Biblical literalism

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Biblical literalism is the supposed adherence to the explicit and literal sense of the Bible. Some have remarked that in its most extreme form such a belief would deny the existence of allegory, parable and metaphor in the Bible. Conrad Hyers, professor of comparative religion at Gustavus Adolphus college in St. Peter, Minnesota criticized this as "a mentality manifests itself only in conservative churches, private-school enclaves, television programs of the evangelical right, and a considerable amount of Christian bookstore material; one often finds a literalist understanding of Bible and faith being assumed by those who have no religious inclinations, or who are avowedly antireligious in sentiment. Even in educated circles the possibility of more sophisticated theologies... is easily obscured by burning straw effigies of biblical literalism."

The term has been applied in reference to the hermeneutical practices of conservative Christians. According to the Elwell Evangelical Dictionary, the term literalism describes a practice that "seeks to discover the author's intent by focusing upon his words in their plain, most obvious sense". In this sense, a "literalist" reading of scripture would accept the existence of allegory, parable and metaphor in the Bible as seen for example in biblical poetry or the parables of Jesus.

Biblical literalism is not synonymous with biblical inerrancy. Whereas inerrancy doctrine deals with the truthfulness of the author's intended message , biblical literalism deals with the interpretation of certain messages being literal.

History

Biblical interpretations that were considered literalist have changed through history. For example: Saint Augustine, (4th century), claimed that the entire Bible should be interpreted in an as literal as possible way, but his own interpretation of the book of Genesis was made in such a way that would be considered "allegorical" by some modern readers (see Augustine's interpretation of Genesis).

Literalism and inerrancy

It is commonly taught in the most conservative Christian seminaries that certain sections of the Bible should be interpreted as literal statements of the author and are not intended as parable. These include creation in Genesis, the flooding of the entire world in Genesis, the lifespans as enumerated by geneologies of Genesis, the historicity of the narrative accounts of Ancient Israel, the supernatural intervention of God in history, and Jesus' miracles These views however do not contend the literalistic values that parables, metaphores and allegory are not existent in the Bible but rather relies on contextual interpretations based on the author's intention.

As a part of Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy conservative christian scholarship affirms the following:

"WE AFFIRM the necessity of interpreting the Bible according to its literal, or normal, sense. The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of speech and literary forms found in the text.

WE DENY the legitimacy of any approach to Scripture that attributes to it meaning which the literal sense does not support."

Noted inerrentists Normal Geisler in his commentary on the Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics states: "The literal sense of Scripture is strongly affirmed here. To be sure the English word literal carries some problematic connotations with it. Hence the words normal and grammatical-historical are used to explain what is meant. The literal sense is also designated by the more descriptive title grammatical-historical sense. This means the correct interpretation is the one which discovers the meaning of the text in its grammatical forms and in the historical, cultural context in which the text is expressed."

Arguments against Biblical literalism

Bible scholars, even those who are theologically conservative, agree that parables should not be taken literally.
"Biblical literalism contributes to a lot of mental illness"
"Biblical literalism commits a seductive form of idolatry."
Biblical Literlists are heretics
Biblical literalism conflicts with the cultural context of scriptures.
Biblical Literalism is akin to sexism.
Taking a literalist stance on biblial violence promotes violence.

References

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Houghton Mifflin; 4 edition (September 14, 2000) defines literalism as "1. Adherence to the explicit sense of a given text or doctrine. 2. Literal portrayal; realism."
Gerald T. Sheppard "Future of the Bible: Beyond Liberalism and Literalism", United Church Pub House (June 1990)
George Regas "Take Another Look At Your Good Book". Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2000
Smith, Rev. R. A. "The Covenantal Kingdom" Christian Liberty Press (January 1996) ISBN: 1930092237
Hyers, Conrad "Biblical Literalism: Constricting the Cosmic Dance" Christian Century August 4-11, 1982, p. 823
Bartkowski, John "Beyond Biblical Literalism and Inerrancy: Conservative Protestants and the Hermeneutic Interpretation of Scripture'". Sociology of Religion, 57, 1996.
^ Elwell, Walter A. "Elwell Evangelical Dictionary" Baker Publishing Group (May 1996) ISBN: 0801020492
Vanhoozer, Kevin "The Inerrancy of Scripture" Latimer House (1992)
^ The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1997)
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Bible-Science/PSCF3-88Young.html
http://www.dts.edu/about/doctrinalstatement/
http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/pages/resources/publications/knowingDoing/2004/Miracles.pdf#search=%22miracles%20C.S.Lewis%22
http://www.icr.org/pdf/imp/imp-395.pdf#search=%22Genesis%20Flood%20Whitcomb%22
http://www.dts.edu/about/doctrinalstatement/
Henry A Virkler (1981) Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation
http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago2.html
http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago2.html
http://www.episcopalian.org/efac/articles/inerncy.htm
http://www.whosoever.org/editorial/literal.html
http://people.cas.sc.edu/lewiske/heresy.html
http://people.cas.sc.edu/lewiske/heresy.html
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1332
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2005.00241.x
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=847

Misplaced Pages

History

Literalism and inerrancy

Arguments against Biblical literalism

References

See also

Literalists reported views on sex

Further reading