Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Big Readers - Nothing to Read. Why UUs Should Pick-up the Bible Again

Culturally, UUs tend to be big readers. Most of us have gone to college - many of us teach at colleges and universities. We are a highly educated bunch. We love books. So logically - you would think that we would be big on exploring faith through reading, discussing and debating sacred text. Yet, this is hardly ever what we do in congregational worship and small group. For starters, we probably could not agree on what sacred text to explore - and since going deep into religious scholarship requires more time and attention than can be given to all the sacred texts of the world in equal share - we have settled into not engaging text as a community at all.

Let's consider going back to the Bible - as progressive people of faith. I have excitedly begun the spiritual practices of regular prayer and Bible study with our Universalist worship group, One Love, that I launched at church. Currently, we are planning a structured 8-week Bible study series using Marcus Borg's liberal scripture guide Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally to help us make sense of this varied collection of books, poems, letters and histories that were chosen and later bound together in what we call "the Bible."

Originally, we decided to focus on prayer and Bible study as a group when it became clear that to really go deep into Universalism - we were going to have to start exploring the text upon which the theology is based. It also does not hurt for us to remember that over 50% of the world's population is studying parts of the very same text. It's hard to be more universal and inclusive than that!

Bible study has been a joy for me as a person of faith with an unabashed intellectual side. There is an endless amount of wisdom to be drawn from the Bible. Going about uncovering that wisdom with both heart and head as a group has been a profound experience. I am so excited to dive deeper into this timeless pool of humanity's experience and expression of God.

In terms of culture and politics, it saddens me that we are happier to leave the Bible teaching to the conservative right - ignoring our heritage and denying the world our unique Unitarian and Universalist interpretations. We will have more relevancy as a liberal community of faith if we start joining the religious conversation. That conversation is largely based on the interpretation and misinterpretation of scripture.

So I ask you now to pick-up the Bible again - as a humble student - as a devoted person of faith - as a textual anthropologist - as a Unitarian Universalist. You will be amazed at how quickly your faith will deepen - and how much more you will have to share with others.


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9 comments:

  1. I agree UUs should read the scriptures. I think the wisdom literature is particularly worth our time and effort. "Job," for instance, is something I revisit. I commend Stephen Mitchell's lovely, lovely commentary contained in the book of the same name.

    And, I don't think it need be the touchstone of our spiritual lives.

    Right off the top I'd point people to reading and living with the "Tao Te Ching" and or the "Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor" as books with a considerably smaller noise to information ratio. Going on I think a selection of Dogen Eihei's writings such as "Moon in a Dewdrop" could be very useful for the serious spiritual inquirer.

    I may not be as humble as I wish I were, but I, too, make a fervent plea for the serious inquirer of the way of the heart to consider such things...

    ReplyDelete

  2. Bravo!

    Welcome to the battle to have UUs be religiously relevant and knowledge-able about their foundation.

    Be prepared for heartache...be prepared for frustration...be prepared for disappointment.

    Welcome again.

    ReplyDelete

  3. I am well versed (no pun intended) with the Bible, in its various forms. I'm curious to know how you as a religious liberal, react to or understand or interpret the violent, misogynistic, and just generally evil parts of the overall œuvre (I just wanted an excuse to use that word). I find it especially interesting to see the different understandings of OT passages by Christians, Jews and Muslims. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete

  4. Thanks for commenting NDM! Before we began our first Bible study, we all read this article by Brian McLaren called "A New Kind of Bible Reading." You can read it here:

    http://www.brianmclaren.net/A%20New%20Kind%20of%20Bible%20Reading.pdf

    We do not consider the Bible to be perfect or written by God. We understand that the Bible was written by people, within an historical context, who were experiencing God. What we try to do especially, but not exclusively, as Universalists is what Brian McLaren calls a "Christ-centered" reading - rather than a flat constitutional reading that is popular in conservative circles.

