Two Ways to Read the Scriptures

There are basically two ways to read the scriptures.  Both of these approaches have to do with reason and how we choose to use it.  First though, what is the definition of reason?

• Reason = Cause.  As in “Here is the reason why I did that” 

• Reason = the ability to use higher orders of thinking so as to understand something.  We use the word “reason” this way when we ask someone to be reasonable. 

Our understanding of reason has its roots deep in history.  At the end of the middle ages western civilization came into a Renaissance.   This word means “rebirth.”  This was the tumultuous period from the late 1400’s through the 1600’s.  It was an age of exploration and reformation within the church, and rapid intellectual development.  It was an age of expanding humanism when artists such as Michelangelo and da Vinci began to explore the human experience in art.  In the 1600’s authors like Shakespeare began to compose plays which celebrated the depth and complexity of our common life.  Near the end of this period, in the 1600’s through the 1700’s we had a time known as the Enlightenment.  This is also known as the Age of Reason.  It was a time when rules of logic began to be applied to scientific thinking, information had to be proven rather than just declared, and certain ways of looking at the world which had been held as sacred and unchangeable began to change.  People began to seek answers to questions which went beyond the boundaries which had been set by the church.  This is what we know of today as the beginning of the modern age. 

A few dates might help us understand this process. 

• Johannes Gutenberg 1378 to 1468:  Invented movable type for the printing press. 
• Leonardo daVinci 1452 to 1519: Inventor and Artist
• Martin Luther 1483 to 1516: Reformer
• Christopher Columbus 1451 to 1506: Explorer
• Nicolaus Copernicus 1473 to 1543: Discovered that the earth rotates around the sun. 
• Galileo Galilei 1564 to 1642: Invented the telescope
• John Calvin 1509 to 1564: Reformer
• Michelangelo 1475 to 1564: Painter and Sculptor.
• William Shakespeare 1564 to 1616: Playwright and Poet. 
• King James authorizes distribution of the Bible in English 1611
• J. S. Bach 1685 to 1750: Composer

Our world today took shape through a process where people began to use reason to answer questions and solve problems rather than simply relying on information they had been given by someone in authority.  The practical use of experience, observation, cause and effect, logical mathematical proof, and rules of evidence all came into common use during this period.  Reason opened the door for innovation.  Innovation eventually led to the Industrial Revolution, and all the technology we enjoy today. 

Today I sometimes worry that things might be taking a turn backward.  We start to see statements promoted that are unreasonable.  Look, for example, at some of the actions taken by off-the-wall fundamentalist churches like the one in Florida with respect to burning the Koran, or in Kansas with respect to picketing military funerals.  These problems came about through a long habit where we have chosen not to apply the basic rules of critical thinking and reason, but to state opinions and assumptions as though they were proven facts.  Pat Robertson’s recent comments on the Haiti Earthquake provide a startling example.  Facts themselves get lost in all the spin and hype.  We are at risk of getting lost in an era of garbage thinking.  Conspiracy theories, false end-times prophecies, and all sorts of weird ideas abound and get circulated as though they were facts. 

It is especially important in this time when the Internet provides us with an unprecedented flow of information that we hold to a set of working principles where we can use logic and reason to understand and to promote the truth. 

Back when I was a junior in College I had a President’s Undergraduate Fellowship to do some research in Archaeology at the University of Virginia.  I was walking across the quad at UVA when I saw this huge round building, called the Rotunda.  Carved in stone,  in capital letters across the front of that huge building were these words: 

KAI GNWSESQE THN ALHQEIAN KAI H ALHQEIA ELEUQERWSEI UMAS

I had just finished my second year of Classical Greek, so imagine my excitement when I copied the inscription down and ran back to my room to translate it.  It says; “YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.”  Only later did I discover that Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the Rotunda was quoting Jesus from John 8:32.  Those words sank into my heart, and ever since I first read them I have looked to Jesus and to the Bible as my primary guides in using my mind to discover the truth about everything I see. 

We need to know the truth not only about our natural world and our political world.  We also need to know the truth in relationships with each other.  We need to know the truth as we seek to know ourselves.  There is nothing worse than hiding from the truth about ourselves.  If scripture is to be our guide, we must learn to find the truth about the scriptures. 

So, how do we find the truth about the scriptures?  As stated above, we basically have two choices. 

