Begrudging or Joyful Evolution?
From Defending the Bible to Following the Bible
What we think the Bible is, profoundly matters. For example, if we’re convinced the Bible is perfect, because it’s written by God, then its words are timeless truths to be believed and applied today. However, if we’re convinced the Bible is inspired by God but written by humans, then its words are insights into how ancient people thought about their world and the Divine. The interpretive differences—depending on a person’s convictions on what the Bible is—are consequential.
In a previous article, I encouraged an appreciation for the Bible as inspired by God but written by humans. My aim in this article is to explore an interpretive consequence for this particular conviction on the Bible, which I find to be exceedingly good.
Back in 2016, Gary Cutting, a philosopher at Notre Dame, wrote an article titled “How Religion Can Lead to Violence.” In that article, Cutting makes the case that violence in religion is often tempered by social mores. An example of this could be the church, which has, at times, been begrudgingly pulled forward by a society’s sense of good. Consider racial equality or women’s rights. In general, the church lagged behind these good movements, until it could—due to a society’s sense of human decency and justice—no longer do so.
Cutting’s point is solid and I don’t plan to argue. Instead, what I want to consider is how this begrudging evolution is the result of Christians believing the Bible is God’s very word. In contrast, I hope to make a sound case for joyful evolution, which is, truly, biblical.
Begrudging Evolution
If the Bible is perfect, because it’s written by God, then the church must do its very best to begrudge human growth and evolution. Doing so is the result of biblical fidelity, because the Bible contains timeless truths to be believed and applied.
I’ve heard many Christians affirm biblical fidelity in their defense of keeping women out of leadership, or in their anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment, or in their adherence to the idea that God is a God of war. They’ll say things like, “Well, I don’t like it either” or “I wish it didn’t have to be this way” or “Yeah, I’m uncomfortable with it too.” And yet, they quickly dismiss their own reticence toward these ideas with the quip, “But God said it, so I believe it.”
The violence and harm due to belief in a perfect Bible is incalculable.
A More Honest Appreciation for What the Bible Is
As I explain in my article, “The Bible—An Inspired Text, Written by Humans,” the Bible is full of cosmological and historical inaccuracies, as well as theological contradictions. That’s because the Bible—albeit inspired—is written by humans.
The Bible is a human text written by ancient humans.
Joyful Evolution
Understanding the Bible as a human text written by ancient humans shifts the interpretive work from asking, “What did God say?” to, “What did ancient people think?” And when we begin to ask this—much better—interpretive question, we can also begin to appreciate how the ancient ideas of humans evolved.
For example, consider a few passages from the Bible:
Exodus 20:1-17, provided an ancient moral code.
Numbers 35:6-15, demanded cities of refuge for those who accidentally killed someone to flee to and to dwell within so that the Revenger could not exact revenge.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14, established protocol allowing women who were captured in war to grieve for one month. Furthermore, if after taking a woman to bed the man found himself unhappy with the woman, he was prohibited from selling her and he was instructed to let her go wherever she wished. I know this is horrifying, but stick with me.
Romans 14-15, differentiated between strong and weak consciences when it came to eating clean and unclean food and it encouraged acceptance of the “other.”
Philemon, Paul wrote to a slave owner named Philemon and asked him to receive back a runaway slave named Onesimus as a brother.
With these passages in mind—as terrible as they seem to us today—it can be observed that these were movements forward in an ancient world.
An ancient moral code in the midst of violent tribalism,
was a movement forward.
Refuge for the innocent when a Revenger was allowed to exact revenge,
was a movement forward.
Allowing space for a woman to grieve and to be set free as opposed to sold,
was a movement forward.
Making room for differences when it came to clean and unclean food,
was a movement forward.
Receiving back a runaway slave as a brother instead of as a slave,
was a movement forward.
The Bible invites us to notice and appreciate an evolution of ideas on what is good and right.
A Biblical Invitation to Joyful Evolution
Now, did these biblical movements go far enough? Of course not! How about just putting an end to the notion and role of a Revenger, or treating women as human beings instead of property, or making room for differences beyond clean and unclean food, or abolishing slavery altogether? Yes, of course! But you see, to do so would have been unconscionable. Such consciousness about human rights and dignity were beyond ancient Israel, the early church, and the apostle Paul. And yet, in their day and age, these movements were radical, good, compassionate, and beautiful steps forward.
Moving beyond these specific examples, notice the evolution of larger biblical motifs:
From Law (Exodus 20:1-17) to love (Matthew 5:38-39, 43-45).
From obedience (Deuteronomy 27-28) to grace (Romans 3-8).
From differences (Genesis 28) to similarities (Galatians 3).
From chaos (Genesis 3-11) to cosmic shalom (Revelation 21-22).
Question: Have we reached perfect love?
Question: Have we reached perfect grace?
Question: Have we reached perfect acceptance amidst differences?
Question: Have we reached perfect peace?
You see where I’m heading here, right?
The Bible isn’t an invitation to go backward! Rather, the Bible is an invitation to pick up its evolutionary mantle and continue forward until love, grace, acceptance, and peace are made complete.
For those of us who hallow the Bible as sacred–
ongoing evolution is our work,
ongoing evolution is our joyful work,
ongoing evolution is our Christian work.
Let’s get to work.
Hi Bob,
The thread you tease out here is a great example of the demands on biblical interpretation based on what a person thinks the Bible is.
For people who hold to the Bible as being perfect because it's written by God, they must argue against contemporary scientific findings that go against what the Bible says. In this case, cosmology. For these folks, that's biblical fidelity. It's unfortunate because the biblical authors weren't trying to make cosmological statements. Instead, they were trying to make meaning, through story.
For people who hold to the Bible as inspired by God but written by ancient humans–like me–we can accommodate for the authors' ancientness. And rather than making creation texts, like those in Genesis, about valid cosmology, we can get right into exploring the meaning located in the creation stories, which can be understood as "functional origin stories." In this type of literature, functional origin stories focus on order and function rather than cosmological realities. And so, the creation and fall stories aren't literally explaining what happened in the earliest days of our world. Rather, they're literarily explaining meaning. I.e.: Ultimate Reality is generative, creative, and personal; Ultimate Reality invites humankind into creative work, etc.
It's more than I can get into in this response, but these functional origin ideas stand out as beautiful contrasts to many of the origin stories among cultures and nations surrounding Israel.
Thanks Mike ... very thought provoking!
To what extent do you think it's Biblical truth that's evolving ... or our understanding (or ability to understand)?
To play on one thread of this ... when there are arguments about the literal "truth" of the Genesis creation narrative, there's an angle of discussion about how scientifically accurate those stories are, and to some, whether they disprove more modern scientific understanding. I tend to think that it's not that God was "wrong" or "lied to us" ... but that there was a theme and message that needed to be expressed, and trying to express that truth was more important than absolute scientific accuracy. Expressing that truth in 4000BC in the context of an understanding of carbon 14 dating and modern understandings of astrophysics may have been more "accurate" - but would have been in the way of expressing the desired themes and truth. "We", individually, and as a society, have to evolve before we can "handle the truth" that was likely there all along.