"It is a universal tendency in the Christian religion, as in many other religions, to give a theological interpretation to institutions which have developed gradually through a period of time for the sake of practical usefulness, and then read that interpretation back into the earliest periods and infancy of these institutions, attaching them to an age when in fact nobody imagined that they had such a meaning."
-Richard Hanson, Twentieth-century patristic scholar
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3 comments:
I like this quote because it challenges me to think about why we defend some of the things we do in Church today. Though I don't agree that if something isn't in scripture you can't do it, I do find it interesting how many people will force interpretations to back something up.
That is why I keep asking the question - what does the bible boil down to? What is the simplest, easiest list you could make of what the bible is about for our lives?
loving God
loving people
If we could enter the bible for the first time, never having gone to a church - how would we interpret the impact to our daily lives? How would we imagine community and church to be? I know most churches look the same and do pretty much the same things, every week - I think there are so many more ways to interpret loving God and loving people. This is where I see third places - a church in a pub, a coffeehouse - something different.
I’d love to hear others thoughts.
So that is what that quote says. I am glad you commented on it. haha.
For a good read on the comment "Though I don't agree that if something isn't in scripture you can't do it"
read "The Deliberate Church" by Mark Dever. Though I do not agree with the whole book and he argues opposite of your point, I believe it is good to read both viewpoints to make you think.
Church can be anywhere, like you said, and I think you are right about not needing a routine. It may not even be Biblical to have special music sung right before the preaching. haha
I like this quote because you see people doing it all the time, and even passing laws based on it. Coincidentally, I just wrote a post that kind of challenges some Bible verses based on the historical context in which they were written, not on how they are interpreted today. Ironically enough, it was a Christian sermon - written by a heathen!
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Loving God
loving people
Interesting to think - just what does that mean?
What happens when loving God means hurting other people?
Or vice versa, what if loving people means hurting God? (Can God be hurt?)
Or what if they're exactly the same thing? When you love God, you love people. And when you love people, you love God, too.
Be blessed
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