3 ms·

> He proceeded to talk forgiveness and leaned heavily into Christian teachings Fortunately for both neither will be expected to follow those teachings in any w

> He proceeded to talk forgiveness and leaned heavily into Christian teachings Fortunately for both neither will be expected to follow those teachings in any way.

vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
I often wonder what these teachings are. It seems they can be interpreted from pacifism to militarism or anti-gay to pro-gay. Seems they are mostly used to justify whatever the person wants to do anyways. When I was a kind, I read almost the whole bible (revelation got a little too crazy) and I could never really figure out what it's trying to tell.
- kjellsbells 1y ago
  If you think of the Bible as a library rather than a book the coherence (or lack of) becomes more evident. And remember that what books made it into that library ('Scripture') was hotly debated. Bart Ehrman is a good read on this and I always enjoyed Henry Chadwick on the early church to see how fungible the whole thing was for so long. I imagine Chadwick could be very outdated by now relative to modern scholarship since its a old book. The OT is heavily into Angry God (curses, massacres, suffering). The NT dials down the wrath in favor of politics and management (exhortatory epistles, belief systems). Allows for easy cherry picking to support an argument. If you were to look at my personal collection of books you would probably be able to infer the rough outline of my world view, even if no two books agreed 100%, talked about the same things, or even failed to contradict one another. But is there a coherent worldview in the Bible? Followers would claim, just like someone looking through my book stacks, that they've found it.
  - freedomben 1y ago
    I second reading Bart ehrman's books. They are really quite phenomenal. He's an excellent writer, who writes in a way a layman can understand, but is exceptionally scholarly.

3 ms·

> He proceeded to talk forgiveness and leaned heavily into Christian teachings Fortunately for both neither will be expected to follow those teachings in any w

by jordanb 1y ago

> He proceeded to talk forgiveness and leaned heavily into Christian teachings Fortunately for both neither will be expected to follow those teachings in any way.

vjvjvjvjghv 1y ago
I often wonder what these teachings are. It seems they can be interpreted from pacifism to militarism or anti-gay to pro-gay. Seems they are mostly used to justify whatever the person wants to do anyways. When I was a kind, I read almost the whole bible (revelation got a little too crazy) and I could never really figure out what it's trying to tell.
- kjellsbells 1y ago
  If you think of the Bible as a library rather than a book the coherence (or lack of) becomes more evident. And remember that what books made it into that library ('Scripture') was hotly debated. Bart Ehrman is a good read on this and I always enjoyed Henry Chadwick on the early church to see how fungible the whole thing was for so long. I imagine Chadwick could be very outdated by now relative to modern scholarship since its a old book. The OT is heavily into Angry God (curses, massacres, suffering). The NT dials down the wrath in favor of politics and management (exhortatory epistles, belief systems). Allows for easy cherry picking to support an argument. If you were to look at my personal collection of books you would probably be able to infer the rough outline of my world view, even if no two books agreed 100%, talked about the same things, or even failed to contradict one another. But is there a coherent worldview in the Bible? Followers would claim, just like someone looking through my book stacks, that they've found it.
  - freedomben 1y ago
    I second reading Bart ehrman's books. They are really quite phenomenal. He's an excellent writer, who writes in a way a layman can understand, but is exceptionally scholarly.