1/12/24

I started reading the Bible all the way through with The Magnificast discord group and a question came up about how to view some of the more difficult passages while still being faithful to one's religious tradition and not anachronistically insert one's personal preferences and values into those texts. It got me thinking about my own approach.

Coming from a non-religious background and growing into a perennialist, my approach is to treat sacred texts on a whole as historical, mythological, and mystical texts. I see in them stories used to express certain ideas, point in certain directions, and provide certain justifications for what was happening in the present.

From the historical POV, I see some of their culture and beliefs and what they were trying to do and say in a particular period in time, which was often the voice of a certain priestly caste that had authority or which became an authority. I see them as they see themselves. From the mythological POV, I see some of their explanations for the hows and whys, the logic underlying their particular religious beliefs and practices, as well as justifications for them. I see their expressions of the connection between the divine and us. And in the mystical, I see the deeper underlying threads, the places where people have touched or glimpsed ultimate reality, where God is heard most clearly. And in all of these texts, including the Torah, there are multiple voices all weaved together presenting a tapestry of thousands of years of culture, history, and evolving thoughts as people deal with the contradictions they face, finding new syntheses and ways through into new ideas and experiences and contradictions.

I see a dialectical relationship. And these texts are all of these things presented to us in a relatively linear narrative meant to preserve the past, remind the present, and inspire the future. In all of these texts, from every religious tradition, there are difficult things, ugly things, that are hard to reconcile with the beautiful parts. But they reflect us and what we're struggling with and trying to overcome as human beings, what some call our sinful nature, our shadow self, or what others would call the poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. So of course, in our attempts to reach towards the divine or be touched by it, we make mistakes and misunderstand and even do harm in the name of the good. And even though these texts may be inspired by God and contain truth, they're written by people that know both good and evil, who speak both truth and lies, who have their own agendas and desires which aren't necessarily pointing towards God but to their own worldly power and control.

These texts and our relationship to them are rich and complicated, and I feel comfortable finding in them what touches me and help nurtures/deepens my 'theology' without necessarily forcing my theology into them and vice versa. I accept them and learn from them, but I'm also far removed from many of these times and places and certain things may not be as relevant as they once were.