For how can anyone be said to believe the Scripture when he does not see in it the mind of the Holy Spirit, which God would have us to believe, rather than the literal meaning? Commentary on John, 10.27 That is one of the most sensible things I've read on the art of reading scripture .
I guess he wasn't just a self mutilating Nut(less) Case after all.
4 comments:
I'm a little confused on this interpretation... Does it mean that we should be guided by the Lord, as individuals, in the understanding of His Word -- and disregard the literal meaning of His words?
Hi Gill
Sorry I am so late in responding. It has been a hectic but productive past few weeks.
I am only now taking a few minutes to check in on the blogosphere.
Origen is an interesting case. It is thought that he cut his testicals off in a religious passion to fulfill a literal reading of the scriptures. He took Jesus' hyperbole and made it a literal command;"it is better to enter heaven without an offending body part than hell with all in storage. Some are made eunichs for the sake of the kingdom etc.etc."
Now either he learned from that unfortunate reading of scripture and came to believe the quote I presented
or
perhaps he was just a religious nut case (so to speak)after all.
A literal reading of scripture is dangerous and false.
A good appraoch to understanding the Bible requires the participation of a community and the appraoch must give primacy to the action of the holy spirit to guide the community over time.
Simplistic (and often wrong) interpretations of literalists don't qualify.
It would be best if we tried to get a big picture of the purposes of God and learn to apply them to our lives in this time rather than trying to force all humanity to continue to live out the principles of 1st Century culture.
We Chrsitans are hard headed enough to have literally read the scriptures and concluded that slavery was a God ordained institution. Such readings are totally contrary to the spirit and teachings of Christ but giving primacy to literal words of an unfolding revelation led us to accept many barbaric and unchristian things.
Bottom line, if we take the fluff and make it primary, and take the important stuff and make it secondary, as we so often do, then we have practiced a bad hermenuetic(and bad relgion)...no matter how scriptural the interpretation appears to be.
Hating homosexuals is wrong,
slavery is wrong,
prejudice of all varieteies is wrong,
using relgion to manipulate and dominate others is wrong,
harming people in the name of God is wrong
These are all things that literalists have done with supposed scriptural justification
but I dare say not with the holy spirit's blessing
You're the best Mr. A :-)
Thanks so much Ms. X
that really does mean a lot to me
I have learned from good people like you that the scriptures were made for wo/man not wo/man for the scriptures
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