Sunday, December 7, 2008
a postmodern's understanding of scripture
In my "Adult Bible Class" today at church we discussed the differences between modernism and postmodernism as they relate to Christianity. I freely admit (perhaps too proudly) that I'm a postmodern (at least, I'm more post-modern than modern). Experiences weigh very highly in my determination of truth. In the same class the issue of eternal security came up, and what I have seen by experience was in contradiction to what was being taught from scripture. My first instinct was "He must be interpreting scripture incorrectly." It was an easy thought, since I know that there are those who have studied the scripture for 60+ years, building upon two millenia of Christian thought, who stand on all sides of the issue. But something clicked within me. I connected the previous conversation about postmodernity with my reaction. What if instead of the scripture being interpreted improperly, I had interpreted my experience improperly. What if my veiw was too narrow, or my memory too selective? It was a reminder that I am not to interpret scripture in light of my experiences, but interpret my experiences in light of scripture.
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1 comment:
I am very proud of you.
In a recent class we were studying postmodernism in literature and one interesting situation that arises is how you can actually know something or someone. It seems to require both an insider and outsider perspective, as either one on its own is missing part of the picture. Unfortunately it is rarely possible to truly grasp both of these.
(this was a random, possibly relating thought. I think it was better the first time but google barfed and I lost it, so I tried to reconstruct it and it came out differently)
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