The Good (Vulgar) Book
Abstract:
Anyone who reads here regularly knows I have a
thing for Biblical vulgarity - the overlooked and censored parts of the Bible
that make them too real and life-like to be read from the pulpit.
Body:
Anyone who reads here regularly knows I have a
thing for Biblical vulgarity
- the overlooked and censored
parts of the Bible that make them too real
and life-like
to be read from the pulpit. So, I was delighted to find an article called
Dogs,
Urine, and Bible Translations at
Codex Blogspot.
There was also a great archeological article on the Codex site about using the
potty in ancient Palestine, but now for some reason I'm unable to find it.
Really, I do wish we'd stop treating laypeople like children. (Except for those who are children, of course). Is the Bible too earthy for us? Is God so embarrassing to us that we feel a need to make God more holy?
The answer to those questions is YES. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his Ethics that we have a tendency to do this very thing. We reject the image of God (in which we are made) because it's too human. We prefer a religion and a divinity made in our idealized image, which is really our pride enthroned as God. Jesus comes to us sweating, farting, eating, bleeding, and dying - so we crucify him, because there's no way God would be so human. And yet Jesus is most like God when he is most human - and most human when he is most like God. Such a scandal to us Greeks. Such a stumbling block to us Jews.
Translating and interpreting the Bible in all its scandalous glory is a theological issue. If the Bible, in its multi-voiced, contradictory, ambiguous, powerful beauty is to be properly appreciated, we can't keep censoring it from the pulpit or in translation. To me, this is about how we understand incarnation, the Imago Dei, and salvation itself.
The rest of the Codex is excellent, too, by the way - I'm adding it to my blogroll and my RSS reader.
Via the Better Bibles Blog and Parableman,
Really, I do wish we'd stop treating laypeople like children. (Except for those who are children, of course). Is the Bible too earthy for us? Is God so embarrassing to us that we feel a need to make God more holy?
The answer to those questions is YES. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his Ethics that we have a tendency to do this very thing. We reject the image of God (in which we are made) because it's too human. We prefer a religion and a divinity made in our idealized image, which is really our pride enthroned as God. Jesus comes to us sweating, farting, eating, bleeding, and dying - so we crucify him, because there's no way God would be so human. And yet Jesus is most like God when he is most human - and most human when he is most like God. Such a scandal to us Greeks. Such a stumbling block to us Jews.
Translating and interpreting the Bible in all its scandalous glory is a theological issue. If the Bible, in its multi-voiced, contradictory, ambiguous, powerful beauty is to be properly appreciated, we can't keep censoring it from the pulpit or in translation. To me, this is about how we understand incarnation, the Imago Dei, and salvation itself.
The rest of the Codex is excellent, too, by the way - I'm adding it to my blogroll and my RSS reader.
Via the Better Bibles Blog and Parableman,
Posted: Mon - January 9, 2006 at 10:13 PM |
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Dave Barnhart
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contact: dave at davebarnhart dot net
Why Vulgar Homiletics?
Personae:
All Consuming | Del.icio.us | Last.fm | MySpace | Zaadz
contact: dave at davebarnhart dot net
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Published On: Aug 15, 2006 01:49 PM
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Published On: Aug 15, 2006 01:49 PM