Not only does academic reading reduce the meaning of Scripture to a historical reconstruction (frequently misnamed authorial intent) and so inhibit faithful interpretation, but it also proceeds on the distinctly modern political premise that religion is a cultural, apolitical reality and as such cannot directly and immediately act in the political realm, which properly belongs to the sovereign state. Thus we have all been taught to smirk or groan when we hear a preacher, say, identifying the beast of the Apocalypse with the current political administration. Indeed, as this example suggests, the academic and political contexts work hand in hand. With attention focused on discerning an elusive meaning in a quarantined past, the political configuration of the present goes safely unchallenged. – Daniel M. Bell
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 05:57:47 +0000