If you read much postmodern philosophy (Postructuralism, Deconstructuralism, the New Criticism, etc.), you might very well stumble across the term doing violence to the text. Basically (I am saying this in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek way) this means interpreting it the way the person you are reading wants you to interpret it. Philosophically it means to just attend to what is written in the text and not bring in cultural assumptions, author's intent, and so forth. I keep writing here that the emergent church is a movement bringing in postmodern philosophy to the church. Here is something that proves my point.
This next example is so classic I can't believe I actually stumbled over it. John Chisam relates what happened on his radio show when his co-host interviewed emergent Tony Jones. Please pay particular notice to Jones' reply (I put it into bold type). Does it sound familiar in relation to the first paragraph of this post?
Recently, [on]our radio show , My co-host Rusty Beals gave a testimony of His conversion, and how God changed Him. (this starts about 33 minutes into the show)Tony dismissed the fact that his very nature had been changed by God out of hand. I quoted a number of verses, and Tony Jones called that doing violence to the Bible.
I rest my case.
Source of Chisam's remarks about the radio interview with Jones:
http://pastorboy.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/yes-tony-jones-we-have-a-new-nature/
Work Came Down at Christmas…
18 hours ago
1 comments:
Yes, I agree with you that postmodernism is sneaking into the church. In college, I was instructed that the author of a work had no authority to tell others how to interpret that work. (If so, who does have that authority?)
I was also told that Christians, in insisting that the Bible be taken literally, were practicing "Bible-olatry," in other words, making an idol out of the Bible by worshiping its very words. Hah!
Some people will say anything to avoid telling the truth.
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