'Our understanding of Scripture must always be open to refinement. All interpretations of Scripture need to be tentatively final. They have to be final in the sense that obedience cannot wait for the disciple to read yet one more technical article in biblical studies. At the same time, all efforts in biblical interpretation are flawed. Our interpretation of Scripture, therefore, must never be closed to correction and revision.'
Ken Bailey -'Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.'
The Sociology of Knowledge encourages us to look at the influences that have shaped our thinking, and how those influences are then transfered on to our interpretation and understanding of the Bible. Ken Bailey goes on to quote Lesslie Newbigin's insights about the "plausibility structures" through which we see the world, so to quote again from Bailey's book: "What he, (Lesslie Newbegin), means is that each of us perceives reality through the lenses of our language,culture,history,politics,economic theories, religion and military."
We often talk about the 'clear,objective meaning of a passage', but our problem as interpreters is that we are often very subjective in our exegesis, unaware of the subtle influences that our own personal contexts have brought to our interpretation. A young man growing up in a culture where women are dishonoured, patronized, and considered second best, could easily read into 1 Timothy 2 v 12 a convenient censorship on women taking a full and active role in the teaching faculty of the church. A theology of restraint on womens' ministry is then constructed, which is more the product of a skewed cultural lens rather than a commitment to Biblical integrity.
The illustration of attitudes to women is a helpful one. Jesus came into a Jewish culture that had the most appalling attitude to women. Jewish men of Jesus'day would be known to thank God that they had not been born a woman. Rabbinic schools were male only territory, with many embracing the often quoted motto 'that the scriptures would be better burnt than be handled by a woman.' Into this type of hostility, Jesus openly affirms women, even allowing them to support his ministry financially ( Luke 8 v 1-3). It would have been unheard of for a rabbi to openly receive this kind of support from women.
He had no problem with Mary sitting at his feet, opening up a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well, or instructing a woman to go as the first witness of His resurrection and to inform the rest of the disciples. My point is that whatever our present conclusions might be on womens' ministry, the lens through which we interpret the scriptures needs to have Christ at the centre, and not any social or cultural stereotypes. This is true of everything we interpret in the Scriptures.
A person may have grown up with an alcoholic parent whose alcoholism led to significant hardship in the family. Understandably, we might construct a temperance theology, but one that has more to do with our negative experiences than on on what the Bible actually has to say about the drinking of wine. Drinking to get drunk is clearly out of bounds, but the drinking of wine in itself is not.
All of us have blind spots, where personal history has shaped our world view. What we might think is 'the clear objective teaching of the Bible', may actually be more a case of me reading into the Bible what I want it to say in order to legitimize my own personal preferences. A person born with a silver spoon in their mouth , growing up in an environment where they had everything they wanted on a plate, could easily misunderstand the nature of Christ like servanthood. Serving others in the spirit of Mark 10 v 45 is a lot more costly than giving people the time and resources from your life that you will not miss.
The Western Church has been significantly shaped by Aggressive Capitalism. We can all quote the well known verse that 'a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions', but how many of us live as if the opposite were true? Why is it that a corrupt version of the 'Health and Wealth Gospel' can thrive in the Western Church, but would be laughed out of court in the North Korean or Chinese Church?
I found this quote from Graham Johnson's book 'Preaching to a Post Modern World' more than struck a chord. He writes:
"The Book of Job shows how God will not be pressed into an apology or explanation. Yet how often have Christians confused the living God with a vending machine? Are we looking to put in the coin and get the answer? When the machine fails, we kick it and demand 'Why?' "
In the West we can so easily reduce our Christian faith to the vending machine illustration. When things go wrong, particularly in relation to life's comforts, we can be tempted to throw a tantrum. We read into the Bible that we are,as Christians,able to be immune from life's unpleasantries.
A friend of mine observed that the persected church will pray courage prayers to see them through life's hardships, whilst in the West we will generally pray comfort prayers to get us out of life's hardships. Both types of prayer are fine- it's just that in our culture the comfort prayer rather than the courage prayer are more the norm.
In one of the chapters of 'The Act of Bible Reading', edited by Elmer Dyke,the contributor Craig Gay,encourages us to have 'a little healthy suspicion toward all of those who are so anxious to tell us how we ought to read and understand Scripture.' The church pastor who is always talking about tithing, and whose salary depends upon the generosity of the church he pastors is an obvious example. Who is empowering who when the salaried pastor constantly reminds his church of the blessing that will come to them when they give their tithes to the local church?
What is not so obvious are the subtle pressures that can be used to legitimise everything that the nation of Israel does and stands for in the Middle East. This will be the subject of a seperate blog, but suffice to say that the whole subject needs serious and objective rethinking. Who is empowering who when we are told that God will remove His blessing on the nation or person that doesn't pray for Israel? Where is that kind of fearful persuasion found in any chapter of the New Testament?
I will leave the final word with Eugene Peterson. In his foreword to 'The Act of Bible Reading', he comments that 'Historically Christians have been concerned about how we read the Bible as that we read it'. He goes on to say 'that those who don't know the world of the Bible are likewise dangerous to themselves and others.'
The world of the Bible is a far cry from the Western Culture that I live in. I couldn't determine the times and seasons for my birth and upbringing, but I can attempt to increasingly approach the Scriptures like a child, aware that I am so dependant upon the Holy Spirit, and the cumulative wisdom of others to find the life of Jesus within them.
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