The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal - Part 4

The Bible Beyond Literalism:

Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

Part 4

The Modern-Era Christian Perspective

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

RES

Similarly, how might a modern-era,  progressive Christian approach the Scriptures?

ChatGPT

A modern, progressive Christian—especially one shaped by progressive, liberal, or process-informed theology—approaches the Bible very differently from traditional or fundamentalist readings. Rather than defending Scripture as infallible, timeless, or morally perfect, they view it as a living witness to an evolving human encounter with the divine.

Here’s how this more evolved, critical, and constructive Christian posture toward Scripture can be summarized:

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📖 1. Scripture as Evolving Human Testimony

• The Bible is not treated as the verbatim word of God, but as a collection of testimonies from earlier, ancient communities wrestling with God, history, suffering, and hope.

• The voices within Scripture are seen as diverse, time-bound, and fallible, reflecting the struggles of people interpreting God from within their own cultural limitations.

• This echoes the idea that revelation is not a static deposit, but a relational, ongoing process.

🡺 The Bible shows humanity’s evolving understanding of God, not God’s unchanging dictation to humanity.

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🧠 2. Historical-Critical and Contextual Reading

• Modern Christians use tools of textual criticism, archaeology, and cultural studies to understand the genre, authorship, and historical setting of each text.

• For example:

  • The creation stories are read as myths of primitive meaning, not of a literal cosmology.

  • The conquest narratives are understood as ideological retrospectives, not divine endorsements of genocide.

🡺 Reading Scripture contextually helps reclaim it from moral and historical misuse.

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⚖️ 3. Moral and Theological Discernment Over Literalism

• Not every command or story is seen as binding or morally sound.

• Jesus becomes the ethical filter or interpretive lens: Christians ask, “Does this reflect the love, justice, and compassion revealed in Christ?”

  • Example: Jesus-Christians may reject Old Testament laws on slavery, gender roles, or vengeance because they are incompatible with Christ’s message.

• This is sometimes called a “canon within the canon” approach—prioritizing certain voices (e.g., Jesus, prophets, wisdom literature) over others.

🡺 Scripture is not a rulebook; it is a moral conversation rooted in love.

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🌿 4. Jesus as Embodied Revelation, Not Biblical Literalism

• Jesus is viewed not as a Bible-quoting legalist, but as the incarnation of divine love and relational healing.

• For updated, progressive Christians, Jesus critiques and transcends earlier (Hebrew) Scriptural or Jewish norms (e.g., “You have heard it said... but I say to you” in Matthew 5).

• The authority of Scripture flows through Jesus, not the other way around.

🡺 The Bible is read in the light of Christ—not Christ through the lens of flawed texts.

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🔄 5. A Non-Coercive, Process-Inspired View of God

• Many modern Christians reject the violent, controlling, or punitive depictions of God found in some parts of Scripture.

• Influenced by Process Theology, they see God not as a divine micromanager, but as a persuasive, loving presence who works through freedom, creativity, and relationship.

• Thus, stories where God commands destruction (e.g., flood, conquest) are interpreted as human projections, not revelations of God's true nature.

🡺 God’s character is understood as evolving in the biblical narrative—from tribal war-god to universal source of love.

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✊ 6. Liberation, Inclusion, and Justice-Centered Hermeneutics

• Many use liberation theology, feminist, Black, queer, or ecotheological perspectives to read Scripture from the margins.

• These readers often prioritize texts of liberation (e.g., Exodus, prophetic calls for justice, the ministry of Jesus) and challenge texts of oppression or exclusion.

• They reclaim Scripture as a means for social healing, not for institutional control.

🡺 The Bible becomes a resource for resistance, restoration, and inclusive belonging.

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📚 7. The Bible as Sacred Story, Not Scientific Fact

• Creation, miracles, and apocalyptic visions are read symbolically or theopoetically, not as literal accounts.

• Modern Christians embrace science, evolution, and critical inquiry, without needing to abandon spiritual depth or sacred narrative.

• Myth is reclaimed not as “falsehood” but as truth-telling through story.

🡺 Genesis may not be factually true, but it is spiritually revealing about human meaning and divine creativity.

