Originally Posted by spiney2:
“On modern biblical criticism, it's worth reading the essay ''fern seed and elephants'', by c s lewis, there's a copy online ........”
It's interesting.
If I read it correctly, Lewis is making a plea to just read the books for goodness sake. I think SULLA would applaud, and I would also agree that just reading the New Testament for the inspirational experience of it is an authentic practice.
From that point of view the sort of doctrinal analysis people like Bultmann articulate serves little purpose. You are either inspired by the text or you are not. Otherwise, just read Bultmann and see if his books inspire - good luck with that.
But while Lewis touches on historicity, he does not really embrace the idea, and if he feels people like Bultmann are attempting it, he couldn't really have understood it at all - though he hits on the elephant in immediately (why accept the resurrection as literal truth and then go on to argue the toss about the feeding of the five thousand?).
For me historicity is not just about what may be literally true -
(It's living myth for goodness sake. If you don't understand the difference between myth and fiction we can't even begin a discussion!). It's more about context .... so Jesus cast the evil spirit into the herd of swine and they dived of the cliffside .... so why were orthodox Jews herding swine?? And what might a historic answer mean for that teaching?
edit: The sad thing for me is that many clergy seem to lay the greatest store by what can be believed to be literal truth, and I have heard Christmas sermons lay out in great detail what can be dismissed as fiction and what remains as 'true' belief. I think they miss the point of their own religion.