This Holy Week, I've been reading Marcus Borg's "Reading the Bible Again For the First Time," an intriguing approach to the Bible that advocates seeing the Bible as largely metaphorical rather than historical (in the modern sense). Borg, who spoke last year in Barton College's Sprinkle Lecture series, distinguishes between what is actually true and what is factually true. Parables, allegories, poetry and fiction can be actually true; that is, they can convey lessons that are entirely true, without being factually true. When such literary devices contain such truth, it doesn't matter whether they are factually true. Was Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan based on an actual incident, on historical fact? It doesn't matter (and we have no reason to think it was) because the parable conveys the truth Jesus intended, the truthful answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Borg's approach renders irrelevant arguments over the six-day creation of the world or the biblical miracles. I had previously read Borg's "The Heart of Christianity," which has a similar theme. Whether you agree with him or not, Borg's perspective (he counts himself a Christian and sees Jesus of Nazareth as truly the son of God, though he has doubts about many of the supernatural feats the Gospels attribute to Jesus) is interesting and enlightening.
This Good Friday is also my mother's birthday. Had she lived, she would have been 91 today. She died three years ago the day after her birthday. I clearly recall her explanation, when I was 8 or 10 years old, why the day of Jesus' execution would be called "good." April 10 and April 11 shall never pass without my remembering her.
Posts
2 comments:
....
....good friday off? That is the craziest decision I think our leaders have made in a long time. Those older legislatures who established 'easter Monday' back in the old days had it right. My understanding is they voted NC to declare easter Monday as a holiday so they could go and watch college baseball games....maybe opening day for college baseball back then.
Then the bottom fell out when Hugh McColl starting snapping up banks across state lines. After stuffing his coffers the problem arose where NC banks were closed while all the other states banks were open. Problems b/c the operations centers for these banks were in NC. Problem. So here goes the bank lobbiest changing the law for the banks.
The worse thing that has ever happenned for retail and for churches is the moving of the 'off' day to Friday. Now instead of buying/spending for Easter, and the schools having spring break this year the week before Easter in combo w/ good friday as a 'holiday' these decisions have KILLED retail here in Wilson this year. Sucks!
And we wonder why we are in a recession. Stupid elected officials who have no business in decision making roles.
....
..I was self absorbed with my spring break, easter monday and good friday rant I failed to read to the end. I feel bad.
91 years is an awesome life. The birth and passing dates 1 day apart is spiritual. You were blessed with a great Mother. This was an awesome blog post. Thank you for sharing.
Post a Comment