God might ruin your life...

The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians...pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Comments

[ConradGempf]

Umm... You might expect me to object, but honestly, he was speaking about the dominant type of biblical scholarship of his day which was already in a programme of de-mythologization. In those days the kind of stuff that's routinely published in New Testament Studies journals nowadays would be considered too uncritical, superstitious and religious to deserve the term Christian Scholarship. In such an era, you could correctly rail against "Christian Scholarship". Even CSLewis did.

This was a great protest in its day, but we're way beyond that now. The trad liberals are still with us, but no one has a stranglehold -- there is a great variety of views and real dialog.

Biblical scholarship is not the enemy.

[maggi]

Of course, Conrad - you should always read people against the context in which they wrote. For Kierkegaard, his personal psychology is another thing one should always keep in mind (IMHO).

Nevertheless, scholarship is never free of the potential to veil us from the actual power of the texts to connect us to God - either by being too dismissive of their religious potential, or by being too rigid about its religious meaning. Scholarship can equally open up the text, or keep it at arm's length - it depends on the scholarship. Kierkegaard's attacks on HIS generation can still highlight human tendencies in ours, even though the context is different.

[Andy W]

Good quote Maggi - agree with your comments.
Seems to me (IMHO) there is often a lot of hot air circulating which as you say veils us from the power of the text. The "rubber hits the road" in the application - we can debate the niceties of Christian scholarship, but in the "real world" the bottom line is how does the Bible impact our daily lives, relationship with God and others. Didn't someone once say that we need to become like little children to enter the Kingdom of God?
Enjoy your blogg :)

[tony]

Didn't Mark Twain say something along similar lines:
It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that give me trouble: it's the parts I DO understand.
?

[Frank Durkee]

We simply seem not too notice how radical a document the bible is especially the New Testament. Sk did and took it with profound seriousness and that is the source of both his theological and psychological depth and intensity. Historical context is important but not determinative of the core understanding of scripture. We may not be able to live up to its radicalness, that does not give us permission to ignore its radicalness.

[brodie]

excuse my ignorance but what does IMHO stand for?

[Brian]

Talking of Christianity ruining your life, particularly in the eyes of modern society, I was just watching a programme on (I shudder to say it) Channel 5 called "Godless Britain".

At its heart was the modern version of the Church's biggest problem. Should it remain steadfast in its principles or is "selling" God the only option in the age of the Self. Needless to say, no conclusion was reached! However, a thought-provoking statistic was that while more people consider themselves "spiritual" than ever, fewer say they are "religious".

[maggi]

Brodie - In My Humble Opinion!

[Brian]

This is very relevant to the point I was making yesterday about "selling" God. I always thought that picture looked too much like Che Guevara - now it's confirmed to be intentional!

[paulh]

good blog maggi and great post.
we're preaching on the "one-another" sayings this term in our church - and the levels of anxiety are tangible. the idea of actually having to put the bible's teaching into practice in tangible ways in personal relationships(cf andy w's "rubber hits the road comment") smacks far too much of "being transformed by the renewal of our minds" (oops, cynic emerged).
as an aside - did anyone see the recent advert looking for a preacher who is "entertaining". have we really lost our confidence in the ministry of preaching to the extent that it is no more than our TV screens - just moving (talking) wallpaper?