You are supposed to struggle with spiritual texts; but when you make the Bible into a quick answer book, you largely remain at your present level of awareness. There are groups who would describe the Bible as an answer book for all of life’s problems. The Bible is actually a conflict book. It is filled with seeming contradictions or paradoxes, and if you read it honestly and humbly it should actually create problems for you!
The way you struggle with the fragmentation of the Bible is the way you PROBABLY struggle with your own fragmentation and the fragmentation of everything else. The Bible offers you a mirror that reflects back to you how you live life in general. There are very high levels of consciousness and holiness in the Biblical text, and texts which are frankly hateful, selfish, and punitive. You need to recognize them as such. As Wendell Berry says, “the mind that is not baffled is not employed.” The Bible mirrors our own human fragmentation, your own two steps backward and your own occasional three steps forward. Your spiritual eyes will eventually be trained to see which way you—and the text—are going (See 1 Corinthians 2:10-16).
Out There
Daily Office
A Daily Dose
Recent Comments
Recent Posts
« When Reality Supports Our Theories | Main | Question Power. Always. »
January 23, 2013
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c65c453ef017c362adc13970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Bible as a Conflict Book:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Parts of My Story
Search
2013's Reading List
- Orson Scott Card: Children of the Mind (Ender Quartet, Book 4)
- Orson Scott Card: Xenocide (Ender, Book 3) (Ender Wiggin Saga)
- Orson Scott Card: Speaker for the Dead (The Ender Quintet)
- Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)
- Daniel Quinn: The Story of B
- Brian Wood: The Massive, Vol. 1: Black Pacific
- Haruki Murakami: South of the Border, West of the Sun: A Novel
- Daniel Quinn: Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit
- Stephen Chbosky: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Nick Harkaway: The Gone-Away World (Vintage Contemporaries)
Legal Crap
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial2.5 Canada License.
Mike: An interesting coincidence. The bible as a conflict book.... yes indeed.Just today I came across a powerful quote from Oswald Chamber's well known book MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. It reads in part as follows:
"Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral and spiritual life is antagonism. This is an open fact of life".
Jesus did warn that in this life we will have tribulation. (Didn't he ask his Father why He had forsaken him?) Certainly this life is a battle.But he also told us to "be of good cheer. I have overcome the world". In the battle by his grace we win. So let's choose carefully and stick with the battle, even enjoy it. Spiritually we are at our best in battle! We face a defeated foe. See Ephesians chapter 6. DRT
Posted by: Dave | January 24, 2013 at 06:25 AM