From a friend:

From Karen Armstrong’s “On The Bible” (Allen & Unwin:2007)

… many modern assumptions about the Bible are incorrect. …. From tyhe first, the biblical authoprs contradicted each other and their conflicting visions were all included by the editors in the final text. The Talmud was an interactive text that, properly taught, compelled a student to find his own answers. … The modern habit of quoting proof-texts to legitimize policies and rulings is out of key with interpretive tradition. … The fundamentalist emphasis on the literal reflects the modern ethos but is a breach with tradition, which usually preferred some kind of figurative or innovative interpretation. pp 222-223

Many of the Christians who oppose Darwinism today are Calvinists, but Calvin insisted that the bible was not a scientific document and that those who wanted to learn about astronomy or cosmology should look elsewhere. p. 223

… different texts have been used to support entirely different programmes. … Slave owners interpreted the Bible one way, the slacve in quite another. The same applies today in the Christian debate about ordaining women to the priesthood. … Hurling texts around plemically is a sterile pursuit. scripture is not able to provide certainty on this type of question. p. 223

There is indeed a great deal of violence in the Bible – far more thn there is in the Qur’an. And it is unquestionably true that throughout history people have used the Bible to justify atrocious acts. … The Crusaders ignored the pacifist teachings of Jesus and signed up for an expedition to the holy Land because they were soldiers, wanted a miltary religion and applied their distinctively feudal ethos to the Bible. The same is true in our own time. pp. 223-224

Today we see too much strident certainty in both the religious and secular spheres. Instead of quoting the Bible in order to denigrtate homosexuals, liberals or women priests, we could recall Augustine’s rule of faith: an exegete must always seek the most charitable interpretation of a text. Instead of using a biblical passage to back up a bygone orthodoxy, modern hermeneutics could bear in mind the original meaning of midrash: ‘to go in search of’. Exegesis is a quest for something new. Buber said that each reader should stand before the Bible as Moses stood before the burning bush, listening intently and preparing for a new revelation that will force him or her to lay aside former preconceptions. … The major religions all insist that the practice of daily, hourly compassion will introduce us to God …

The Bible is in danger of becoming a dead or irrelevant letter; it is being distorted by claims for its literal infallibility; it is derided – often unfairly – by secular fundamentalists; it is also becoming a toxic arsenal that fuels hatred and sterile polemic. The development of a more compassionate hermeneutics could provide an important counter-narrative in our discordnat world. p. 229

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