Speaking truth about the Bible?
Nick Bagnall considers how Quakers can understand the Bible
Prompted by the two articles on the Bible, I have two suggestions to make to Friends. I was brought up to believe that the Bible was the word of God. However, I have now come to realize that it is no more than a collection of human writings, which contain only a few glimpses of guidance to leading a satisfactory life.
Three quarters of it is ‘Old’ and was outdated even before the New Testament was compiled. The Old Testament is indeed responsible for the Palestinian troubles of today. With notions of revenge, such as ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’, it shows very rudimentary and outdated moral standards. Such notions would, as has often been pointed out before, lead only to an endless cycle of toothless blindness. In modern South Africa, such revenge ideas gave way, fortunately, to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Even the New Testament contains much that is of little relevance in today’s world. The work of the Jesus Seminar has shown that the inconsistencies in the Gospels call much of their content into question. It was something that turned me away from ‘Churchianity’ (as I still call it) over forty years ago. That’s not to deny for example, that ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ is the same as ‘loving God’ and is wise advice.
There are a great many books available today that contain other good moral glimpses. For example ‘Mrs Do-as-you-would-be-done-by’ in The Water Babies; telling oneself ‘I could have inner peace instead of this’ in Love is Letting Go of Fear; or ‘I am a beloved child of the Universe’ in Heal your Life.
I suggest that Friends could be the first of the nominally Christian Churches to renounce the misplaced holiness and implied deital authority of the Bible. An updated version of Advices and Queries could contain sufficient précised advice. Meanwhile the redundant text that is almost the entirety of the Bible could be passed into history, like the Canterbury Tales.
For Friends the inner light and shared vision arising from that are our main guide.
Friends have been reluctant to proselytise for some decades, because we doubted that Christianity had the true answer. I secondly suggest that we could also be the first to apologise to the indigenous people of the world, for having converted many of them to literal textual belief in the Bible.
Let us speak truth to other churches at last. Have we the courage?
Comments
I think our Friend is missing something. The thinking AND art of (say) Ecclesiastes and Job are worth attention. Similarly, the Canterbury Tales are still an excellent read. Of the Bible and great writers (like Chaucer) it can be said that all human life is there. Societies change but human beings change little.
By DavidH on 17th February 2010 - 9:41
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