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Summary Table: A Modern Christian Approach to Scripture

Classical View	Modern/Updated View
Bible is infallible Word of God	Bible is inspired human response to divine encounters
Scripture is morally and theologically unified	Scripture is multi-voiced, contested, and evolving
God is wrathful judge	God is loving, relational, and persuasive
Miracles are literal events	Miracles are symbolic/metaphorical encounters
Old Testament laws are binding	Christ-centered discernment overrides regressive laws
Jesus confirms Scripture	Jesus transforms and critiques tradition
All verses are equally authoritative	Central moral core is love, justice, and peacemaking

✝️ Conclusion:

A modern, mature Christian approach embraces the Bible as a sacred process of spiritual evolution, not a flawless rulebook or historical documentary. But as a record of a people in relationship with God - with all the interpersonal and societal struggles, beauty, blind spots, and breakthroughs that any spiritual journey may entail.

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective
• Part 3 - The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective
• Part 4 - The Modern-Era Christian Perspective
• Part 5 - The Modern-Era Process Perspective

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal - Part 3

 

The Bible Beyond Literalism:

Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

Part 3

The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

RES

How has the modern-era, non-conservative, Jewish faith reconciled these inconsistencies?

ChatGPT

Modern non-conservative Jewish traditions—primarily Reform, Reconstructionist, and secular humanistic Judaism—have undertaken significant reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) to reconcile its moral difficulties, historical inconsistencies, and theological archaisms with contemporary values. Here's how these movements address the issues you have raised:

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🕍 1. Scripture as Evolving Human Testimony, Not Literal Revelation

• Reform Judaism teaches that the Hebrew Torah is a human document reflecting divine inspiration, not the literal word of God. It contains the insights of ancient Israelites, filtered through their time-bound cultural and moral lenses.

• Reconstructionist Judaism (founded by Mordecai Kaplan) views Judaism as an evolving religious civilization, and the Bible as a cultural and ethical artifact, rather than as a supernatural text.

• These separate traditions acknowledge that the biblical authors were shaped by patriarchal, tribal, and pre-modern worldviews, and do not expect consistency or perfection in the text.

🡺 Result: Texts can be respected without being obeyed, and engaged critically without being rejected.

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📜 2. Historical-Critical Scholarship is Embraced

• Modern Jewish thought frequently incorporates tools of textual criticism, archaeology, and Near Eastern comparative studies to understand the Bible as a composite, multi-authored, and redacted work.

• For example, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis openly teach the Documentary Hypothesis (J, E, P, D sources of the Torah), acknowledging contradictions and narrative seams.

• Myths like the Noah flood, Exodus, or Joshua’s conquest are often treated as allegories or national foundation stories, not historical records.

🡺 Result: The Torah is read as a reflection of evolving cultural self-understanding, not factual reportage.

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⚖️ 3. Ethical Revision and Moral Reinterpretation

• Morally troubling texts (e.g., divine violence, genocide, patriarchal laws) are reinterpreted, contextualized, or ignored in modern liturgy and practice.

• Examples:

  • The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22) is seen not as divine approval of child sacrifice but as a critique of such practices.

  • Leviticus laws on slavery or stoning are treated as obsolete—“frozen ethics” from an earlier time.

• Judaism develops through midrash (interpretation) and halakhic evolution (legal development)—allowing communities to override outdated norms in favor of ethical progress.

🡺 Result: The Bible is a starting point, not the final word, for Jewish morality.

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♀️ 4. Feminist, LGBTQ+, and Postmodern Revisions

• Feminist and queer Jewish scholars (e.g., Judith Plaskow, Rachel Adler, and others) re-read the Bible through lenses of gender justice, challenging patriarchal structures and elevating forgotten voices (e.g., via the biblical figures of Dinah, Hagar, Tamar).

• Many non-Orthodox synagogues now perform same-sex marriages, ordain LGBTQ+ rabbis, and reject biblical purity laws as incompatible with dignity and inclusion.

🡺 Result: The text is wrestled with, reimagined, and used to create a more just Judaism.

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🧠 5. God is Reimagined Metaphorically

• Mordecai Kaplan (Reconstructionism) redefined God not as a supernatural being, but as the sum of the processes that make for human salvation—essentially a non-theistic, immanent [cosmic] force for good.

• Others (inspired by thinkers like Martin Buber or Abraham Joshua Heschel) focus on relational, experiential, or ethical images of God, not anthropomorphic or punitive depictions.

• God as a process, a call to justice, or a mystery beyond comprehension becomes more central than the God of battles or a God of wrath.

🡺 Result: Theology evolves with human consciousness.

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🕊️ 6. Liturgical and Ritual Adaptation

• Biblical texts are adapted or excluded in prayer books:

  • Problematic passages (e.g., curses, conquest texts, purity laws) may be omitted from readings or footnoted.

  • New ethical and inclusive liturgies are composed.

