On Nov. 17-19, The Westar Institute, home of the Jesus Seminar and Polebridge Press, will launch a new project called The Bible Seminar.
"Today the Bible is deployed in the service of all manner of conservative and right wing causes. Biblical scholars need to weigh in on these debates," Dr. Stephen Patterson, director of The Westar Institute and George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., recently stated. "Religion plays an enormous role in the shaping of our public life. Scholars of religion have a unique vocation to become public intellectuals. The mission of the Westar Institute is all about getting scholars to embrace that vocation."
It comes down to a pretty basic debate: How we read the bible matters. Religious Right organizations like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council use the Bible to argue against equality for women, against marriage equality for gays and lesbians, against environmental protections and for U.S. military intervention in numerous locations. Are their positions biblically based or are these political positions cloaked in biblical language?
Patterson says: "The Bible Seminar aims to coax critical scholars out of the library and into the public square because basic critical scholarship can make a difference. What is the Bible? How did we get it? What does it really say about sexuality, the role of women and family values?"
At the November gathering in Berkeley, Calif., scholars like Claudia Setzer will discuss the role of the Bible in "America's great social debates, over slavery, evolution, modernism, and civil rights." Gregory C. Jenks will present a workshop that will discuss how to reclaim the Bible for progressives. And along with Patterson, John Dominic Crossan, Pamela Eisenbaum and Mark George will help kick-start a conversation over the role of the Bible in modern debates that moves us beyond dogma and into a genuine discussion over the role of the Bible in our common age.
Why are these debates over the Bible important? The Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, asserts that the "Bible is totally truthful and without error" and this belief causes him to reject evolution -- a theory embraced by many biblical scholars and other people of faith -- and to believe that homosexuality is a sin. Thus, he opposes (strongly) the teaching of evolution in public schools along with programs that promote tolerance and diversity in the classroom. This has led Dr. Mohler to write: "I am convinced that the time has come for Christians to develop an exit strategy from the public schools. Some parents made this decision long ago. The Christian school and home school movements are among the most significant cultural developments of the last thirty years. Other parents are not there yet. In any event, an exit strategy should be in place."
Mohler's views represent a radical departure from mainstream Christianity (the National Council of Churches is a strong proponent of public education) and even evangelical Christians are warning that the anti-intellectualism embraced by figures such as Mohler harms the faith. Karl W. Giberson and Randall J. Stephens, two evangelical scholars, recently wrote in The New York Times that "Evangelicalism at its best seeks a biblically grounded expression of Christianity that is intellectually engaged, humble and forward-looking. In contrast, fundamentalism is literalistic, overconfident and reactionary." Mohler's fundamentalism stifles learning, debate and confuses theology with a partisan political platform.
The Westar Institutes' Bible Seminar will seek to reclaim the Bible from voices like Mohler's and to promote dialogue between scholars, clergy and lay members of churches.
The mission of The Westar Institute has always been to "to foster collaborative research in religious studies and to communicate the results of the scholarship of religion to a broad, non-specialist public." Right now that mission could not be more important because the debate over what the Bible is and what is means is being won not based on scholarship -- or even faithful discernment -- but by those with the biggest budgets and the strongest political allies. It's time to free the Bible and Christianity from those who engage in theological malpractice.
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The Bible Seminar To Kick-Off At Fall - Religion Press Release Service
The average guy misses the SPECIFIC and preaches what his friends agree that is of their DENOMINATION.
People all over the world are looking for God............Not your de-no-mi-na-tion.
Bajebass.
For those who are not at peace with God, the word of God as written in the Bible, can be and is quite disturbing and they want to change it so that the finger of God isn't pointed at them.
Romans 5:1 ¶ Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Islam studies the koran in the original arabic. Many jewish texts are presented in their original unmodified hebrew. It doesn't make these religions more correct, but it does mean that there is less ambiguity based on linguistic errors. Most christians study the bible in forms several times removed from the original text. What do these semantic errors mean? What do the mistranslated words mean? At what stage do the words stop being the word of god, and now become the misinterpreted word of man? These are legitimate questions that most biblical "scholars" gloss right over.
People like Mohler are simple zealots. They assign a level of certitude to a book full of inconsistencies and select uses that does not exist. All modern christians pick and chose those portions of the bible they wish to follow. What is the right path based on the *words* in the bible? That is an answer that no christian can answer with full support because no christian follows every rule contained within the bible.
No matter what criticisms non-believers and some believers have of the King James Bible, the bottom line is, through God's grace and providence and the words contained on its pages, untold millions of people, if not more, have come to know and believe in Jesus Christ including myself. The proof, it is said, is in the pudding.
"What is the right path based on the *words* in the bible?"
Acts 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Many people don't realize that Christians aren't a monolith; and we are certainly not all fundamentalists with Mohler et al. I believe in evolution, I think gay marriage and ordination is a move toward God's grace, pretty progressive on all fronts. And I am that way because of what I read in the Bible.
"All modern Christians pick and choose those portions of the Bible they wish to follow." Nail on the head with that one. As a minister, I call this a "canon within the canon." But any minister worth her/his weight should be preaching and teaching the full range of scripture (even the stuff that we'd rather not highlight about this ancient text we have inherited.)
Fundamentalism has hijacked people's understanding of what Christian means - I just want to push back a little. Thank you for raising the linguistic elements of the scripture that are so often ignored by our ultra-conservative peers.
The NCC has not represented mainstream views on anything in decades. The Apostles would have rightly excommunicated the majority of the NCC for rank Socinianism and apostasy.
Apparently, this is all about someone coming up with a slick way to condone homosexuality. The Bible even presents guidance in this area. The “evil deeds of the Nicolaitans”, those who led God’s people into committing sexual sin, are not only condemned but also the churches who tolerated the Nicolaitans in their congregations. (Revelation 2).
Individuals and groups with a negative bias towards Gay people have long used a handful of Bible passages to condemn us. I’m happy that Christian scholars, pastors, individuals and entire congregations are critically reexamining these verses in light of their historical contexts as well as the original languages. --ez
REMEMBER THE VERSE ABOUT HEAPING UP FALSE TEACHERS WITH ITCHY EARS.
"Why do you call me Lord Lord and don't do what I say?"
Who do I believe... those who deny what Jesus says (regardless of who they say they believe) or Jesus?
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!"
I have a lot less patience than you. I respect most of them in the same way I'd respect an animal that might have rabies.
You (I) really can't waste time talking to people will plot for years to drive airplanes into buildings to kill people, nor people who will build a money-sucking machine to tell us that 9/11 happened because we weren't beating up enough gays.
That's why God created Samuel Colt, and John Browning!