Osler's Razor

 I often find myself confronted with people who want to use the Bible as a tool to promote a harsh, retributive view of the world: one which allows Christians. to focus on condemning others, on protecting their own "liberty" rather than serving others, and to defend their politics.

These Christians are so different than me; they seem to read the same book to come to opposite conclusions. How can that be?

I think the answer is that we read this one book in two very different ways. I read it as a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end (which we are living out). It also has a protagonist, Jesus, and remarkable and beautiful story arcs that carry throughout the entire book. There are directive, normative lessons in that story (including the direct teachings of Jesus) that apply very much to our modern lives. One part must be read in the context of the others. Chapter two does not make sense when read on its own, and reading one paragraph of chapter two alone tells you almost nothing.

Some people, though, read it as a quote book-- you can just lift out any passage at random and then hold it up to modern life, without context or a relationship to the story as a whole. Reading it that way, you can defend almost anything. 

Not helping are people who describe the Bible as an "instruction book." Especially when we tell kids this, raising the expectation that if you just look on p. 12, you will see how Tab F is supposed to fit into Slot B. (Actually, looking for the answer to that would probably lead kids to Song of Solomon, which would change the adult's tune about the importance of context!).

# posted by Mark Osler @ 1:00 AM