• Holy days like Passover (originally tied to God’s destruction of Egypt) are now focused on liberation for all peoples, including the marginalized.

🡺 Result: Practice is responsive to ethics and modern values, not bound to biblical literalism.

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✡️ Summary Table: How Modern Jewish Faiths

Reconcile the Old Testament's Problems

Issue in Tanakh	Modern Jewish Response
Divine violence, genocide	Reinterpreted symbolically or ethically rejected
Patriarchy, sexism	Critiqued through feminist midrash and inclusive theology
Slavery, stoning, purity laws	Treated as obsolete cultural relics
Contradictions and historical errors	Accepted as part of redacted, multi-authoric scripture
Mythological elements	Interpreted metaphorically or allegorically
Wrathful God	Reimagined as relational, immanent, or metaphoric
LGBTQ+ exclusions	Rejected in favor of equality and dignity
Literal reading of miracles/laws	Replaced by symbolic, existential, or ethical interpretations

🧩 In Conclusion:

Modern non-conservative Judaism does not try to defend the Hebrew Bible in the way fundamentalist or conservative religious traditions often do. Instead, it embraces a living, interpretive tradition in which ancient texts are honored for their historical significance, poetic beauty, and existential depth—while also being critiqued, adapted, and transformed to meet the ethical demands of the present.

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective
• Part 3 - The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective
• Part 4 - The Modern-Era Christian Perspective
• Part 5 - The Modern-Era Process Perspective

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal - Part 2

The Bible Beyond Literalism:

Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

Part 2

The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

RES

Let's discuss why the Old Testament Hebrew Bible may be considered primitive, regressive, and unbelievable from an unbelieving, non-Christian perspective.

ChatGPT

From a non-Christian perspective—particularly one that is secular, historical-critical, or informed by modern ethical sensibilities—the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible) may be considered primitive, regressive, and unbelievable for several key reasons:

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1. Primitive Cosmology and Worldview

• Flat Earth and Dome Sky: The Genesis cosmology reflects an ancient Near Eastern view of a flat earth with a firmament separating the waters above and below. This is consistent with Babylonian and Egyptian cosmologies—not scientific reality.

• Creation in Six Days: A literal six-day creation with the sun created on the fourth day strains credibility when viewed through modern astrophysics, biology, and evolutionary science.

• Talking Animals and Magical Events: Serpents talk (Genesis 3), donkeys speak (Numbers 22), and sticks turn into snakes (Exodus 7). From a modern rationalist or scientific lens, these read as folklore or mythology, not history.

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2. Regressive Moral Frameworks

• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing: God's commands to destroy entire populations (e.g., Amalekites, Canaanites) in books like Joshua and 1 Samuel are seen as morally indefensible.

• Patriarchal Systems: Women are treated as property (Exodus 20:17), prizes of war (Numbers 31), or bargaining chips (Judges 19), reflecting the deep patriarchy of ancient tribal societies.

• Slavery and Human Ownership: Slavery is accepted and regulated (Exodus 21, Leviticus 25), rather than condemned, which conflicts with modern human rights ideals.

• Capital Punishment for Minor Offenses: Harsh penalties like stoning for working on the Sabbath or being a rebellious child (Exodus 31:15, Deuteronomy 21:18-21) appear extreme or absurd today.

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3. Mythic, Unbelievable Narratives

• Longevity Claims: Figures like Methuselah living over 900 years (Genesis 5), defies biological reality.

• Global Flood: A literal worldwide flood wiping out all life except Noah’s family and the ark’s animals contradicts geological, archaeological, and historical records.

• Miracles without Evidence: The parting of the Red Sea, plagues of Egypt, manna from heaven, and other miracles lack corroborating physical or historical evidence.

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4. Anthropomorphic and Violent Depictions of God

• Jealous, Vengeful Deity: God is often depicted as jealous (Exodus 34:14), wrathful, and even petty (e.g., killing Uzzah for touching the Ark—2 Samuel 6:6-7).

• Arbitrary Tests of Loyalty: Stories like Abraham being commanded to kill Isaac (Genesis 22) may be seen as morally problematic rather than spiritually profound.

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5. Contradictions and Internal Inconsistencies

• Multiple Creation Accounts: Genesis 1 and 2 present different orders of creation.

• Inconsistent Laws: Laws on sacrifice, cleanliness, and punishment vary between Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.

• Historical Errors: Archaeology does not support some major biblical events (e.g., the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan) as described in the narrative.

