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Sacred Texts in a Media-Saturated World
My recent post on the Bible and what’s it good for generated a whole bunch of interesting comments. One in particular, by JK, I think could turn into a conversation all its own. An excerpt from it:
In the wrong hands the bible is but another book, magazine, reciept, artifact. This, I think is where the bible finds itself today as well as, for instance, the Koran.
I think he’s touched on a really important point, one which I never considered prior to this. Namely, that the relationship of the ordinary person to the Bible has really changed over time. In a bygone era, a Bible very well might have been the only book a family owned at all. It might very well have been passed down through generations. It might have been the book from which members of that family learned to read. It would even have had a recording of the family tree in certain cases.
Certainly there are people today who still regard the Bible in such a high level of respect. But for most of us nowadays, the Bible is - as JK says above - another book, another artifact, another piece of media in an already media-saturated world. It’s just another section in the giant bookstore of life.
Following this stream of thought, we could find the outlines of some social currents existant today.
- It certainly seems as though there is an explosion of interest in mysticism within spirituality. People are becoming less interested in the use of a sacred text, and more interested in an experience of something which is altogether ineffable, inexpressible. The thing most of us struggle with in that regard is, how do we communicate with something which is beyond the powers of description? How do we know when we have the real thing, rather than an abstracted understanding of the real thing? For these people, the goal seems to be to transcend sacred texts altogether.
- In another direction, we have “eclectic” groups like certain neopagans and wiccans, who pride themselves on their ability to pick and choose from among many sacred texts, and cobble together something which suits them uniquely. Many Christians consider this blasphemous or even spiritually dangerous, but perhaps it is no different from how the Bible itself was formed. Think about it: many books were tied together by people who saw some kind of common thread in them. As things like the Nag Hammadi library show us, there were many possible versions of these texts, and there was a conscious deliberate effort to choose certain ones over others. Why? And how do we apply those lessons to our own lives, and our own efforts to create for ourselves a meaningful sacred text?
- Yet another tendency I see is to find ordinary things - like JK said above, receipts, scraps of paper - which themselves take on a numinous quality, the quest for which becomes a kind of sacred text in itself. I think Found Magazine is a really fun example of this type of thing. It seems like we could categorize this type of thing as taking ordinary mundane things and investing them with a sacred quality. Or as Philip K. Dick explained, the traces of the divine initially show up in the trash stratum. We could also probably apply this to people for whom books, movies, music, maybe even brand names, become sacred texts. The story-systems encoded in these artifacts become symbolic guidebooks on how to live our lives and about what’s important to us.
Given all these options available to us, it’s difficult to understand what the place of the Bible is or should be for people today, spiritually-inclined or otherwise. Certainly it is a rich source of symbols, ethical teachings and tradition. But has the Spirit which once created and sustained it moved on to other genres and artifacts? How do we go about finding it and making that all-important connection?
- R.A.W. texts
- Characteristics of a religion
- The 72 Goetian Spirits
- Source of authority in religion
- Prada Grabs Gnostic Text for Ad
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January 2nd, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Good point being made with this post.
There are people who think you have to read The Bible from beginning to end.
There are people who think that the Bible was written chronologically.
There are people who fail to understand the difference between simile and metaphor, esp. in The Bible.
There are people who find recent PC versions of The Bible to be blasphemous, because it distorts the word of God… not realizing that (by that logic) anything translated past the Dead Sea Scrolls is blasphemous as well.
The Bible has been claimed by Christians, but it is not just a book for Christians. It is for everybody– it doesn’t “belong” to anyone.
I dare people who have a problem with religion to read the Bible. Why? Because that, more than anything, would be the biggest affront to the hypocrisy and self-righteousness that exists within the modern church today. The zealots, with their behavior, alienate people from the Bible because of their insistence that they and only they can understand it.
Read the Song of Solomon sometime– some of the most erotic and sensual poetry ever committed to paper. I have used snatches of verse for lyrics to songs.
The Bible has a lot of baggage, none of it that belongs to us. People today need to read it without the attendant issues that come with it. They need to read it as it was meant to be read: as a reference book, and not as an epic novel.
January 2nd, 2006 at 7:58 pm
James said snatches!
January 2nd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Tim, it seems like the real message or context of what you are trying to say is blurred by your unwitty overgeneralizations of certain ‘groups’ - pagans, neopagans, wiccans, christians, etc… So I’m not exactly sure what you are trying to say unless you yourself are lost and searching in your own beliefs and battling with uncertainty in these various areas that you are trying to neatly categorize. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work that simple, as Christians themselves can be a very “eclectic” group of people, who’s beliefs are not always placed under such rigid barriers and confines as you seem to have laid out in your mind. Personal experience becomes a very prominent factor and those are of course unique to the individual who had those experiences. Times really haven’t changed from biblical days to now, and unfortunately neither have people’s narrow minded perceptions of reality.
January 2nd, 2006 at 9:29 pm
Wow something I said certainly struck a nerve for you, eh?
