Old Testament
Perspectivalism
08/27/08 11:20 Categories: Theology
We need to read the Scriptures in a way that answers the questions that those Scriptures raise. For example, the purpose of Genesis 1, in terms of the questions that it is seeking to answer, has very little (nothing?) to do with the questions that we bring to the text, i.e., the modern scientific conflict of creation opposed to evolution. This text is premodern, and without any understanding of the scientific method, and so how can we import our scientific needs onto a text that has no understanding of that. I suppose the justification roots on Scripture being God’s Word, but that fully usurps the human level of Scripture. So, even if Gen 1 does correspond with the order of sciences’ understanding of creation (light made first, planets next, etc.) - though this is a tenuous correspondence with a necessary ad hoc component - we cannot and should not understand that the author if intended this seeming coincidence. I have only used Genesis 1 as an example of something that we do throughout Scripture.
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What do we really know?
08/06/08 18:02 Categories: Theology | Philosophy
In the Old Testament, there is only one God. Yahweh. The evidence is not monolithic, and some point to different hintings at the Trinity, but truly any good Jew knows that the Lord is one. However, in the New Testament, we learn a deeper truth - a deeper revelation of reality. God is one, but in a very mysterious way - the trinity. He is one and three at the same time. Is this the final revelation? Certainly not.
In the Old Testament, the Messiah seems to imply someone who is going to come from the line of David and establish the kingdom of Israel again (like David). When Jesus shows up, those are not his intentions at all (at least in the sense of creating an earthly Kingdom). The Jews are not able to recognize him as the Messiah for that very reason!
My point is this: what do we know? What of our understanding of God is a bit off (or significantly off in the case of political power!)? What if our traditional understanding of salvation is not quite right? What if the traditional understanding of God as a warrior or as a peacemaker is not quite right.
If the New Testament is a partial corrective to the Hebrew Scriptures (and Jesus very much see himself as a corrective, i.e., when it comes to the understanding of Sabbath), then how much can we trust the Bible? Moreover, Paul’s own philosophical and theological musings - how are they more accurate than Calvin or Barth? I do not mean that in an arrogant sense, but were not Calvin and Barth followers of Christ seeking God’s purpose/will? Couldn’t Paul be slightly mistaken in his understanding of eschatology, soteriology or salvation?
In the Old Testament, the Messiah seems to imply someone who is going to come from the line of David and establish the kingdom of Israel again (like David). When Jesus shows up, those are not his intentions at all (at least in the sense of creating an earthly Kingdom). The Jews are not able to recognize him as the Messiah for that very reason!
My point is this: what do we know? What of our understanding of God is a bit off (or significantly off in the case of political power!)? What if our traditional understanding of salvation is not quite right? What if the traditional understanding of God as a warrior or as a peacemaker is not quite right.
If the New Testament is a partial corrective to the Hebrew Scriptures (and Jesus very much see himself as a corrective, i.e., when it comes to the understanding of Sabbath), then how much can we trust the Bible? Moreover, Paul’s own philosophical and theological musings - how are they more accurate than Calvin or Barth? I do not mean that in an arrogant sense, but were not Calvin and Barth followers of Christ seeking God’s purpose/will? Couldn’t Paul be slightly mistaken in his understanding of eschatology, soteriology or salvation?