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SecretMethod70 · 02-05-2005, 12:22 AM

Believing that the Bible is not necessarily literally true is not mutually exclusive with believing that the Bible is an important and guiding text. Contextual theology is not a new thing, nor is it something that the majority of respected Christian theologians do not understand and agree with.

More contemporary Christian theology places much more focus on the deeper and broader teachings of Christianity as opposed to looking to the Bible as some "rulebook" to "get to Heaven."

If you sincerely want to understand the basis for this, I suggest you check out the PBS documentary "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians." Your local library probably has a copy. It has four hour-long parts. And, because I'm sure someone would be more than happy to criticize me for pointing to some PBS show when it comes to religious thought, the only reason I even know about this documentary is from watching it in a class of mine on contemporary Catholic theology, at a Catholic university.

Another theological philosophy that may shed some light on the intepretations of many different biblical texts is that of the "two books." That is to say, theer are essentially two "books" to learn about God from - the first is the Bible and the second is Nature. Since God is behind both, they cannot be in conflict. So, using an easy example, if the Bible says the earth was created in 6 days and nature (through science) tells us it was created in X billion years, one must be wrong in the literal sense. And there's plenty of evidence it's not science. (Not to mention of course that the Bible provides two different creation stories with reversed orders)

02-05-2005, 12:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
SecretMethod70 Human Administrator Location: Chicago	Believing that the Bible is not necessarily literally true is not mutually exclusive with believing that the Bible is an important and guiding text. Contextual theology is not a new thing, nor is it something that the majority of respected Christian theologians do not understand and agree with. More contemporary Christian theology places much more focus on the deeper and broader teachings of Christianity as opposed to looking to the Bible as some "rulebook" to "get to Heaven." If you sincerely want to understand the basis for this, I suggest you check out the PBS documentary "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians." Your local library probably has a copy. It has four hour-long parts. And, because I'm sure someone would be more than happy to criticize me for pointing to some PBS show when it comes to religious thought, the only reason I even know about this documentary is from watching it in a class of mine on contemporary Catholic theology, at a Catholic university. Another theological philosophy that may shed some light on the intepretations of many different biblical texts is that of the "two books." That is to say, theer are essentially two "books" to learn about God from - the first is the Bible and the second is Nature. Since God is behind both, they cannot be in conflict. So, using an easy example, if the Bible says the earth was created in 6 days and nature (through science) tells us it was created in X billion years, one must be wrong in the literal sense. And there's plenty of evidence it's not science. (Not to mention of course that the Bible provides two different creation stories with reversed orders) __________________ Le temps détruit tout "Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling Last edited by SecretMethod70; 02-05-2005 at 12:39 AM..