Since
it appears that we’re at a “defining moment” in the history of Christianity,
I’d wager it’s time for a re-examination of who God is and what God does. Tread
carefully, but tread we must. The biblical writers give an Ancient Near Eastern,
Jewish, or Greco-Roman picture of God, and their limited understanding of the
natural world had a significant influence on their theologies. We are better
informed today about nature, notably evolution, and this can’t help but cause
us to re-view the theologies of those who precede us. Some of these may be
worth holding on to, yet others will have to be let go of. The days where the
Christian faith attempted to stand on the biblical text alone for its theology
are over. It’s now just a matter of how long it will take for Christians to
accept this, consult multiple informers, and refigure what they believe about
God and the world.
Many
of the things the apostle Paul wrote are linked to his own particular mission
on behalf of the Crucified and Risen One. To take all of this on ourselves
seems foolhardy, yet if that’s the case, what applies and what doesn’t have to
be carefully worked out. But let’s start by putting Paul’s writings into Categories
like: Creation, Israel, Judaism, Law, Sin, Wisdom, Christ, Redemption,
Resurrection, Spirit, Faith, Origins, Cosmos, World-view, Cultural Influences,
etc. Paul worked with what he had and this wasn’t at the same level in each
category. He had, for instance, more ‘information’ about Israel and the Law
than he did about Creation and the Cosmos. He wasn’t ‘wrong’ about the latter;
he just didn’t have the tools to see these in any other way than an ‘ancient
cultural informer’ would have given him. In contrast, according to the
narrative of Acts, and the testimony in the letter to the Galatians, the Risen
One broke into his life at some point and commissioned him as an apostle, which
gave him a whole new set of information to work from. As far as I can tell,
this kind of encounter / event didn’t happen to Paul with respect to the way
the earth goes around the sun or how cells, molecules, and DNA work. Thus,
Paul’s perspectives on nature, anthropology, and the cosmos are exposed to far
greater limitations. I don’t think we should ignore that when we consider the
question of human origins, the natural world informer, and the interpretation
of Genesis 1-3 or Romans 5-8.
Some men maintain that women are not equal to men. If
you’re interested in finding out if Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 shares that
view, check out my new ebook.
Imagination is a fascinating topic of interest and debate in today’s world. The deeply significant issues of the real and the unreal have never been as evident as in our own cultural context. Discerning between fact and fantasy, objectivity and subjectivity in our post-modern setting, means we have to deal with a new blurring of categories, which may threaten older precision crafted paradigms and previously settled ways of thinking. As we increasingly find ourselves in a culture that prioritizes the visual over all else, images can tend to dominate the landscape of life. Engaging the challenges of post-modern thought, for better or worse, may now suggest that we have to reassess our understanding of God, ourselves, and the world.
Hermeneutics plays a central role in our lives, and it is important to be aware of this. Here are four consequences. First, the general action of interpreting anything is part and parcel of what it means to be a human being in the world. Second, we can think of the interpretive act as part of our developing neural functions that assist our quest for optimal understanding. Third, this quest can be viewed as a circuitous passage that takes us through an interpretation of different kinds of worlds; spiritual, natural, cultural, textual, and otherwise. Fourth, along the journey, discordant thoughts are garnered and woven together into a reflective concordant whole. It might be said this way: an overall narrative picture, including our place in it, comes to the surface out of the mist of an interpreted life.