January 2nd, 2006 at 9:48 pm
On a totally unrelatd topic:
While looking at a link to an article about how rabid Bush followers posses cultish characteristics (http://www.pensitoreview.com/2005/12/29/is-bush-worship-a-cult), I clicked on a link that referenced Rev. Moon and his Unification Church.
This reminded me of your post from a week ago, about Universalism. But what I really ended up recalling was your post about Satan being saved. Why did that come to mind? Because the notion of Satan being saved is part of Moon’s doctrine!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_Church
Please remember that Moon founded the Washington Post, and that he has ties with the Bush Crime Family.
I wanted to post this comment on the actual articles themselves but I can’t do that with older posts.
And now, back to the topic at hand:
Pagans get mad when you insist that they are just lazy Christians, who are looking for a belief system that lets them sin instead of prohibiting sin. And if you think I’m overgeneralizing, bear in mind that I keep company with both Pagans and Christians, and both camps give me EXACTLY THE SAME LIP when it comes to my own personbal beliefs, which are no doubt “eclectic” to them.
The fact that two opposite ends of the religious spectrum give me flak for my beliefs tells me that I’m on the right track.
January 2nd, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Washington Times, I think. Big difference.
Anyway yeah thought Hephaistion’s comment above was interesting because I’m not saying that any of these approaches are bad, not remotely. I’m asking which ones people feel most comfortable with, and how they fit into larger religious and cultural patterns.
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:26 am
Tim, I bet you have a ton of books piled up waiting for you to read but have you read any of Tom Robbins’ books? He has a lot to say on Christianity in specific and spirituality in general.
I found myself so closely aligned to his attitudes and approaches that his ideas helped me close the door on several spiritual questions while opening about a dozen more.
I would gladly loan you a book or two if you want. I don’t know if you are in NYC yet but I am only 30 minutes from the biggest apple. Robbins writes fiction but it is quite good. Like Pynchon but, in my opinion, better.
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:35 am
Ha, I thought you said TONY Robbins at first, and I was about to go off on this whole thing about him. Surprisingly, no I’ve never read any TOM Robbins. I’d like to, but I don’t have the opportunity to right now. What’s a good book of his for Christian stuff?
PS. I’m going out to Seattle actually later this month, as opposed to NYC, which was my original plan. Thanks though.
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:55 am
The world is too small for me to believe in coincedence.
Tom Robbins is of the Seattle area. Most of his books fixate on Seattle culture. He lives outside of Seattle in La Connor, Washington.
If you read no other book by Robbins read, at your earliest convienence, Skinny Legs and All. The book has a lot to say about Christian, Jewish, and Palestinian history. He makes the point that modern religons have become like a fish tank. Whereas real spirituality is much more like living in a rich, murky pond that is ripe with life. The fish tank is sterile, and clear and the fish or fed formless, tasteless fish flakes and like it.
Good Luck in Seattle.
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:05 am
La Connor is an amazing area. It is across a tidal slough from what seems to me to be a mystery laden Indian reservation and is just minutes away from the annual Skagit Valley tulip festival held in March, where there are vast fields of tulips as far as the eye can see. Furthermore, it is also very close to Deception Pass which needs to be seen to be believed. Deception Pass is a narrow bridge that connects mainland Washington with Whidbey Island. The bridge rests high above a churning, tumultuous funnel of ocean currents being thrust between two cliffs. Again, amazing area.
Deception Pass State Park also boasts a tame fat rabbit that a friend and I ran into once. I wonder if it is still there.
Strangely, a friend of mine was on me last week about reading Skinny Legs and All as well.
The world is too small for me to believe in coincedence.
Yet the world is too big to not say that when coincidence or synchronicity does occur it isn’t more amazing that it is the size that it is.
January 3rd, 2006 at 11:21 am
I know in the crowd I am probably an anachronism. Nonetheless, here it goes: I have a strong affinity to the Bible as the God breathed Word of God. Experiantially I actually have a sense of oneness with the Diven as I reverently read the Words therein.
And yes, I know that the current canon we call the Bible was assembled by human council. However, in light of the connection I connect with the Biblical Word I have faith that compilation was guided by God’s Holy Spirit connecting to transformed hearts.
I also understand that humans are fallible. I personaly believe every book in the canon should be there but I could be wrong - it does not bother me. I even accept that some books may have missed the canon acceptance due to human prejuidice overriding Holy Spirit guidance - it still does not bother me. What is important is the Divine connection I experience in Biblical contemplation.
I know in certain crowds that may place me in the realm of intellectual moron. O well, it is still the Divine connection that is important to me, not the opinion (even if that opinion is considered upon supposition of facts) of human thinking.
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Theway2k, Yeah, I feel a connection with the Bible, too. As well as with the Gospel of Thomas, the Dhammapada, and the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz. Actually, now that I think of it, I feel a Divine connection with many different aspects of my life, including the sacred texts of different religions, and much of poetry, music and art, not to mention many of my interpersonal relationships.
+Daniel
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
God is a Heretic: http://apocryphile.org/jrm/articles/heretic.html
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Speaking of Seattle… I’m planning on going there in April provided it works out for couch-crashing. I’m so looking forward to meeting everybody out there!
