Scriptorium Daily
Watching an Indiana Jones film and Citizen Kane with the same expectations is a mistake that can drain the pleasure out of both experiences. The same thing is true of books, though people often forget it. Trollope’s books are a solitary pleasure designed for the savoring of his seven hundred pages of goodness. Homer’s Iliad can be read, but is best experienced in recitation and it is safe to say that if you have only read Hamlet and never seen it performed you have missed the point . . . the play is the thing.
So when it comes to a book we must first ask: what did the author’s intend? Did the author intend it to be usually read alone, like a Dickens novel, or enjoyed in a community and performed aloud like Beowulf? Older books, written when manuscripts were costly, are often intended to be communal experiences.
Holy books are fundamentally books and so should be read as books using normal rules, before asking whether the genre “holy books” requires any special rules. Some people forget this when they approach a collection of books like the Bible and the result can be amusing. The first rule in approaching the Bible or any other alleged holy book is to read it by the same rules an intelligent reader always uses in literature. These include such basic rules for reading as taking into account the audience, the type of literature being read (genre), and the historical context.
If we don’t follow these basic rules when reading a holy book, the results can lead to embarrassing misunderstandings. Imagine a reader who did not understand the difference between commands to a specific group of people versus a statement of general moral principles. Such a reader would treat every command in a holy book as if it applied to him in some direct or wooden way!
Taken to an extreme with a book like the Bible this badly educated reader would wonder if he should apply dietary laws intended for ancient Israel to himself or even more absurdly would wonder if his obedience to a general moral principal (”Don’t Steal”) meant he must obey a cultural relative command (”Don’t eat swine”). Fortunately most of us learn to read looking for context and so avoid such foolishness.
Since the Bible is a collection of very old books, they are best understood when they are read in a community of active learners. That is what they were designed for. It is good to read and study them alone, but with the caution that they were written to a people (Israel) or to a group (the Church) and not just to you.
Even if God did not inspire the Bible reading it as if it were a Victorian religious novel, intended for private consumption only, is wrong headed. You might prefer books written for solitary readers, but the Bible isn’t one of those books. Even in the case of Biblical books such as I Timothy addressed to an individual that individual is not you. When the Church recognized its divine inspiration it did so for its corporate value and not because we are all mysteriously Timothy!
Safe to say, you cannot and should not read the Bible as it was intended to be read outside the context of the community of readers, living and dead. Why dead? The dead may not speak to us directly, but they have left us their commentaries on the Bible in art and in books. These are invaluable resources to a deeper understanding of the text.
All of us have personal blind spots, but cultures do as well. Thoughtful people have read the Bible for centuries in many different cultures. Each of these groups had their own prejudices and virtues that are often different than our own, which meant that each have an insight that would be valuable to us. A wise reader would not ignore the chance to check his own insight and that of his community against a broader base of readers.
Of course, some books like the Bible do not claim to just be books, but holy books. They purport to contain the words of divinity. What should we make of these claims as readers?
First, we should have no patience with literary prejudice. We should not assume, at the first, that a god has or has not spoken in a particular text. Of course if one has previous philosophical reasons to reject the existence of any supernatural realm at all, the burden of proof will be much higher on the putative holy book, but even such a reader should approach any great text with humility. They are usually works of consummate artistry and contain keen insights, even if they are not divine. We should approach any great book, and especially the holy books, with excitement as learners. Pity the man who can only learn from books that support his own preconceived ideas and desires.
Second, we should not make the mistake that any supernaturally inspired book will be holy. Some may be of the supernatural, but still not true, good, or beautiful. The supernatural realm may be as complex as our own world and a message from it may not be Divine, but diabolical. So while we read such a text hopefully, we should also have our guard up. Socrates often began his discussions with a prayer that he and his fellows not go awry. This is a wise course for any reader of a holy book.
Third, within a community of seekers we should compare what the book claims about spiritual matters with our own experience and the experience of broader humanity. Does the book deny that evil exists? Does it claim that humans can reach perfection in this life? Such claims are not just implausible based on my particular personal religious experience, but on the common experience of mankind. On the other hand, a very small handful of holy books have been able to maintain vast cultures and inspire great art and scientific progress. They speak to many different peoples at many different times. They deserve our special attention.
Finally, most holy books are very complex. They should be read with the help of experts who have studied them deeply. In the case of a holy book, it is possible that some are more spiritually sensitive or have a special gift in understanding such books. We should look for such people and be willing to listen to what they have to say. In the case of the Bible, a book written for a people and a community, this is particularly important.
Plato wrote of a love that all of us share for something or someone greater than anything we can see in this world. This love longs to find its Beloved. Any alleged holy book will reveal something about this known Unknown in a way that illuminates our intellect, our passions, and our works. The Gospels reveal the person of Jesus Christ and I have found Him to be the answer to my hearts longing. The Gospel has forced me to confront my failings, given me hope, and continues to satisfy my mind.
