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Take the Bible out of the hands of Christians

rlvaughn

Well-Known Member
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Theologian wants to take the Bible out of the hands of Christians
...though [Stanley] Hauerwas is not an evangelical, many evangelicals hang on his every word. (Denny Burk)
Most North American Christians assume that they have a right, if not an obligation, to read the Bible. I challenge that assumption. No task is more important than for the Church to take the Bible out of the hands of individual Christians in North America. (Stanley Hauerwas)
I understand what he’s trying to say—that some Christians make mince-meat of the Bible through sloppy interpretation and that they need to read scripture within a disciplined church community. But I can’t imagine a worse remedy than the one he proposes here. Taking the Bible away from Christians is not going to make them better readers of the Bible. (Denny Burk)
 
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carpro

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They really need to stop hanging on this guy's word. What he is proposing is a return to the dark ages, when only the Church knew what the Bible said. And look at the evil that was done in the name of God, and people accepted it because they didn't know any better.

I think I'd put this guy on my never read list.
 

Martin Marprelate

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It took me a few moments to work out who was saying what, but Burk is right and Hauerwas (who he?) is horribly wrong.
To take the Bible out of the hands of the people will, at best, deliver them into the hands of a priestly elite who will interpret it for them thus returning us to the Middle Ages. At worst, it will simply make the Bible disappear.
 

Martin Marprelate

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As some will know, I am a member of the Gideons. In Britain we are allowed to go into schools (at the Principal's discretion) and speak at an assembly or even take an R.E. lesson.

A few years ago a friend of mine attended a service at a Baptist church in a little town 15 miles up the road from me. A young chap of about 19 was being baptized. He told how he had been presented with a Gideon New Testament and Psalms seven years before, but had never read it and stuffed it away in a drawer. Then his parents got divorced, he flunked his exams, split from his girlfriend and was in a complete mess. Then he remembered the N.T. he'd been given, took it out of the drawer and began to read. Whatever he understood or didn't understand, he found enough of Christ to go to a church where the Gospel was preached to him and he was saved.

If that N.T. had not been given to him, then (humanly speaking) he would never have come to Christ. We must get the word into the hands of ordinary people.
 

tyndale1946

Well-Known Member
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Well I read and study my Bible everyday because God told me too... Who is this yahoo ( I could sure use more colorful language but this will suffice) who says I can't?... If God didn't want me to read and study his written word , he would have not made it possible that I could... Someone needs to put some duct tape on this theologians mouth, to put it mildly somewhere a village has been deprived of its idiot!Confused... Brother Glen:)
 

rlvaughn

Well-Known Member
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He should stick to law.
Pretty much, though he gets things right once in awhile.
"One of the things I don’t like about the church growth movement, how it creates a very homogenious congregation of approximately the same ages, and I think that has to do with the worship being fundamentally a form of entertainment, in which the congregation doesn’t do any work..." -- Stanley Hauerwas, from The Work of the People
 

John of Japan

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Sorry, I posted here when I meant to post elsewhere.

But I checked out Stanley Hauerwas on Wikipedia and learned that he once appeared on Oprah! Be still my bleeding heart! :eek:
 
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PastoralMusings

Active Member
Scripture was not written for academicians alone. In fact, Scripture was written for the common men, as is readily seen in the commandments to servants.
If the Bible only belongs to the leaders and academics, we will soon have a de facto magisterium that will lead to the eventual end of the Biblical faith due to the error rampant among so many in the academies.
Thankfully God will never allow it to go that far.
'Twould be far better for the academy and the average Joe to have a give/take relationship that lends itself to a respect one for another that would profit all of God's people.
 

Yeshua1

Well-Known Member
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It took me a few moments to work out who was saying what, but Burk is right and Hauerwas (who he?) is horribly wrong.
To take the Bible out of the hands of the people will, at best, deliver them into the hands of a priestly elite who will interpret it for them thus returning us to the Middle Ages. At worst, it will simply make the Bible disappear.
it also mocks those saints who gave their very lives to make sure that we would have the bible to us in own language today!
 
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