“Irreconcilable” Views, Reconciling in Christ

September 16, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

I see by my log of Categories that I have not ventured into the waters of Fundamentalism very much – barely gotten my toes wet. There are several reasons: (1) respect, since Christian fundamentalists are still Christian; (2) lack of expertise, since I am not a fundamentalist, having mostly outgrown that point of view more than 35 years ago; (3) reluctance to be shot at. I have a lot to live for. In addition to the Rev. Fred P. from Topeka, there are a lot of fundamentalist hot heads out there, including Lutheran ones. How many have weapons I cannot say. They certainly use the Bible as if it can be fired at point blank range at anybody that tries to differ with their righteous point of view.

In yesterday’s New York Times, an article by Peter Steinfels “Irreconcilable Differences in Bible’s Interpretations” reviews a brand new book from celebrated writer and lecturer James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Now and Then. Fundamentalists don’t need to go there. This book is almost as big as the Bible (800 pages), and besides they are famous for saying that they don’t interpret the Bible, they just read it like it is.

According to Steinfels, Kugel’s thesis is that two groups of scholars down through time have taken two entirely different approaches to interpreting the Good Book, and their approaches are largely irreconcilable. Alas, I don’t think he treats the New Testament, but the tools he applies, the schools of thought he recognizes and analyzes, and the conclusions he draws, may apply to a large measure to both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

The two approaches, ancient piety vs. modern scholarship, or any other measure, reveals to us that our underlying assumptions —the baggage we bring with us when we attempt to follow the teachings of the Bible — vastly alter our perceptions of what is written there. Traditional Christians, who reverence the Bible so highly as to claim authority for it which the Good Book does not claim for itself, have drawn a line in the sand over two key concepts:

• The inerrancy of the Bible (that it is so completely reliable in every detail that it contains absolutely no errors or contradictions, not even in matters of geography, science or mathematics).
• The verbal inspiration of the Bible (that it was precisely dictated by the Holy Spirit of God into the ears of its human writers, even down to the last syllable).

There is no “wiggle room” with this much reverence paid to the text of the Scriptures. And as a result, it has been polished and primed as a weapon of choice for those who would condemn most of humanity for its transgressions against God according to (their interpretation of) the Bible.  At least that is my humble opinion, and I give a nod to St. Paul here:

Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. — 2 Cor. 3:5-6

I have published on my theological site, for example, “Inerrancy”and “Verbal Inspiration”: The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Views on the Bible. In part, the 20^th century fundamentalist leanings of the LC-MS—which cast its views in concrete in 1935 and 1973—discard some careful distinctions about the interpretation of the Bible voiced by Martin Luther. Part of my article attempts to apply these distinctions again in a reconciling context – that is, in a church which is attempting to reach out to sexual minorities (lesbian/gay, bisexual and transgender persons) with the Gospel. One of my closing comments there is this:

It is ironic, if not tragic, that such a strong and unwavering view about the Bible itself, which claims to reconcile all possible discrepancies, errors or contradictions in the Bible, in fact leads to a position that cannot reconcile with other Christians. A doctrine of the Bible which is so calculated to alienate other Christians, who cling to Jesus Christ by faith not infallible intellect, cannot be true doctrine.

In my view, irreconcilable differences cannot be reconciled by authority or weapons, logic or reason, tradition or scholarship. We are to be reconciled in Christ, and that means that we have an imperative to bring our differentness to Christ with the faithful resolve to reconcile with one another before bringing our gift to the Altar of God. It takes listening, patience, compassion, caring, slack, and humility.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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