodernism, which has infilterated the evangelical Church to do what Islam also wants to do by force? Convert the world, but so does the Catholic Church.....<br /><br />But, using the text as a "proof text" upon all of life is also misguided, as when one believes, they assume/presume upon all of life, which is a little presumptuous, wouldn't you say? Why can't people admit what Scripture really is, an ancient text that has been interpreted through a "tradtion"?Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-89913807887326384312012-07-28T11:08:39.689-04:002012-07-28T11:08:39.689-04:00Yes ;-)
But God did not always bless Israel, even...Yes ;-)<br /><br />But God did not always bless Israel, even when it was serving him (Josiah dies in a losing battle). Modern Israel is not the Israel of promise because it does not believe (Romans 11). The soul that did the sinning often did not die in this world for its sin (Mannaseh), which is what Ezekiel meant. <br /><br />God will judge us for the things we have done in the flesh (2 Cor. 5) and for our faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10). The standard is to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves.Ken Schenckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-53651520772196155342012-07-28T11:00:45.953-04:002012-07-28T11:00:45.953-04:00Ken,
I have always wanted to ask this of a post-m...Ken,<br /><br />I have always wanted to ask this of a post-modernist, and now is my opportunity. Is there any such thing as objective truth (truth as God sees it) in the Bible? For instance, when God said to Abraham, "Those who bless you I will bless, and him that curses you, I will curse," he was talking not only of Abraham, personally, but of the nation that would come from his loins. That promise seems to have held true for the Hebrew nation throughout the O.T., but does it apply to our day? If America, for example, proves friendly to the nation of Israel, or, for that matter, to individual Jews, do we bring the blessing of God upon ourselves? Or does it just apply to individual believers who happen to be inspired by that passage? <br /><br />Or when God says to Ezekiel, "the soul that sins will die," does that apply to everybody, or just to people who happen to read the passage and get convicted by it? Is there an objective standard of truth in scripture by which people will be judged at Christ's judgment seat (the Bible says there is such a place), whether they read it and were convicted by it or not? (or, in your terminology, whether God affirms it to them or not).Dick Nortonnoreply@blogger.com