It took a year to read the Bible, then almost 9 months to read the Apocrypha. Now, I'm going to try to offer reflections on the Narrative Lectionary. But, I won't be posting daily--at least, for a while.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Lesson for Fundamentalists, a Reflection on Galatians 4:4-7

I've been reading Bill Loader's commentary on this passage. The Galatians needed to be reminded that they had been liberated from slavery. And we may well need to be reminded as well. Don't we think that other Christians should think what we think? Here's what Bill Loader says:
We need to bring Paul into conversation with today's fundamentalists. We need to recognise that Christianity (along with other religions) is capable of stunting people's growth, of enslaving them, and using the Bible as its main instrument to do so. In that sense Paul would argue that the good news and the real message of the scriptures is that we can be freed from the oppressive forces of religion and ideology, including those which harness the Bible in all sincerity to their cause. Paul's opponents had not misunderstood the Bible. It was a question of seeing the wood for the trees. Even that is a little unfair. Paul and others like him made a deliberate choice to make the relationship with Christ and through Christ with God the sole criterion for what mattered and to read the scriptures in that light.

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