An option many people choose is to allow the scriptures to BE their only reason.  In this way of looking at scripture there is no need for reason, for interpretation, or for translation beyond the literal words themselves.  This way of thinking is called fundamentalism.  The Word of God IS the reason, and there is no need for any other reason to be applied to whatever the question is.  Our inquiry into any question, or any problem, or any situation will be guided exclusively by our reading of the scripture.  The limitations to this way of reasoning should be obvious whenever we approach problems in our modern, global, complex world.  The usual response we hear goes something like this; “Well is says so in the Bible so that is all I need to know.”  Fundamentalism has become extremely popular in the past few decades because it offers simplicity and it is free of ambiguity.   An argument can be settled easily and quickly by one convenient Bible quote.  There is no need for any further argument, any questions, or any higher critical thinking.  I have heard explanations for everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Haiti earthquake that simply say; “It says so in the Bible.” 

The other great problem with this way of thinking is that we have more than one kind of fundamentalist in the world.  Jews, Christians, Moslems, and Hindus all have their fundamentalist movements.  Each group can make a claim, usually some form of political, geographic, or cultural propaganda, and then say; “My scripture says that this is true.”  The only way to settle such a conflict is with an argument over cultural superiority. Such arguments are fruitless, dangerous, and irresolvable.  What is strange is that the fundamentalists all use the same basic logical structure; “It is true because I believe it is true.”  They seldom understand that saying; “My Book is better than your Book” does not wash well in a global context.  This is a serious problem because, when we say this, we have usually failed to read their book.  How can we claim that our Book is better than their Book if we have not bothered to read them both?  How can we judge their culture without ever having lived in their culture? 

I would like to offer a second option.  Rather than allowing the scriptures to BE our reason, what happens if we bring reason, critical thinking, and logical objectivity to our reading of our scriptures?  I have found that this offers an amazing breakthrough in the power of the scriptures.  Suddenly I am allowed to use the full powers of my mind to analyze the ambiguities and complexities of any situation.  I can deal with ambiguity rather than denying it.  I can face complexity rather than running away from it.  The Word of God becomes a living word, as fully applicable to my situation today as it was to my grandparents or great grandparents a hundred years ago.  The scriptures become timeless, and not limited to some specific cultural, geographic, or political milieu.  Now I can fund a true LOGOS, a WORD with inexhaustible possibilities and limitless applications.   I can find a WORD which offers meaning to every element in our universe, a WORD truly breathed by the Almighty.  (See II Timothy 3:16) 

To simplify this point, we have a choice.  We can allow the scriptures to be our reason, or we can bring our reason to the scriptures.  Opponents of this interpretation will claim that I am a humanist because I elevate human reason above the reason of God.  The non-humanist claims that his or her reasoning is pure because it is limited to the exact literal text of the scriptures.  My response is that my Lord Jesus is the greatest humanist of all.  He was the ultimate example of Divinity taking human form.  He shows us all just what our species is capable of.  By his example, his teaching, his miracles, his life, his death, and his resurrection Jesus elevates the aspirations of any human being anywhere.  He offers us the opportunity to rise above our limitations, not to be subjugated by a limited geo-political cultural group.  In Jesus I find God made man, and man made God by the power of the resurrection.  In Jesus I find the Savior of the World. 

Many years ago, in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance we suffered through a period known as “the burning times.”  This was the era of the Spanish Inquisition.  It was a dark time.  It was a time when reason as we know it today was unheard of.  It was a time when fundamentalist, narrow, culturally and politically centered interpretations of the scriptures were all that we had.  It began in 1478 and lasted through the 18^th century.  As I reflect on this period in history, and wonder what is next, the following words come to mind in Latin.  I quote them in Latin because this is the way I remember them.  I suppose this is my response whenever someone uses the word “humanist” as if it were an insult.   Read these words carefully.  Meditate on them, and see what the word “humanist” means to you. 

• Pilot said; ecce homo, behold the MAN.  (John 19:5)
• Deus Homo factum est.  “God has become man.”  (From the old Latin mass) 
• “In ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum.”   “In him was life and the life was the light of humanity.”  (John 1:4)   
• “Et dixitque Deus FIAT LUX, et factum est lux.  And God said; “Let there be light, and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)    
• “Vos estis lux mundi.” “You are the light of the world.”  (Matthew 5:14)     
• “Ut perfectus sit homo Dei ad omne opus bonum instructus.”  “That the man of God might be complete, equipped for every good work.”  (II Timothy 3:17)