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6. Lack of Universality

• Ethnic Exclusivism: Many of the promises and laws focus solely on Israel, portraying other nations as cursed or lesser.

• No Ethical Framework for Outsiders: Ethical considerations often apply only within the community of Israel; outsiders are sometimes treated harshly or dismissed.

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7. Use in Justifying Oppression

• Historical Misuse: Biblical texts have been used to justify slavery, colonialism, the subjugation of women, and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals, casting suspicion on the texts themselves.

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Summary Table

Category	Why Considered Primitive/Regressive
Cosmology	Flat Earth, mythic sky dome
Morality	Genocide, patriarchy, slavery
Miracles & Narratives	Talking animals, long lifespans
Depiction of God	Jealous, violent, petty
Ethical Application	Tribal exclusivism
Historicity	Contradicted by archaeology
Legacy	Justified historical oppression

Closing Note

From a non-Christian standpoint, especially one influenced by Enlightenment rationalism, secular ethics, or postmodern critique, the Old Testament often appears to reflect the fears, prejudices, and limitations of an ancient tribal culture rather than that of divine revelation. However, other exegetes—such as process theologians or historical critics—may still find evolving moral insights and existential themes within the Bible's recital of the layered, human journey.

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ChatGPT

Would you like a follow-up exploring how Process Theology reinterprets these criticisms into a dynamic, evolving view of Scripture?

RES

In a moment. What else may be said along these lines?

ChatGPT

Certainly. Building further on the critique of the Old Testament from a non-Christian perspective, we can expand the analysis into literary, psychological, anthropological, and philosophical dimensions. Each offers a distinctive critique of the Hebrew Bible as primitive, regressive, or unbelievable—not to dismiss its value entirely, but to understand why modern readers outside the faith may view it skeptically.

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1. Literary and Narrative Critique

• Unreliable Narrators: Many biblical narratives are written from the viewpoint of tribal victors (e.g., the Israelites), leading to biased portrayals of others (Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, etc.).

• Lack of Coherent Plot or Genre: The texts interweave legal codes, myths, diverse genealogies, poetries, histories, and prophecies with abrupt shifts, repetition, and contradictions—challenging modern investigations seeking logical structure or authorial consistency.

• Childlike Supernaturalism: Events often resemble fairy tales or folkloric myths (e.g., fiery chariots, talking animals, magical plagues) rather than mature religious reflection.

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2. Psychological and Developmental Critique

• Archaic Conscience: The Old Testament's moral logic often reflects a “might makes right” mentality, or a "punishment-reward" dynamic characteristic of early human developmental stages.

• Projection of Human Traits onto God: God is portrayed with deeply human emotions—anger, jealousy, favoritism—which some critics interpret as primitive psychological projections of ancient tribal leaders rather than of a transcendent deity.

• Fear-Based Religion: Many laws and narratives operate through coercion, fear, and threat of punishment, rather than trust, love, or internal ethical development.

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3. Anthropological Critique

• Totemic and Tribal Religion: Yahweh begins as a national tribal deity—jealous, particular, and localized—akin to other gods in the ancient Near East (Marduk, Baal, etc.). From this perspective, monotheism emerges gradually, not suddenly.

• Sacrifice and Scapegoating: Animal sacrifice, blood rituals, and scapegoat mechanisms (e.g., Leviticus 16) reflect early human attempts to control chaos and divine wrath through symbolic violence—ancient practices anthropologists identify as primitive religious appeasement or control systems.

• Purity Codes: Laws around menstruation, leprosy, mold, and dietary restrictions are more reflective of ancient taboo logic than enduring moral principles.

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4. Philosophical and Ethical Critique

• Lack of Universality and Equality: There is little to no concept of universal human rights, equality before the law, or moral reciprocity toward enemies. Justice is often nationalistic, ethnocentric, or transactional.

• Instrumental Ethics: Right behavior is tied to reward (blessing) and wrong to punishment (curse), rather than grounded in intrinsic dignity, conscience, or principle.

• Anti-Philosophical Ethos: Unlike Greek thought (e.g., Socrates, Plato), the Old Testament seldom wrestles with abstract ethical dilemmas or metaphysical coherence. Wisdom literature is the exception (e.g., Job, Ecclesiastes), but even these often return to submission rather than critical freedom.

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5. Historical and Archaeological Critique

• Lack of External Corroboration: Events like the Exodus of Israel out of Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, or the conquest of Canaan, have yet to be substantiated by archaeological or external written evidence from neighboring empires.

