Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Jesus Creed

Home
Evangelical
Seriously Dangerous Religion (RJS)

Seriously Dangerous Religion (RJS)

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:33 pm by RJS

Seriously Dangerous Religion (RJS) 2015-03-13T22:33:46-05:00 RJS

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There are a number of stories people tell to shape their life and purpose. These range from stories of secular materialism, socialism, capitalism, stories of Western superiority, American superiority, Chinese superiority, humanism and progress, patriarchy, feminism, Christian stories including creation, fall, redemption and new creation and more. The way that these stories are told, mixed, and embraced helps to shape who and what we are.

Over the last several years I have heard a number of different pastors and Christian leaders emphasize the importance of story in the preaching of the gospel. This carries over into all aspects of Christian life including the view the church takes toward the questions of science and Christian faith – be it the age of the earth, evolution, or the reality of global warming. Facts alone are not enough, we need to be able to tell the story. And of course we want our story – whatever it is – to be framed by the biblical story including both the Old Testament and the New Testament. But if we as Christians are seriously focused on being the people of God it has to take the Old Testament seriously on its own terms, not restructured into the story we expect it to tell.

This leads me to Iain Provan’s new book Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters. Iain Provan is the Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College in Vancouver British Columbia. He is an Old Testament scholar who has written commentaries on Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, 1 and 2 Kings, and Lamentations. He is also the author of A Biblical History of Israel with V. Philips Long and Tremper Longman III.

Provan begins his book with a discussion of mice, men and Hobbits – an intriguing chapter title. Douglas Adams’ series The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy provides an overarching story line of mice and men with no ultimate sense. This is an entertaining but rather bizarre series of books I enjoyed as a graduate student. In these books both the answer and the question to life, the universe and everything cannot be known simultaneously.

This means (among other things) that there exists in this “world” no coherent basis for moral action – no foundation upon which to build a moral vision. The novel’s characters are lost in space. (p. 2)

This can be contrast with the overarching storyline in The Lord of the Rings, in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, and other classic (and not so classic) tales. In these stories there is the conviction of a larger story that provides coherence and purpose, whether known at the time or not. Dante and Tolkien reflect deep Christian convictions and this plays out in how they shape their stories. Other stories are possibly from non-Christian perspectives, not all of them as unpredictable and ultimately meaningless as the fiction of Douglas Adams. These larger stories are important and we seek them, consciously or unconsciously.

The larger stories shape our lives. Provan points to four stories – metanarratives – that compete for attention in our Western world today. More could be described, of course, but these play significant roles. Three of these are modern stories and one – the biblical story – is much older. Provan became so interested in these metanarratives as he wrote Seriously Dangerous Religion that he wrote a second book Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was to dig into the questions more deeply.

So what are these modern metanarratives?

The first story is the story of the axial age. There was a critical turning point in the continuing emergence of human civilization ca. 800-200 BC. All of today’s major religions emerged out of this axial age. This age produced the basic categories for modern thought and it is to this common past that we should return – and from theis common past we should move forward into a new age of world peace. Provan points to Karl Jaspers who originated the ideas and to Karen Armstrong the author of A History of God as examples of those who see this as the overarching story for humankind. I think The Future of Faith by Harvey Cox, a book I posted on several years ago, may also come out of this overarching story.

The second story is the story of the dark green golden age. Civilization has broken the human connection with the earth and has broken down human community. Ancient hunter-gatherer societies lived much happier lives, in more genuinely structured societies, in authentic communion with the earth. It is to this dark green golden age that we must return.

To recover ourselves we must now reject civilization. We must get back behind the axial age, in order to recover a more authentic way of being. We must get back to the Paleolithic Age and reconnect with our hunter-gatherer ancestors in the state of nature. Central to our recovery will be the renewed embrace of preaxial spirituality. (p. 7)

In the story of the dark green golden age it is the salvation of the planet that it at stake. Writers in this vein include Thomas Berry, David Suzuki, and Derrick Jensen.

