Thursday, September 11, 2014

Bible 3

The very wonderful Brian McLaren is talking of the idea of Bible 3. In fact not so much an idea as a description of the era of Bible-use we are now in.

In Bible 1 culture very few people had access to the scriptures. Only significant spiritual leaders did. They told the people what the Bible said and the people responded. So whole nations became Christian, because you did what the king/emperor said.

In Bible 2 culture local communities had their own spiritual leaders. So churches developed with a particular outlook. It is one of the reasons the Church of England has liberal Catholic churches next to charismatic evangelical ones. The local priest told the people how to behave, what to believe and they followed.

This culture lasted longer than it should. It was one of the reasons Philip Pullman's criticism, that the church was an organisation designed to keep people in order, hit the mark. It was. We didn't let people think for themselves soon enough.

In Bible 3 everyone has access to everything anyone has ever said everywhere about all passages all the time. If I preach something unpopular the congregation can google seven different interpretations of the same passage before Sunday lunch.

Bouncing off this thesis, it seems to me that the job of the preacher is now much less to expound one particular model of certainty but to explain the options. And Christians will need to become much more comfortable living with people of opposing, or complementary, views.

So I may say, of an early Genesis passage, there are Christians who take this historically and those who believe it is fable. You need to decide what you believe, and if that makes a difference to the truth it contains.

Of sexuality I need to say that some people feel the Bible's stance against same sex behaviour is fixed and immutable for all time. Others feel the Bible models a developing understanding of same sex relationships and knows little of exclusive, lifelong same-sex marriage so cannot affirm it. You may need to be welcoming to people who do not agre with you that they are sinning.

It's one of the reasons why I am keen to start a 'Questioning the Unquestionable' group soon. I have a few guinea pigs for a meeting next week and, if it is a goer, will advertise more widely. It may be that some who are not church members, because they feel some things cannot be be questioned, might find it a useful route in.

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