• Retrojected History: Stories of the patriarchs, kings, and battles often appear written or edited centuries after the supposed events, projecting later ideologies onto an imagined past (Deuteronomistic history).

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6. Gender and Sexuality Critique

• Instrumental Role of Women: Women are rarely protagonists or moral agents in their own right; they are often vessels for inheritance, honor, or male shame (e.g., Tamar, Bathsheba, Dinah).

• Sexual Control and Punishment: Female sexuality is tightly controlled, often punished violently, and used as a measure of male honor.

• Homophobia and Othering: Texts like Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 reflect what are now widely considered regressive attitudes toward same-sex relationships, often fueling contemporary discrimination.

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7. Theological Critique (from Outside Faith)

• Moral Monster Argument (e.g., Richard Dawkins): Some critics argue that the God of the Old Testament behaves in ways unworthy of worship—jealous, vindictive, and authoritarian—more akin to a Bronze Age warlord than a loving creator.

• Divine Hiddenness: Despite many miracles in the text, the contemporary world shows no such divine intervention. Critics ask why this divine activity seems to have stopped, suggesting the biblical narrative is myth rather than fact. [cf: Everyday Miracles: How They Work, PART 4 re "Whiteheadian Metaphysics & Acausal Synchronicity"]

• Theodicy and Suffering: The suffering of innocents (Job, infants in Egypt, etc.) with no clear moral resolution challenges the goodness or justice of the Old Testament deity.

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Summary Chart: Additional Layers of Critique

Dimension	Critique
Literary	Fragmented, mythic, biased storytelling
Psychological	Fear-based, projection of human traits onto God
Anthropological	Totemic sacrifice, taboo laws, tribal religion
Philosophical/Ethical	Lacks universality, driven by reward/punishment logic
Historical	Uncorroborated events, mythologized past
Gender/Sexuality	Patriarchal, objectifying, and heteronormative
Theological (External)	Unjust deity, divine absence, unresolved suffering

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective
• Part 3 - The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective
• Part 4 - The Modern-Era Christian Perspective
• Part 5 - The Modern-Era Process Perspective

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal - Part 1

The Bible Beyond Literalism:

Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

Part 1

Introduction

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

I'd like to consider four perspectives when coming to the bible:

• the unbelieving, non-Christian view
• the modern-era Jewish view
• the modern-era Christian view, and
• the modern-era Process view.

Simplistically, I like to frame these perspectives in a deconstructive-reconstructive fashion as respecting the inherited text of Scripture as a living tradition within every era that it has been affected by it.... And by "affected" I mean how different cultures, eras, and societies have appropriated or misappropriated the bible during its generations.

Let's begin with a review of several illustrations. Pay attention to how each illustration says something about the subject of reading, interpreting, and applying the Scriptures:

Now I have entitled these series of posts as “The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal.” However, I could have chosen several other titles such as the following:

• “Scripture in Process”

• “Voices in the Fire: Rethinking the Old Testament”

• “Unfolding Revelation: Four Windows into the Bible's Sacred Text”

• “The Evolving Word: From Hearts of Stone to the Living Word & Spirit”

• “The Living Scroll: Wrestling, Listening, Becoming”

• “Evolving Texts & Evolving Faiths: Comparative Views to the Hebrew Bible”

• “Hermeneutics in Motion: Process Readings of Sacred Texts”

• “Reimagining Revelation: From Ancient Law to Living Love”

• “The Problem of the Old Testament in Modern Thought”

• “Becoming Living Words: A Metamodern Reappraisal of Sacred Texts”

• “A Living Scroll Still in Production: Revelation, Process, and the Voice of the Other”

• “Scripture as Symphony: Dissonance, Dialogue, and the Divine Lure”

• “From Command to Companionship: Rewriting the Text Through Time”

From these many titles one may see that there are just as many approaches to reading, interpreting, and applying the Bible as there shown in the illustrations given at the start of this post.

Biblical Studies, Forms & Traditions

Now, in comparison, here are the classic church's several (traditional) approaches as applied to the Scriptures over the centuries:

• Literal – Plain, historical meaning.

• Allegorical – Hidden spiritual meaning (e.g., Christological).

• Moral (Tropological = Figurative Use) – Ethical instruction for behavior.

• Anagogical – Mystical/future-oriented (heaven, eschatology).

• Typological – OT events as prefiguring NT realities.

• Canonical (Sola Scriptura = "by Scripture Alone") – Interpreting Scripture by Scripture alone as a unified whole.

• Doctrinal (Dogmatics) – Framed by established theology or creeds.

