Book Group Reflections — ‘Opening the Bible’
During December, the book group is reading Volume 2 of the series — Opening the Bible by Roger Ferlo. The cover says, “Above all, [Ferlo] teaches the importance of respectfully approaching the Bible as Scripture: it is a book with a long history, complex traditions, and diverse authorship, and it must be read on its own terms.” Again, regular on-line conversation and a monthly coffee talk will characterize our process of learning together. Participants and the larger audience are encouraged to join the conversation by posting a ‘comment’ on this notice (see ‘comment’ button below). The concluding round-table conversation for this book will be on Wednesday, January 2nd from 5-6pm at Rockwood Bakery (18th Ave. just east of Grand).
Those who would like to join along in reading volumes 3 & 4 of the New Church’s Teaching Series are asked to contact Mary Brim at 509.251.5261 by Wednesday, December 19th so we can order books. Each volume costs $8 when purchased through the cathedral bookstore. Beginning with books 3 & 4, we will also encourage a $2 donation per book for our group to put toward a West Central ministry of our choice.
Enjoy the conversation!
Mary Brim said:
All right, let’s see how this new way posting works. I’ve only read the first chapter up to now, and so far, am enjoying it. I identify with Ferlo’s comments about Episcopalians being more than hesitant to read/study the bible outside of church. So, here are some starter questions:
1. Does anybody feel comfortable with their knowledge of the Bible? I know I certainly don’t. I’m your classic cradle Episcopalian who has never invested real time into studying the actual Bible. I would really like to though. I see the importance of it, not only on a personal level, but on an evangelical level. When talking to my friends, coworkers, family about how being a Christian is integral to my life they expect a certain amount of knowledge from me regarding the Bible. And if/when they don’t see that in me, I’m afraid I’m not taken seriously. Wherever I end up next in my life, ie next year, I hope to find a bible study group.
2. How important do you feel the Bible is to your actively being a Christian? Can you be Christian without reading the Bible?
Chase Shields said:
Unfortunately, I’m with Mary in a huge lack of knowledge. In fact, if I had to identify where most of my theological speculations come from, it would be secondary sources (commentary etc) as well as observation/reason.
Although the bible is central to the Christian faith, I think the fact that so many of us don’t have a solid grasp of it and yet consider ourselves to be Christians should be cause for us to be more open minded about other religions and their connection to the ultimate. Why should our book be considered the only gateway if so many of us don’t study it and yet consider ourselves to be linked to the ultimate? And then the question is, do you mean Christian in the sense of the organized religion, in the sense of believing in Christ, or in the sense of following the path of Jesus defined by the actions he calls us to take.
So for the first two, the answer is yes post-guttenburg and with translations of the bible into other languages. The bible contains the key elements of faith as they relate to the story of Christ and is essential in understanding who Christ was, the context of what he did, and the essence of the message he was trying to communicate.
If Christ’s actions and call to action, his love, are what is the essence of Christianity, I suppose the lingering question is can a complete revelation occur outside of the Bible, perhaps through ones personal experience, reason, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (a mystic or prophetic revelation). I wouldn’t rule it out, but I (personally) won’t rely on it either.
Perhaps I am hashing words and hoping Christianity can be the unifying religion rather than one of the religions that is unified under another meta-religion, which would make the bible secondary to the essence of Christianity unless we want to diminish the importance of all other Holy Books. What can I say, I root for the home team.
Mary said:
Thanks for your thoughts Chase. As Paul would say, “let’s unpack that” at coffee next Wednesday!
My personal thought is that yes, you can certainly be a Christian without reading the Bible, but I think Bible study is an essential part of Christian growth. I’m almost done with “Opening the Bible” and it has made me excited about Bible study. The richness of the stories and translations and historical context and different interpretations makes it more of an adventure book than the dry, weird scripture that I thought it was. I know I’m being totally cheesy, but truly, this is exciting stuff!
Brandon said:
1. I’ve been an obsessive reader of the Bible for nine years now. Raised as a Baptist, I was socialized to believe that being a Christian meant, among other things, being familiar with “the Word of God.” Once I got some history under my belt, I realized that my particular understanding of knowing the Bible was not what Christians had been accustomed to in years prior to, as Chase mentioned, Gutenberg and the Protestant Reformation. Now that Protestantism has made Christianity a much more democratic undertaking — and that’s something I think we just find ourselves in, for good or ill — being familiar with the Bible ought to be as essential to being a Christian, culturally speaking, as being familiar with rhetoric was essential for the men who carried out civil affairs in the ancient Greek city-state.
I am often appalled at the lack of familiarity people have with the Bible, but that sense of horror comes only when this lack of biblical knowledge comes from the stringent believers who assert dogma without having read it for themselves. A democratic Protestant at the core, I suppose, I believe that one ought to inform oneself before presuming to speak in public or ecclesiastical forums. I hope I’m not being overly biased by the fact that I’m an English major — all I do is read books. By the same token, I should not be complacent, either; the Bible yields much reward for further study. Just because I’m familiar with it doesn’t mean I should stop.
2. Practically speaking, of course one can be a Christian without reading the Bible. It happens all the time. I said that biblical education ought to be as essential to being Christian as rhetorical education was for the citizens of the Greek polis. Here’s why I say that: none of us would know Jesus except for the texts that speak of him; same goes for Yahweh. Harold Bloom in his book on Shakespeare said that Jews and Christians worship literary characters — the Jews the Yahweh of the Tanakh, Christians the Yahweh of the Tanakh and the Jesus of the Gospels. That may be too reductionist, but I would add, too, what the Apostle Paul once said, that spiritual conviction about Christ comes through rhetoric (I have in mind Romans 10). The word faith there is pistis, which was the word for “persuasion” or “conviction” in the Greek rhetorical manuals. At bottom, our faith is formed by rhetoric and by literature. None of us could be Christian apart from the literature or the preaching, pure and simple.
The biblical model for engendering and nurturing faith — I don’t think I’m being too monolithic here — is the recitation of God’s deeds, even if one has been witness first hand to those deeds. This is true in the Tanakh (e.g., Deuteronomy 6, Psalms passim) as well as in the New Testament. Our faith in God, if we are a part of the Christian community, is based on preaching the word. Not that faith is purely intellectual, no more than rhetoric is purely logical; there are also pathetic and ethical appeals — precisely because, I think, there are pathetic and ethical concerns we have as human beings. The Hebrews stressed the ethical appeals a good deal, i.e., God can be trusted, because the character of God was a basic component of what it meant to “trust” God. If Samuel Johnson was right that we need to be reminded more often than we need to be instructed, then being a Christian means hanging around the community’s words about God — the Bible is ground zero for faith-shaping Christian rhetoric.