The Bible:
The Heart of the Tradition
For the sake of argument, let us agree that the following three statements are each true:
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While Christianity is centered in God and in Jesus Christ, Christians believe that it is in the Bible that God is revealed to us, and thus the Bible is our sacred story/scripture.
- While God is also known in other ways and in other traditions, to be a Christian is to be centered in the God of the Bible.
- Being centered in the Bible is not a mark of Christian exclusion but of Christian identity.
And for the sake of argument, can we also agree that the following two statements are true:
- "In the last half century, more Christians have left the church because of the Bible than for any other single reason" (Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity).
- Contemporary biblical literalism, with its emphasis on biblical infallibility, historical factuality, and moral and doctrinal absolutes, is an obstacle to millions of people.
How then can we take the Bible seriously, if not literally, that it becomes alive, readable, and at the heart of our tradition? I hope you will join me tomorrow night for Tuesdays Together (repeated Wednesday at 10 AM and available on the Website) to hear more. |
