today's pet peeve:
Jul. 14th, 2012 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird1I really hate people calling the Bible "the world's greatest instruction manual".
The Bible is many things – instruction manual it ain't. If you must compare it to a modern publishing genre to make a quasi-theological point, a better option would be "travel journal". (Which, yes, would be metaphorical. But not nearly so metaphorical as trying to claim that the Book of Joshua is a list of instructions for we the reader to follow.)
The Bible is many things – instruction manual it ain't. If you must compare it to a modern publishing genre to make a quasi-theological point, a better option would be "travel journal". (Which, yes, would be metaphorical. But not nearly so metaphorical as trying to claim that the Book of Joshua is a list of instructions for we the reader to follow.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 08:27 am (UTC)I don't know what genre I would pick. When I was in confirmation class our pastor talked about it being a story/document that was kind of a...dialogue?(but not, because more than two voices? or maybe, colloquially, yes?) among people in relationship to God, and trying to understand/define/celebrate/redefine/experience that relationship...
It makes sense that way to me, although I can't express it well.
Which isn't to say you can't use something like that as source material to kind of work out an instruction manual, especially in community...but that's different.