Yes, exactly right. Also, literalism is a double evil. First (as you mentioned), it is behind a lot of the confusion many Christians feel when they try to reconcile passages they see in their Bible with their life experiences. This confusion is paralleled in a clever way when the gospels portray the disciples as obtuse and slow to “get” what Jesus was talking about. But second, it is behind a lot of the conflict with atheists when they tease Christians about supposedly believing in talking snakes and sky gods. The truth is found in meaning, not in literalism.
Yes, I think that’s exactly right. Literalism often creates confusion inside faith and unnecessary conflict outside it. I like your observation about the disciples too — the Gospels seem quite comfortable showing how slow understanding can be. Meaning unfolds over time; it isn’t grasped all at once and when we mistake meaning for mechanism, we often end up missing what the text is actually trying to give us.
Yes, exactly right. Also, literalism is a double evil. First (as you mentioned), it is behind a lot of the confusion many Christians feel when they try to reconcile passages they see in their Bible with their life experiences. This confusion is paralleled in a clever way when the gospels portray the disciples as obtuse and slow to “get” what Jesus was talking about. But second, it is behind a lot of the conflict with atheists when they tease Christians about supposedly believing in talking snakes and sky gods. The truth is found in meaning, not in literalism.
Yes, I think that’s exactly right. Literalism often creates confusion inside faith and unnecessary conflict outside it. I like your observation about the disciples too — the Gospels seem quite comfortable showing how slow understanding can be. Meaning unfolds over time; it isn’t grasped all at once and when we mistake meaning for mechanism, we often end up missing what the text is actually trying to give us.