I suspect that most conservative religious believers will object to critiquing the Bible in the way that Seibert recommends. However, as Seibert correctly points out, “[t]he Bible was neither written by God nor divinely dictated.” Instead, “the Bible is a culturally conditioned collection of sacred texts that bear the marks of human involvement from beginning to end.” Therefore, the perspectives described in the Old Testament “reflect the particular social and historical contexts of their writers.” While Seibert agrees that “God was involved in the formation of Scripture in various ways,” he also suggests that many believers “overemphasize God’s involvement and underestimate the very real and significant role human beings played in the process.” I find Seibert’s perspective far more spiritually and intellectually satisfying than the view I often hear at church – one that attributes a high degree of divine involvement to the formation of scripture, and that consequently makes God an accomplice in the heinous acts that are described in scriptural texts Tom Hardman
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 12:42:07 +0000
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