January 3rd, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Yes it could very well be, that the fake mensa conglomerate of alienated, disaffected are trying to lead a campaign against God because of their lack of faith/morals… Sounds like a good albeit sisyphean task of uninspired “fish flakes” as Gary so wryly put it.. Best of luck in your endeavors Tim, in leading this type of campaign, however you’re Seattle prognosis might ultimately prove to be a futile gesture. We shall see what further uninspired fruits you and your loose scaled brethren labor. Thanks and happy fishing
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:13 pm
dang, who put out the troll bait?
January 3rd, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Yeah, I know. This one didn’t even make sense - it’s great!
January 3rd, 2006 at 5:05 pm
it made perfect sense to me, you loose scaled prognosticating fish flake, you.
January 3rd, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Oh, well shit! When you put it like that!
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
Oh yeah, The Washington Times. That’s even scarier than Moon owning the Post!
My favorite Tom Robbins book is Still Life With Woodpecker but I have to dissent from the Pynchon comparison. Robbins is more like Vonnegut Lite– that’s not meant to be an insult. Robbins is to Vonnegut as DeLillo is to Pynchon.
May I submit an open thread via the following link?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/c...age/0,5744,17725213%255E29677,00.html
As for the Bible: it’s what inspired me to be a writer. Good stories there. But I never saw it as a sacred text, mainly because I could never understand why God couldn’t just write it himself. He can create the world in 6 days but can’t be bothered to write things down for us in a way that we can understand? I know he can’t just spell it out for us, but why risk the message being lost due to human fallibility?
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Maybe it’s because you are a loser James, ever thought about that possiblity? Tom Robbins, isn’t that the stuff that black people use to jerk off with?
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Gary, I quoted you.
January 3rd, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Hephaistion, I really don’t see that comment as being necessary or even especially relevant.
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:15 pm
Well I don’t really see your blog/journal as being necessary or particularly relevant, but that doesn’t really stop you from posting in it does it? To each their own I guess…
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:21 pm
Ah, I can see you’re working through something for yourself here and can appreciate what that’s like. Feel free to use me as your foil during that process, if need be. However, I will politely request that you not attack my friends and readers pointlessly. Racist remarks are also not welcome. Cheers!
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Those damned godless alien Mensa people!!! I KNEW IT!!! The destruction of civilization as we know it!!!
pssst…troll… go away.
January 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Huffenstuff, or whatever you call yourself in your D & D world:
Every time I have to deal with your kind, I think to myself, “Yes, I MUST be loser, to be dealing with the likes of you.”
And why the hostility towards black people? Moreover, why the hostility towards Tom Robbins?
You don’t have to answer that. Anyone who names themself after Alexander The Great’s best butt-buddy has issues that can’t be helped with any amount of therapy.
I take it you’re upset about me calling your kind a lazy Christian. Typical response from a guy who wanted to rebel against his parents but couldn’t make it as an out-and-out Satanist.
Am I right?
January 4th, 2006 at 1:44 am
James: Pagans get mad when you insist that they are just lazy Christians, who are looking for a belief system that lets them sin instead of prohibiting sin. And if you think I’m overgeneralizing, bear in mind that I keep company with both Pagans and Christians, and both camps give me EXACTLY THE SAME LIP when it comes to my own personbal beliefs, which are no doubt “eclectic” to them.
Seriously, where do you find these Pagans? I’m trying to think what you could possibly believe that would offend the Pagans I know. You could probably get at least one guy to mock you if you used poor scholarship, but otherwise it seems like you’d have to start talking about hellfire.
The fact that two opposite ends of the religious spectrum give me flak for my beliefs tells me that I’m on the right track.
What makes you think that, aside from our demonstrably silly faith in “moderate” politics? You do realize that someone else might place both religions together on one side of a different spectrum, right?
January 4th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Wow, really? I bet we could generate some really pissed off pagans here if we wanted to. In fact, I’ve done it many times in the past.
January 4th, 2006 at 10:13 am
OMG! That’s the solution to Peak Oil. Pissed-Off Pagan energy. All Tim has to do is generate pissed-off pagans and we’re set. This is better than Zero Point.
January 4th, 2006 at 11:22 am
I found this very interesting and in a lot of ways you helped enforce my understanding of what I was trying to say in my own blog last week.
http://richardiv.blogspot.com/2005/12/humans-created-god.html
There’s nothing like good open-ended questions to provoke thought. Roads were never built for destinations, just journeys.
In a previous post you mentioned:
I’m utterly convinced and confused of my principles at the same time. But now perhaps I can stop running for the finish line and closure and start to take in the scenery along the way.
I enjoy reading your posts and will be checking back soon.
January 4th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Seriously, where do you find these Pagans?
I’m not telling you. Why would I want to expose them to someone like you? Also, don’t bother talking to me about the pagans you know, because if they are anything like you, they should do us all a favor & sacrifice themselves to Lucifer.
You do realize that someone else might place both religions together on one side of a different spectrum, right?
Yes. Not only that, but there can be infinite numbers of starnds along the same spectrum, and even beyond that. You seem surprised that anyone else can embrace uncertainty. Don’t be so smug in the future and maybe you can learn to play with the other kids on the playground.