Seeing the spiritual forest for the fundamentalist trees

Discuss either theological doctrines, ideas about God, or Biblical criticism. I don't want any debates about creation vs evolution.

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tinythinker
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Seeing the spiritual forest for the fundamentalist trees

Post by tinythinker » Fri Feb 04, 2011 1:21 pm

Here is an excerpt:
  • So then in fact, the more "barbaric" or "common" one wants to paint certain factions and traditions in ancient Hebrew culture, the more remarkable it actually is that this mystic consciousness was not only able to emerge and survive but to contend with the more dualistic traditions and their more extreme jingoistic and xenophobic manifestations. In that sense, if God wanted a chosen people, one could wonder why he wouldn't have chosen better. Humor aside, in fact God is frequently depicted as being disappointed in the Old Testament with his chosen people. But really, how many of us think we would honestly do much better? We can see in the stories told by and about the ancient Israelites our own vices and virtues, our strengths and weaknesses. And we can see in their collective story the conflict that we all experience in our own lives, between wanting retribution and vengeance, of wanting a short-cut to fame and wealth, to assuage our fears and uncertainty with power and control, and the competing impulse to be kind, generous and merciful, to forgive and be forgiven, to trust and to let go.

    Of course, there are many, many beautiful things to celebrate in the Old Testament. Pleas for mercy, justice and humility far outnumber cries for death and destruction. There are repeated calls for the rich and powerful to be wary of their indifference to the poor and the outcast. Jim Wallace and some of his colleagues once literally cut out all of the references to compassion and social justice in a Bible and found that what as left was a severely shredded and incomprehensible wreck. This fact does not somehow negate or hide the uglier parts, but it is important in reminding us that there are competing views of God and humanity in the Bible. This is what people usually mean when they say that the Bible is a record of the unfolding efforts to know God or of a portion of humanity's ongoing relationship with God as opposed to a memo dictated by a Big Boss. We need the context to appreciated just what the point of a particular story is supposed to be rather than assuming that every elements of action and speech by a "hero" or exemplar is to be emulated. We also need to be reminded of examples where people got it wrong as much as we need to have examples of how to get it right. There is much wisdom to be found in humility and in recognizing our capacity to go offtrack and miss the mark (i.e. "sin").
The full essay is here.
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KR Wordgazer
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Re: Seeing the spiritual forest for the fundamentalist trees

Post by KR Wordgazer » Fri Feb 04, 2011 3:38 pm

That's really good, Tiny. I think I'm more conservative in my approach to the Bible than you, but I fully agree that it doesn't work to see it as a memo from the Boss or to push "inerrancy" to the point of incoherence with reality.
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met
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Re: Seeing the spiritual forest for the fundamentalist trees

Post by met » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:40 am

Nice! (I also commented on your blog.)

**waves***
The “One” is the space of the “world” of the tick, but also the “pinch” of the lobster, or that rendezvous in person to confirm online pictures (with a new lover or an old God). This is the machinery operative...as “onto-theology."
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Metacrock
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Re: Seeing the spiritual forest for the fundamentalist trees

Post by Metacrock » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:08 am

tinythinker wrote:Here is an excerpt:
  • So then in fact, the more "barbaric" or "common" one wants to paint certain factions and traditions in ancient Hebrew culture, the more remarkable it actually is that this mystic consciousness was not only able to emerge and survive but to contend with the more dualistic traditions and their more extreme jingoistic and xenophobic manifestations. In that sense, if God wanted a chosen people, one could wonder why he wouldn't have chosen better. Humor aside, in fact God is frequently depicted as being disappointed in the Old Testament with his chosen people. But really, how many of us think we would honestly do much better? We can see in the stories told by and about the ancient Israelites our own vices and virtues, our strengths and weaknesses. And we can see in their collective story the conflict that we all experience in our own lives, between wanting retribution and vengeance, of wanting a short-cut to fame and wealth, to assuage our fears and uncertainty with power and control, and the competing impulse to be kind, generous and merciful, to forgive and be forgiven, to trust and to let go.

    Of course, there are many, many beautiful things to celebrate in the Old Testament. Pleas for mercy, justice and humility far outnumber cries for death and destruction. There are repeated calls for the rich and powerful to be wary of their indifference to the poor and the outcast. Jim Wallace and some of his colleagues once literally cut out all of the references to compassion and social justice in a Bible and found that what as left was a severely shredded and incomprehensible wreck. This fact does not somehow negate or hide the uglier parts, but it is important in reminding us that there are competing views of God and humanity in the Bible. This is what people usually mean when they say that the Bible is a record of the unfolding efforts to know God or of a portion of humanity's ongoing relationship with God as opposed to a memo dictated by a Big Boss. We need the context to appreciated just what the point of a particular story is supposed to be rather than assuming that every elements of action and speech by a "hero" or exemplar is to be emulated. We also need to be reminded of examples where people got it wrong as much as we need to have examples of how to get it right. There is much wisdom to be found in humility and in recognizing our capacity to go offtrack and miss the mark (i.e. "sin").
The full essay is here.

why don't you ad to it and put it up as a guest blog on Metacrock's blog?
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