    ReplyDelete

  5. I don't know how well UUs would take to it, but as someone both committed to treating the Bible with respect as a foundation text (and spiritual sourcebook) and deeply ambivalent about Christianity, I found Joanne and Larry Spears's "Friendly Bible Study" method really good. They have a process for small groups focused on five questions:

    1. What is the author's main point in this passage? (MAIN POINT)
    2. Is this passage true to my experience? (TRUTH)
    3. What problems do I have with this passage? (PROBLEMS)
    4. What new light do I find in this particular reading of this passage of the text? (NEW LIGHT)
    5. What are the implications of this passage for my life? (IMPLICATIONS)

    You can see the whole process described at http://www.read-the-bible.org/FriendlyBibleStudy.htm

    ReplyDelete

  6. Anna wrote:
    -snip-
    "Originally, we decided to focus on prayer and Bible study as a group when it became clear that to really go deep into Universalism - we were going to have to start exploring the text upon which the theology is based. It also does not hurt for us to remember that over 50% of the world's population is studying parts of the very same text. It's hard to be more universal and inclusive than that!"

    Anna -- in terms of world religion demographics, only 32-33% of the world population is Christian (your link had both percentages in it). Judaism has less that 1% of the world population.

    Given that many traditional Muslims view the Jewish and Christian scriptures as a corrupted revelation, the prevailing Islamic view is for Muslims to get their guidance from the Quran only. So it's pretty unlikely that this 22% portion of the world population is studying the Bible.

    And the rest of the world religions are not Abrahamic religions -- the Bible is probably not studied by folks who are not Christian or Jewish.

    So ... I doubtful that over 50% of the world population is studying portions of the Bible.

    ReplyDelete

  7. Anna wrote:
    -snip-
    "Originally, we decided to focus on prayer and Bible study as a group when it became clear that to really go deep into Universalism - we were going to have to start exploring the text upon which the theology is based. It also does not hurt for us to remember that over 50% of the world's population is studying parts of the very same text. It's hard to be more universal and inclusive than that!"

    Anna -- in terms of world religion demographics, only 32-33% of the world population is Christian (your link had both percentages in it). Judaism has less that 1% of the world population.

    Given that many traditional Muslims view the Jewish and Christian scriptures as a corrupted revelation, the prevailing Islamic view is for Muslims to get their guidance from the Quran only. So it's pretty unlikely that this 22% portion of the world population is studying the Bible.

    And the rest of the world religions are not Abrahamic religions -- the Bible is probably not studied by folks who are not Christian or Jewish.

    So ... I doubtful that over 50% of the world population is studying portions of the Bible.

    ReplyDelete

  8. I don't know how well UUs would take to it, but as someone both committed to treating the Bible with respect as a foundation text (and spiritual sourcebook) and deeply ambivalent about Christianity, I found Joanne and Larry Spears's "Friendly Bible Study" method really good. They have a process for small groups focused on five questions:

    1. What is the author's main point in this passage? (MAIN POINT)
    2. Is this passage true to my experience? (TRUTH)
    3. What problems do I have with this passage? (PROBLEMS)
    4. What new light do I find in this particular reading of this passage of the text? (NEW LIGHT)
    5. What are the implications of this passage for my life? (IMPLICATIONS)

    You can see the whole process described at http://www.read-the-bible.org/FriendlyBibleStudy.htm

    ReplyDelete

  9. I agree UUs should read the scriptures. I think the wisdom literature is particularly worth our time and effort. "Job," for instance, is something I revisit. I commend Stephen Mitchell's lovely, lovely commentary contained in the book of the same name.

    And, I don't think it need be the touchstone of our spiritual lives.

    Right off the top I'd point people to reading and living with the "Tao Te Ching" and or the "Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor" as books with a considerably smaller noise to information ratio. Going on I think a selection of Dogen Eihei's writings such as "Moon in a Dewdrop" could be very useful for the serious spiritual inquirer.

    I may not be as humble as I wish I were, but I, too, make a fervent plea for the serious inquirer of the way of the heart to consider such things...

    ReplyDelete

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