• Mystical – Focused on interior, contemplative meaning.

Or, we could sort out the bible in our reading, interpretation, and application by applying the following major approaches below. But please be aware that these are some, but not all examples. There are many more categories which may be added.

Too, each major category may be intertwined with the another by intermixing various subjects and categories.

Further each major category may utilize one or all the tools within its own space. As example, a carpenter may uses a saw, a screwdriver, a drill, a nail, a ruler, etc, all on the same job. Similarly, so do researches, linguists, phonologists, morphologists, theologians, philosophers,  psychologists, sociologists, and so on.

🕯️ Historical Approach

• Historical-Critical – Analyzes context, sources, authorship, and redaction.

• Grammatical-Historical – Focuses on original language and cultural setting.

• Form Criticism – Studies literary forms (e.g., parables, hymns).

• Source Criticism – Identifies textual sources (e.g., JEDP in the Pentateuch).

• Redaction Criticism – Explores how editors shaped the text.

• Archaeological - Digging up ancient tells (mounds et al) to unearth accumulated debris from earlier civilizations determining significance, history, culture, and development.

🧠 Philosophical & Theological Approach

• Existential – Focuses on personal, inward meaning (e.g., Bultmann).

• Liberationist – Reads through the lens of the oppressed and marginalized.

• Feminist/Womanist – Challenges patriarchal structures in the text and interpretation.

• Queer Hermeneutics – Explores gender/sexuality and inclusion in the text.

• Narrative Theology – Seeks to discover the Divine lure, calling, will, or reasoning within the Bible by examining it's narratives / stories rather than by Western civilization's religious urge to rather create formularic propositions or statements seeking the same.

• Canonical Criticism / Deconstruction / Reconstruction / Harmony – Focuses on the final form of the canon as meaningful.

• Theological Interpretation of Scripture with Ecclesiastical Tradition) – Integrates Scripture with ecclesial tradition, doctrine, worship, and lifestyle preferences.

🌿 Contemporary & Constructive Approach

• Postcolonial – Interrogates imperial, colonial, and nationalist readings.

• Ecological (Eco-theology) – Reads the Bible in relation to creation and sustainability.

• Intertextual – Explores how texts echo or dialogue with each other.

• Reception History – Studies how texts have been understood over time.

• Process Hermeneutics – Views Scripture as dynamic, relational, and co-evolving with human consciousness.

Conclusion

As you can see, simply declaring that "We, and our group of bible seekers, know God's Will and what God wants for humankind" becomes problematic for many other individuals and groups. Why? Because as has been shown, we each think of God and the Bible quite differently from one another.

This becomes further complicated when a majority of like-minded Christians get together to overtake a society of blended races, cultures, religions, and perspectives to declare they alone know what God wants based upon the bible - as they have interpreted it for themselves - meaning, how they alone prefer to think about God and God's Will here on this earth.

Such statements are very situational and can create a plethora of individual, familial, local, and societal problems within communities. More alarming, such as with the case of Maga-Christians, when the Church-and-State Imperially align with one another, you can most always find outcomes of bias and discrimination, caustic fears and lies, distorted folkloric beliefs, deep hatred, cruelty, oppression, and even death.

Let me say this in another way when imploring Christians to be less rigorous in their dogmatic beliefs and more open-minded about an infinitely complex and loving God which/who may not be the kind of God one might think of God as being:

"Christianity operates best when it is open, questioning, and inviting exploration. It is at its worse when insular, incoherent, and resistant to inquiry.

When Christians shut their ears, turn off their minds, and fight for supremacy then the Christian faith is weakened by it's defensive apologetical attitudes.

But when Christians seek better explanations than popular sentiment can provide, then we will find a more vibrant faith more willing to expose itself in order that it may evolve to a society's needs.

In sum, the Christian faith is paradoxically healthier when led out by uncertainty and doubt."

- re slater

In Part 2, I'll cover the modern-era non-Christian perspectives; in Part 3, the modern-era Jewish perspective; in Part 4, the modern-era Christian perspective; and, lastly, in Part 5, the modern-era Process perspective. I will try to be brief throughout each posting thereby allowing the reader to form further opinions as respecting their own given situtation(s).

🌿Peace,

R.E. Slater

June 1, 2025

The Bible Beyond Literalism: Critique, Tradition, and Renewal

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - The Modern-Era Non-Christian Perspective
• Part 3 - The Modern-Era Jewish Perspective
• Part 4 - The Modern-Era Christian Perspective
• Part 5 - The Modern-Era Process Perspective