The third story is that of the scientific new age. Reason and science should govern our approach to life. Religion is a natural product of biological evolution, and may have served a valuable purpose at one time. However, religion and faith are superstitions which we as a species have outgrown, or at least something we are now outgrowing. Empirical science is the basis for true knowledge of the world. In fact, it is the only reliable basis for knowledge of any sort.

Popular writers championing the new scientific age include including Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett.

Each of these three narratives provide a coherent vision of the world. They are being told by well-intentioned people. They resonate with many. “These are stories that sell.” (p. 9)

Although I have experience with all three of these narratives, the first and third seem to have penetrated most deeply into the warp and woof of modern American life. These are the stories that provide many of the underlying assumptions in the secular university. The naturalism of the age of science is the base assumption, an assumption that is tempered, on occasion, by the spiritual hope of the future faith and age of peace. By and large people are spiritual, if they are spiritual, without being religious.

The Old Story. The fourth metanarrative Provan considers is the biblical story. This is the story that he champions, and the story that he wants people to reconsider. This is also a story that is under attack from many quarters, especially by those who buy into one or more of the three modern stories. In these quarters …

The best thing one can say about the Old Testament is that it is a poor rendition of the timeless truths of authentic spirituality, the common beliefs at the core of the world’s major religions and philosophies. The worst thing one can say about the Old Testament is that it is not only quite untrue but also bad for us—and bad even for its original recipients. It alienated them from each other, from other peoples, and especially from their fellow creatures and our common home, the earth. The telling of its story has continued to dodamage down through the ages, precipitating violence, war, and ecological disaster. Religion in itself may not be dangerous—our various modern storytellers disagree on that point—but monotheistic religion is certainly dangerous, and biblical monotheism is seriously dangerous. (p. 10)

Iain Provan doesn’t buy this of course. He suggests that the critics don’t understand the biblical story very well and their readers understand it less, getting much of their “knowledge” from the critics. This lack of understanding isn’t confined to skeptics and outsiders. Even committed white evangelical Protestant Christians have limited knowledge of the bible, especially the Old Testament, although they do know somewhat more than other Christians and the unaffiliated (Provan cites a Pew survey here). All too often people just “know” that the Old Testament story is a troubling, and even dangerous myth without actually knowing much of the story at all. And even Christians often “know” it is true while knowing very little of the story itself.

Provan’s aim in the rest of the book is to look at what the Old Testament really says. He also thinks it important to read the Old Testament for its own sake rather than through the lens of the New Testament. Thus most of the book (chapters 2-11) will set aside the New Testament. The focus will be on the story told in the Old Testament in its own right and the questions that it addresses, or can be addressed to it. Questions such as (p. 11): What is the world? Who is God? Who are we? How are we to relate to God, others, and the world? Why do evil and suffering mark the world? What are we to hope for?

Of course, it wouldn’t do to neglect the newer part of the Story completely. The last several chapters will bring the New Testament back into the picture. The Old Story deserves to be taken seriously, both the older and the newer parts of the Story. This is the theme of Provan’s book.

I shall argue that, contrary to popular belief, the biblical story does deserve to be taken seriously as a series of truth claims about the world and our place and destiny within it. I shall also argue that biblical religion is seriously dangerous—but not in the way that most people think. Overall, the Old Story can still be regarded as a true and helpful account of “life, the universe, and everything.” In fact, when properly understood, it provides a solid point of departure for precisely the path out of trouble and into a better future for which its detractors are often looking. (p. 17)

So to start the ball rolling, a few questions:

Is the old testament narrative both untrue and dangerous?

Is such a view common in your experience?

What is the essence of the Old Testament story? How much should we care about it today?

Is the Old Testament a (disposable) front end to the real story – the New Testament?

If you would like to contact me directly you may do so at rjs4mail[at]att.net.

If interested you can subscribe to a full text feed of my posts at Musings on Science and Theology.

Bible

Previous Post

September 9, 2014

Distinctive or Characteristic? Rod Dreher and Matthew Sitman

Next Post

September 9, 2014 California and Christian Organizations

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many books is the Book of Psalms divided into?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Seven Ten Five Three