I was struck today by something that Prof. Smith said today when we were discussing Saint Augustine's view of the Bible, and it wasn't anything that we hadn't spoken of before, it just hadn't really hit me before.
"The Bible only talks about Love."
If you take Augustine's view, any passage that seems violent or sinful needs to be interpreted in a different way according to Love because these passages do not connect with the idea of loving God or your neighbour/yourself.
But isn't that a lovely thing?
Amongst all of the execution, adulterous behaviour, and graphic descriptions, there is only Love.
I think one thing that I found so great about this is that as someone with practically no experience with the Bible until this year, I was struggling when reading the Psalms with all of their violent images, and then reading the Hebrew Bible and seeing all the ways in which people were judged and punished (and how easily, too). I couldn't help but feel a certain amount of dislike for this God that they were describing, or at least the way they were portraying him (I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, though). After Prof. Smith's comment today, though, my view was completely flipped.
I think that far too often when studying religion, we try to approach it from a distance with kid gloves because we don't want to try and read too much into it, or lay our own opinions upon it and risk offending someone; obviously we're not studying religion so that we can build up even more prejudices within ourselves and the world (or, at least, I should hope not). But in the process of this, which is all very well and good, I think that we forget that religion is meant to be interpreted in a personal way. I know that I almost lost sight completely of the fact that people find true inspiration and spirituality from the religions of the Bible, and that's not at all a good mindset to have when studying any religion or religious text.
I think it's wonderful that Prof. Smith (with help from Augustine, of course) was able to inject that Love and personal touch into the course, especially when talking about the Bible which can be such a touchy subject.
In my opinion, the importance and power of Love can never be overstated, wherever you find it.
I really appreciate your viewpoint and I too think it is important to remember the personal aspect of religion. While we focus on patterns seen in religions and how religions work and how they are formed in class, it is a good idea to keep in mind that there is a personal aspect to it, that people find spiritual meaning in these religions. While it might not be within the scope of this class to look at all religions on a personal level, it's nice to step back every once in a while and see the individual aspect of it.
ReplyDeleteOliver, I agree about how much nicer the bible seems when we use Augustine's lens of "love" to look at it. I've always struggled with a lot of the violent and disturbing concepts in the bible and have found them to be a lot easier to digest when looking at them as some metaphor for love. Although personal aspect is important and differs from person to person, I personally agree about preferring to use Augustine's idea of love to look at the bible.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the bible is full of violence and disturbing concepts, I do think violence and the theme of judgment is a very integral part of the Bible. I believe that it is what shapes our morals and ethics, people need to see the difference between good and evil, similar to Taoism. Both good and evil compliment each other, so you really cannot have one without the other.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point. It is all about the frame with which we read the Bible. Something similar can be said about the Quran and other scriptures..
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