Quote:
|
I'll admit that I haven't read every page of the Bible... but isn't the Bible full of that stuff? Even the fairly socialist Jesus had to deal with betrayal and violence and the insecurity of those around him. Or read the story of Esther. The Bible is full of real life stuff, violence, explicit discussions of sex and posessiveness (particularly of women)... There is this discussion of a battle between good and evil... The Bible is successful in the same way that most mythologies are - it is a book full of conflict and tension (internal and external).
|
but isn't the Bible full of that stuff?... Yes. There is a great deal of it. There are two stories going on at the same time, IMO. A death story, and a life story. One is about empire, systamatized sin, greed, and brokeness. The other is about God, and will always stand over and against the death story.
That there's explicit sex doesn't bother me. Song of Songs is hot. And don't let *anyone* tell you it's an allegory. It's about sex, and some pretty hot sex at that. That there are rapes, assaults, abuses, and other gross violations of people's bodies and lives...
It bothers me deeply. I can barely make it through some passages... this is where i come back to the dueling stories. people try to tell death stories in the bible. they talk about violence like it solves problems, women like they're objects, etc...
But they inevitably get subverted by the larger text. you can try to slip in what ever you want, but the life story will surround the darkness, and not be overcome.
The tension you refer to is there. but i think the bible is unique in the way in which it has been the site of a continually self-critical and prophetic movement. no sooner is stuff down on paper, and there are prophets criticizing, revising, working with, and building from the existing tradition. Isaiah is one of my favorites, in the way in which he captures the very core of the teachings of the past. what had been told as death stories, Isaiah breaks open to show the life story that has been there all along. It's a powerful show of what happens when we listen to God, work with the text, and try to be receptive to the light. more and more of that life story is being brought out of the text...and thats where i draw my authority in scripture.