The bible is often referred to as the "Word of God." This title has always been something I considered to have obvious meaning: the bible is the words God has given us to live by. They are His words, the words for all time, without which we cannot know how to act or think or be. Certain new understandings has brought this perspective into question.
1. The Nature of Language: The "linguistic turn" in philosophy has shook the very foundations of foundational thinking. Language is intersystematic, it is a system of symbols and signs that correspond to each other. God as "backing" the meaning of language in a universal sense seems like nonsense. Even if God had a true meaning he intended his word to have how are we supposed to know it? This is American Denominationalism. Truth and meaning become ever more fragmented in the incessant splintering off of disagreeing opinions until finally we are left with the truth of one: ourselves. Locked in a system of meaning that refers only to the self that has constructed it.
2. The Word made flesh: God's word is not the words of the bible but the Word made flesh. With God in the beginning, speaking the world into being, the Word is the creative force of the Infinite God. This Word made into flesh is the actualization of the kingdom on earth. Bringing God's kingdom to earth revealing its presence to humanity. This active creative force of empathy and compassion seems so different from the static words of the bible. So much so it seems almost counterproductive to get caught up in interpreting and deciphering its ancient teachings. Yet the story is our story (as Christians) and as such contains a dynamic power that is still relevant for the life of the community. The Word made flesh is that power become actual in the life of the believer. Not as some proposition, a belief that must be defended, but as a life in the story of the bible. It is we who give the words of the bible flesh. The word was made flesh (in the life and death of the historical Jesus) and is being made flesh in the life of all who believe.
The truth in the bible is bound up in the reader's response to its message. A response that is either an acceptance of the story as meaningful and transformational or a denial of its power to call one to clothe themselves in the language of the text, to empathize with the hero, and to give flesh to the story through the life they choose to pursue. It is with this attitude that I come to the Word of God for inspiration. This project is intended to reorient myself to the Gospel not as a book of Truth but as a story that has meaning and continues to create meaning in my life.
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