Abstract
The Bible at stake: Text versus dogmaThis article concentrates on one of the great achievements of postmodernism regarding theology: the highlighting of the inseparable relation between religion and poetry. The article argues that, as we are unable to fashion a dependable representation of our world and of God, we have to return to the text and to the language of belief as sole way of expressing our thoughts about God and about belief. The language of belief is not the language of dogma, but that of poetry, and the language of poetry is figurative language. In illustration of this, the text of Samson is reread not as factually-true history, but as the tragic story of a person whose God-given calling and talents are in conflict with his natural drives and gifts, but whose heroic death nevertheless ultimately serves to glorify God. In conclusion the article pleads for the liberation of the Bible from the Greek-Roman construction of it, so that it may again begin to tell stories through which the reader may learn to comprehend something of God. So, too, the Jewishness of Jesus, which has been eroded by dogma and preaching, may be rediscovered.
Highlights
This article concentrates on one of the great achievements of postmodernism regarding theology: the highlighting of the inseparable relation between religion and poetry
Meer nog: op die vooraand van die eeuwisseling en die aanbreek van die nuwe millenium het Suid-Afrika ’n ingrypende politieke transformasieproses binnegegaan
In 1994 het daar ’n einde gekom aan ’n politieke beleid, gebaseer op rasseskeiding, wat wêreldwyd veroordeel is en die hoofoorsaak was van die isolasie van die land in die tweede helfte van die twintigste eeu
Summary
Suid-Afrika het van ’n geïsoleerde land aan die verre suidpunt van ’n vreemde en grootliks onbekende kontinent ’n land geword in die “global village” van die een-en-twintigste eeu. Deur sy isolasie was die kerk in Suid-Afrika afgesny van die debat wat sedert die Tweede Wêreldoorlog in die res van die Christelike wêreld, in die besonder binne die Europese Christendom, gevoer is. Ortodokse gelowiges – waaronder ek diegene verstaan wat hulle oor alle vrae in verband met die Christelike geloof beroep op die gesag van die Bybel as die onfeilbare Woord van God – beweer dat die huidige debat om vraagstukke handel waarop in die loop van die geskiedenis afdoende antwoord gegee is. Daar is vrae wat die mens van alle tye vra, maar altyd binne ’n ander konteks. Terselfdertyd is dit ’n inhaalaksie, want nie alleen is ons in die twintigste eeue uitgesluit van die groter teologiese debat in die wêreld nie; ná die saak wat die kerk in die dertigerjare teen prof Johannes du Plessis van die Teologiese Seminarium op Stellenbosch gevoer het, is die ontwikkeling van die teologiese wetenskap min of meer lam gelê. Sonder kritiese denke is daar van wetenskapsbeoefening in die ware sin van die woord geen sprake nie
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