Marginal Christianity

                                                             Herma and Herman Neutics Hi Friends, Herma here. I had a thought in the shower today (I do some of my best thinking there) I think is important for biblical interpretation. I'm on Facebook like most of you and I see a regular stream of conversation dispute, name-calling over predestination and free will (or whatever name your tradition calls it). I'm soaping my hair and it struck me, kinds out of the blue) that instead of predestination and free will, we ought to focus first on destination and God's will. And not until we have those foundational issuing framing the biblical narrative and Christian living rightly in p...

Herma and Herman Neutics on Interpretive Malfeasance (Examples) If you read the story of the Gerasene demoniac and are less thrilled by the demoniac's healing than worried abut the farmers who lost their swine, you have missed the point and get your priorities screwed up. If you're more worried about Martha's domestic duties than Mary's response to Jesus' call, you've missed the point. If you can't hear the upside-down grace of the man who hires workers all through the day and pays them all the same because you can't imagine running a business that way, you've missed the point.

The Neutics: There's No Such Thing as "Objective" Interpretation!

  “As human beings are biologically oriented towards homeostasis… we are creatures of habit. Adaptation and co-evolution is a slow process of acclimatisation to new sets of circumstances, but dissonance is interruptive… on a day-to-day basis, most of us cope with such dissonance through repression and denial, refusing to see the world in any way that departs from the customary. Hence most of us see very little. The seeing as has become a seeing as we want to see it. ”   Graham Ward, Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice We think that an important implication of Ward’s statement is that if our interpretation of the Bible squares in most important ways with what we already believe, it is probably wrong in important ways. How do we combat this interpretive myopia? Question ourselves relentlessly. Read widely, especially views that are not your own. Discuss the Bible with those different (ethic, class, politics, experience, gender, etc.)

Herma and Herman Neutics on Biblical Interpretation Sometimes God speaks through a clash of viewpoints on particular matters. Kingship, for example, is a pretty clear example. 1 Samuel 8-12 reads like a point-counterpoint debate: anti-king, pro-king, anti-king, pro-king. In the end God allows the people the king they want (so they can be like all the other nations - never a good reason to do something) but the anti-king rhetoric serves notice that this will not be an unmitigated good for Israel. In fact, it turned out to be almost an unmitigated evil for them! If Israel was to have a king, as Deuteronomy 17 foresees they might, the king should NOT be like all the other monarchs of surrounding nations! A brother among brothers, one subject to and occupied with God's Law, the kind of kingship Israel might have is one "without all the fun of being king." So does the Bible sanction kingship for Israel? Sanction's probably too strong; allowed, certai...

Herma and Herman Neutics on Biblical Interpretation We've learned through the years on simple yet profound truth about "getting" the Bible: -You'll never get the Bible if you read it only or primarily for what it said to its first readers. -You'll never get the Bible if you read it only or primarily for what it says to you today. -You'll only get the Bible if you read it as God's story with humanity and the world in which you have been called to play a part and further that story in your time and place.

Herma and Herman Neutics: Is Christ the Center of Scripture? Most Christians I suspect would answer “yes” in some sense to my title question. But that “in some sense” contains a diversity of meanings. Some of the key questions that move us toward an answer to what sense is Christ the center of scripture include: -Does every passage somehow speak of Christ? -Is he the “hermeneutical key” that unlocks the mystery and meaning of scripture? -What about passages that seem to contradict what we know of God through Christ? According to Luke, Jesus explains to the disciples after Easter, the two on the Emmaus road and those gathered in Jerusalem, everything in scripture that relates to him and what has happened to him (24:25-27, 44-49). In John Jesus asserts that the scriptures point to him (5:39-40). This does not mean, however, that every passage somehow speaks of Christ or to the circumstances of his life even if they point to him in more general ways. If he is the “h...

It's the Neutics (Herma and Herman) Again! We promised some further thoughts on the Bible as a love letter to us. Here they are. James McGrath, biblical scholar and popular blogger, says not. Recently he posted this on his blog. “ Few assumptions prevent people from understanding the Bible as much as the idea that it is a love letter from God to them. Every part of that – that God wrote it, that it is a love letter, and that it is written with you in mind – is badly mistaken, and so the combination thereof creates a lens that radically distorts and obscures the Bible.” ( http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/2015/10/the-bible-is-not-a-love-letter-from-god-to-you.html )           On the other hand, no less a theologian than Dietrich Bonhoeffer apparently did so describe the Bible. One of his students remembers this from him: "There, before the church struggle, he said to us at the new Alexanderplatz, with a ...

Herma and Herman Neutics Again! The Bible must be read like every other book. Every kind of analysis we can apply to other ancient texts we should apply to the Bible. The Bible must be read like no other book. Only in this book do we have a "love letter" from God. (Don't gag out on the last phrase, friends. No less than Dietrich Bonhoeffer uses it and Herman will share more about that next time.) 

Herma and Herman Neutics Maybe the most important advice for Bible Reading we can give you. Never assume you know what a passage means. Even if you understand every word in English translation don't assume that what it means to you as a 21st century American is what it meant to its ancient readers. Investigate everything. Always ask yourself "What would this word, concept, image, or phrase mean to an ancient Israelite? Here's the deal. The Bible is written for us but not to us. The only way to get the message for us is to do our best to understand what the message was to its original hearers. If we don't get that we won't get what God intends for us to hear, So, doubt (what you think a passage means) and verify (work to discover what it meant to its original hearers in order to hear and obey.

It's the Neutics again!  Bible Interpretation Tip Time Herma: Herman, what do we do when we see a "therefore" in the Bible? Herman: We ask what it's there for because it's there for a purpose! Herma: And we should translate it "Duck!" The rubber's about to hit the road.

Herma and Herman Neutics Always try to determine the intent or function of  a biblical law or prohibition before laughing it off as strange and irrelevant and wondering why such a thing is in the Bible. Probably the prohibitions in the Holiness Code in Leviticus (chs.17-26) give the best examples. And they are very peculiar to our ears: Don't mix breeds, seeds. or fabrics (Lev.19:19). What can these things mean to a people who do all three and don't see anything wrong with them? What not just laugh as these primitive ideas and move on to something else that seems more relevant? In these kinds of cases, better ask about the intent or function of the text than laugh it off. Dig a bit and you might discover some surprisingly relevant material! In the case of our trio noted above: “These and other prohibitions were designed to forbid the Israelites to engage in the fertility cult practices of the Canaanites. The Canaanite believed in sympathetic magic, the idea that...