The Uses of Scripture (original) (raw)

2016, The Japan Mission Journal

AI-generated Abstract

The paper examines the significance of sacred scriptures in various religious traditions, particularly within the context of interreligious dialogue among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It argues that while sacred texts are fundamental to identity and community, their interpretation can often lead to conflicting understandings among adherents. The author advocates for a communal and ecumenical approach to reading biblical narratives that acknowledges diverse cultural contexts, thereby enhancing engagement with both the internal community and the external interreligious discourse. By fostering a respectful dialogue based on shared narratives, the paper suggests that communities can navigate their differences without resorting to fundamentalism or sectarianism.

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Scripture and Text

Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: The Modern Era

Textual Reasoning adopts various elements of rabbinic and scriptural study as first principles for contemporary Jewish philosophy and, thus, as guidelines for conducting Jewish philosophy as reparative reasoning. I offer four illustrations, named after four networks of rabbinic and scriptural tropes: plain and interpreted sense, creation, sin or blemish, and torah as revelation and redemption. Each set of tropes is examined on three levels: the “plain sense” of each trope in rabbinic literature, how each network of tropes may be reinterpreted as a source of guidelines for Jewish philosophy today, and how each network may be reinterpreted as anticipated in modern Jewish philosophy. I offer the third level of study to suggest that, against the direction of modern philosophy’s flight from a biblical past, modern Jewish philosophers worked toward rather than away from the scriptural first principles of textual reasoning.

THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF SCRIPTURE – HISTORIANS AND BELIEVERS, ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

Since the Enlightenment, scriptural discourse in the West has been generally limited to the historicity of texts. Although this is a valid and necessary method to study the history of scripture, more is needed. Following Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916-2000), this paper argues that human involvement with scriptural text is more important than the study of the text's evolution. Smith believed that human involvement with scripture is not theological but historical as it often focuses on the historicity of the text. Further, following Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), the paper argues that philosophy does not have jurisdiction to judge religion except to disclose the hidden dimensions of human thought. With these two insights in mind, the paper calls on believers to make their scripture(s) central to their religious life and not be overly concerned with the historical evolution of their texts. This requires critiquing the secular discourse of religion and defining new conditions of religious discourse, such that religion enacts the " transformation and guidance of man's inner and outer life. "

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