[Magdalen] A useful approach to the Bible

[Grace Cangialosi]

Jim, I think this is one of the best, most concise argument against the inerrancy of scripture that I've seen.
A real keeper, in my book.

> On Aug 26, 2015, at 11:13 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ​Looking at him from the perspective of today, I find Hooker's opinion
> unconvincing. For that day, it's not at all surprising.  I think that
> today, knowing what we know about scripture, it has lost some of the pride
> of place it had back in the day. They had just begun to rediscover Greek
> and Hebrew in the West, and they still did not have the King James Bible.
> In Hooker's day, most scholars believed scripture was all handed down
> somehow from God.
> Today scholarship demonstrates that scripture is a human production,
> through and through. We know today far better than Hooker ever could have
> what the actual content and meaning of scripture is.
> 
> Holding that scripture is somehow entitled to some mystical authority seems
> incredible when it contains material that shows it to be -- in those
> locations -- the words of humans and certainly not at all the sense of the
> Eternal one.
> 
> And I really think we are here looking at matters that are far more
> compelling than merely things where you have one opinion and I simply have
> another.
> 
> No, when scripture says it is appropriate to smash children's heads on the
> rocks, that refutes utterly any claim to divine inspiration. And that is
> merely one of dozens of such howlers.
> This is not a discussion where it is just a matter of opinion. We are
> talking numerous texts which, were they not hiding within the protection of
> the scriptural canon, would surely be universally be called inappropriate,
> if not despicable and horrendous claims and actions.
> 
> In his introduction to his book, _Who Wrote the Bible?_, Richard Elliot
> Friedman gives names and dates in a history of the development of the
> modern view towards scripture (pp. 15-32). One thing which becomes clear is
> that at the time of Hooker, virtually everyone assumed the Bible was simply
> god-given. It would be centuries after Hooker before Biblical scholarship
> came to the conclusion that many hands produced the text that has come down
> to us, and any illusion of inerrancy has been dashed. Hooker knew nothing
> of what was learned in the centuries following him, just as the King James
> Version is unable to benefit from the knowledge of language and history
> unearthed since the companies ceased their work in 1611.
> 
> 
> ​
> 
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
> 
> On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 11:54 AM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> Once again, this author says it's "hard to find what's most important
>> [scripture, tradition, or reason]," when Hooker was abundantly clear that
>> scripture comes first and foremost, interpreted through the traditions of
>> the church and human, scholarly, (not fly-by-night opinion, making
>> scripture say what we want it to say or dismissing it completely) reason.
>> I'm not sure how this attitude got perpetuated -- perhaps it's the image of
>> the "3-legged stool," which must have legs of the same length -- but this
>> is incorrect.  When the writer gets his premises wrong, it's hard for me to
>> credit anything about the article.
>> 
>> Ann
>> 
>> The Rev. Ann Markle
>> Buffalo, NY
>> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu
>> blog:  www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
>> 
>> On Sun, Aug 23, 2015 at 8:34 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
>> oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Found an article that resonated with me, and thought it deserved a bit
>>> wider distribution. I apologize for the tinyurl, but the actual url for
>> the
>>> site takes up a lot of space. Patheos has thought-provoking articles. But
>>> the way they link it all together yields huge-inormous URLs.
>>> 
>>> http://tinyurl.com/ne7fdy8
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
>>> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
>>> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>>