Interpreting the Bible in it's cultural context

by logansrun 23 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  peacefulpete

  Would you not agree that all our fundamental laws and constitutions, declarations, organic laws are based on the Bible?s "Laws"?

  Who are the peoples you are regarding as "our"? I have tried in vain to think of any single law that could be said to be based upon the Bible Even the sodomy laws and silly 'blue' laws were not strictly based upon any scriptural precedent. Unfortunately foreign policy and environmental apathy have resulted from apocalyptic thinking legislators, but I doubt that this is what you meant. And of course the world outside the U.S. and parts of Europe would be quite surprised to 'learn' their laws were Judaeo Christian.
• 

  gumby

  Oral sex is illegal between married couples in California. Did they get that law from the bible or the dubs?

  Gumby
• 

  logansrun

  ThiChi,

  I feel obligated to tell you that I, for one, am growing increasingly weary of your myopic viewpoint and dogmatism which borders on outright bigotry. I have written an essay for a history course (http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/68527/1.ashx) which clearly showed the US is not a "Christian nation" in any dogmatic sense (although we were influenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition...much as we were Greco-Roman Law and Enlightenment philosophy). Really, if you wish to spout your fundamentalist chest-thumping, please do it on a different thread.

  I'd like to keep on topic here...

  Bradley
• 

  Carmel

  It's interesting how often those who tout that our history for the last 1900 years is primarily influenced by the bible for foundational concepts. I wonder if they were in Cairo or Bagdahd they would be able to get away with that or for that matter in good old Europe. The influence of the Quran on the administration of justice as a means of bringing peace between warring factions is totally overlooked except for Muslim scholars who know that advances in how nation states and the nations that followed them were based on democratic principals. Between the influence of the Gospel and the Quran is a fair bit of secularism as well so I don't want to leave out those that contributed to our much vaunted western civilization.,.Anyone who thinks Arab countries can never become democratic doesn't know their muslim history.

  carmel
• 

  forgetmenot

  logansrun,

  I too have asked these questions and they are good questions.

  When I was doing research on the treatment of the disabled by various churches, I questioned them about many scriptures that pertained to disability. These included slurs and disrespectful speech as well as blatant discrimination when selecting priests in the Old Testament. One of the pastors that I interviewed told me that these merely needed to be taken in historical context and that they did not reflect God's love but a period of time and culture.

  'Wait...I thought God?s love was what the bible was all about? Now I'm confused.' - forgetmenot
• 

  gumby

  I'd like to keep on topic here...

  Boy...me too! Hey brad.....only a few more days till Dallas!!!! Woo... hooooo!!!

  Gumby
• 

  BluesBrother

  we cannot expect the Bible writers to escape their cultural prejudices and historical time period.

  That would be Ok if the Bible were to be viewed as a human book. Sure , mankind has moved on a lot and we do not expect any writer of antiquity to be able to place himself in our world today. We overlook some oddities in the ancient Greek philosophers and extract the valuable points. But The Bible claims to be different. It claims to be inspired of God. Either we accept itas such, or we dont. Frankly i do not dee how you can have it both ways
• 

  Narkissos

  How can the Bible "claim" anything? How could any of the writers who produced its texts know what the "Bible" would be and that his work would eventually be included?
• 

  Justin

  I think as people whose beliefs were originally formed in fundamentalism/JWism, we tend to look at statements made by so-called progressive or liberal theologians without considering the context in which their statements are made (let alone the context of the Bible writers). They may claim, for example, that certain Biblical standards no longer apply because their cultural context is outdated. But they also have definitions of inspiration and even of God with which we may be unfamiliar. In short, they have a completely different paradigm from the fundamentlist one.

  Some may think that God is not even personal, but is the Ground of Being which may be experienced in different ways at different times. Any communcation from this Ultimate Reality would then amount to someone's subjective experience, and that in turn is influenced by cultural standards. So the "inspiration" is centered more on the receiving end than the transmitting end.

  It's all very fuzzy, and these progressive concepts probably have their own inconsistencies. But it's important to realize that certain theological or ethical statements are not simply changing one aspect of the old paradigm - they are actually involving an entire paradigm shift.
• 

  Narkissos

  Justin: strange as it may seem I fully agree with your comment. We cannot read an old book (or even a recent book, for that matter) in a new setting without completely reinterpreting it. Any reading or translation is a betrayal. And any writer secretly hopes for such a betrayal as much as he fears it. The only difference is fundies are usually not aware of that.