Critical for 21st Century Peace Building: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism
Over the last few years of my faith-based Peace and Justice work since 2013 when I was first trained by Rev. Daniel and Sharon Buttry, it has become clearer to me that the literal authenticity of this dispensation strikes too close to the authority of our Christian faith system. Literalism fueling Christian fundamentalism is what fuels many of the tensions present in the Christian world today; and specifically the debate on sexuality and Bible text! The long lasting contribution of my work will be: TO FREE THE BIBLE FROM FUNDAMENTALISM.
Jesus never wrote a single word save for the time he is reported to have written in the dirt (John 8.6). Jesus was an oral communicator, a teacher. There is a significant gap in time before the spoken words of Jesus were written down, and with translation from spoken Aramaic to written Greek, so how authoritative or secure can one be in claiming for the New Testament a literal meaning! Therefore inerrancy is not sustainable for the serious Christian for the New Testament, save the Old Testament for later discussion.
The Apostle Paul is believed to have been killed by the Emperor Nero in 64. The last of Paul’s writings, perhaps Colossians is dated about 63 C.E. When Paul died, not a single Gospel had been written, and at the time of Paul’s death none of the Pauline letters were regarded as anything more than what they were; treasured letters from a revered Christian leader, these letters had not yet received the status of Scripture. Galatians shows that Paul was in great Tension with Peter and the leaders of the Jerusalem church, even the book of Acts written some 20 to 25 years after Paul’s death still shows accounts of this tension. Therefore, placing Paul’s writings accurately in Christian history as the very first written accounts in the New Testament clearly shows how much we have distorted Paul’s meanings by unconsciously allowing the Gospels to color Paul’s words; infact when you study Romans 1.3, 4 it suggests that Paul seems to know nothing of Jesus’s supernatural birth! Jesus was, says Paul, “Descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, let us save Paul for a later discussion. The whole point is that there are some of these contradictory references in the biblical text itself that resist reconciliation and that makes it difficult to impose a literal and inerrant approach to Scripture. Once we are willing to lay aside literalism, new possibilities will begin to open before us in this generation.
If we relate with this materials honestly we will go far more deeply into the meaning of Biblical truth. The New Testament is not a literal transcript of the words of Jesus even though it certainly became authoritative in the life of the early church. This authority froze some things into existence, making these things increasingly susceptible to breaking as the world moves to newer agendas. These frozen things will and actually have in time embarrassed the Christian Church. We need to search the truth in the bible, and then free that truth so that it is available to this generation which needs it so desperately.
We must embrace unlearning to bring to light new and effective ways of Faith-based peace making.
In my next discussion we will look at the Fourth Gospel; John, which for me is the bible’s most profound book. I love this book because it presents serious challenges for our 21st Century conservative Christian culture.
Blog by: Philip Kakungulu (aka: Stargate)
Team Leader: Crossing Lines Africa – Uganda
Country Rep: Pan African Peace Network
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