May 21, 2019
I am thrilled to have two wonderful scholars and friends,
David Bokovoy and Margaret
Toscano, join me this week for a discussion about
scripture. So often while we are undergoing a shift of faith, tools
and notions that were once extremely helpful and exciting can
become stale to us, or even become a target of our scorn. Our new
questions run up against old ways of seeing things such as
scripture, and our old views don’t fare well under vigorous
inquiry. This failure leads to several options, the most common two
being abandonment of the thing and dismissing it altogether, or
seeing if the assumptions we’ve previously held (most likely gained
unconsciously) might be lacking. It is in service of this second
option, and regarding scripture, that I convened this panel. What
must we “unlearn” about scripture that might make way for it to
become alive for us and possibly worthy of our engagement again?
What assumptions do we hold at this day and time (and our
particular location--geographically or within our religious
tradition) that obscure for us the meanings the texts had for those
when they were written, or that keep us from engaging scripture at
levels much deeper than literal, historical, and moral instruction?
How can study of sacred texts viewed through different lenses often
lead us to greater appreciation of many of the authors’ brilliance,
and serve as a catalyst for our own illumination and deeper
experiences with the Divine? Margaret and
David are wonderful guides for these kinds of
inquiry and the potential benefits for us that come when we rethink
scripture. Please listen in to our discussion and help continue it
by reacting and sharing in the comments section!
Links:
David Bokovoy,
Authoring the Old Testament: Genesis - Deuteronomy
(Kofford Books, 2014)
Richard Rohr, What
Do We Do With the Bible? (Center for Action and
Contemplation, 2019)