The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Preaching as art > Comments

Preaching as art : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 14/12/2005

Peter Sellick examines the art of preaching and the preaching of art

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All
John,
May I suggest that your understanding of the way language works owes much to scientific fundamentalism in which facts are facts and there exists a consensus on what words mean within a very limited field? If everything is judged according to very simple rules of meaning we would never have poetry or literature, let alone theology. The statement that God made the universe is never made in the bible. What we have instead are a collection of legends and the initiation of a history. These cannot be reduced to the materialist concern about who made the world, for this was not the author’s intention. Rather, their intention was to provide an understanding of the ways things were from a human perspective. It was important to indicate that animals were distinct from men and that God was not part of the material world. Likewise it was important to understand the world as natural in opposition to the Babylonian myths of creation in which the world was composed of the God’s body parts. There are all sorts of understandings in the creation narratives that we take for granted. So to reduce them to statements about the origin of the universe is entirely mistaken. May I make a suggestion, read a good commentary on Genesis 1-11 (Westerman is good but a bit long) and you will find a whole world rich in insight.
Posted by Sells, Tuesday, 20 December 2005 11:50:00 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
John,
Some more thoughts. I detect a familiar agenda in your questions. It is indeed infuriating for a Christian writer not to fit into the well worn stereo-typical fundamentalist. I find it interesting that out of an article with so much to say about many things you latch on to one sentence about creation. In the face of sophisticated theological reflection the only thing you can do is to try to bring the argument around to something that you are sure of: Christians believe a lot of nonsense that can easily be shown for what it is. That may be a safe place for you to stand but it does not get us into a real discussion. Sure there are many Christians out there who believe lots of guff and they are fair game but I am not one of them. I maintain that they do not represent the centre of the tradition even though they out number me. I also maintain that Christian theology is a rational pursuit that has and still does, occupy some of the finest minds. The great pity of this is that theology has been so alienated from our educational systems by those bent on shoring up secular power that it is hard going to get a decent discussion going.
Posted by Sells, Wednesday, 21 December 2005 11:27:38 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I am off until after christmas. Be in touch in the New Year. I am surprised that noone has joined in.
Posted by John Warren, Wednesday, 21 December 2005 9:07:16 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Peter, I am puzzled. You say that “ the statement that God made the universe is never made in the bible”. Yet the very first sentence in the King James version of Genesis says that “In the beginning God created heaven and earth”. I have no doubt that the vast majority of people who attend a christian church on Sunday take those words to mean that God created the whole universe and everything in it. No doubt the original compilers of the bible also regarded heaven and earth as comprising the total universe.

To deny that God did not create the whole universe implies that He exists in only part of it. That would reduce Him to only one of the tribal, or familial, gods of more primitive times. Gods like Zeus who lived in close proximity to humans; just up the road on a mountain.

There is no doubt more to be said.
Posted by John Warren, Saturday, 31 December 2005 9:58:52 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy