A quick addition to the blog. I discovered in my probe of literalism on the Internet an article written by Conrad Hyers. This article appeared in the Christian Century August 4, 1982. A significant day in my life, but this isn’t about me.
The title of the article is “Biblical Literalism: Constricting the Cosmic Dance.” I encourage you to visit the page
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1332 and read it for yourself. I hope to get permission to quote further from it and use it in my research for the book I’d like to write. But without prior permission I will only quote this little bit:
“To suggest that the first chapters of Genesis ought to be read in the classroom as an alternative to evolutionary theories presupposes that these chapters are yielding something comparable to scientific theories and historical reconstructions of empirical data. Two further ironies result from such literalism. The biblical understanding of creation is not being pitted against evolutionary theories, as is supposed; rather, evolutionary theories are being juxtaposed with literalist theories of biblical interpretation. Doing this is not even like comparing oranges and apples; it is more like trying to compare oranges and orangutans Even if evolution is only a scientific theory of interpretation posing as scientific fact, as the creationists argue, creationism is only a religious theory of biblical interpretation posing as biblical fact. And to compound the confusions, these biblical ‘facts' are then treated as belonging to the same level of discourse and family of concerns as scientific facts, and therefore supportable by scientific data, properly interpreted. Yet if one is unable to follow all these intertwinings, let alone bow the knee, a veritable Pandora’s box of dire fates awaits.”
I find it pretty remarkable that there are so many people in the world who have reached the same conclusions I have and I feel I have not had adequate education or training in the disciplines that would yield these conclusions easily. Scary, really.
Another place I would recommend you go if you are interested in literalism is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg&feature=related
This is a must video for anyone who has an opinion for or against evolution or literalism. It is 2 hours long, but worth every minute. You owe it to yourself to view it.
