Culture and assumptions matter

Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes I think will become my new recommendation for the place to start when thinking about how we read and understand scripture.

I have made a pretty concerted effort as a lay person to understand hermeneutics (the science and art of reading and understanding scripture) over the past half dozen years. Much of what I have read is oriented toward the academic, the theologian or the pastor. And I am glad I have read it. But books like that are not easy to recommend to an average reader that wants an overview, and doesn’t have a good background in theology, biblical languages or history or linguistics.

Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes is an introduction to cultural anthropology as much as it is an introduction to scripture. And this is really important. Some conservative Christians in their reaction against liberal cultural values also react against understanding different cultures and perspectives as ‘post-modern’. This often occurs not only in an attempt to uphold Christian values, but because some conservatives are also somewhat insular and have only been exposed to US American Culture.

Because of that lack of exposure, we have fights about bible translations but most of us don’t actually know another language or the basics of what it means to translate from one language to another. We have disagreements about what constitutes as sin, but we do not understand how activities within recent memory have shifted (within the church) from a status of ‘sinful’ to ‘personal freedom’ (think card playing, going to movies and drinking.)

The authors of Misreading Scripture have written an easy to read introduction to how we as Western Christians look at scripture (and culture more broadly) differently from those that are different from us (Eastern Christians today, Biblical era Christians, etc.)

There are nine different areas (each a chapter) divided into three sections. This is really just an introduction, but this would make a very good book to work through in a small group or a high school or college group.

Part one looks at the biggies of money, sex and food as illustrations of ways that we look differently at Mores. The second chapter looks at race and ethnicity (with a bit of geography). The third chapter looks very briefly at language and translation issues.

Part two explores collectivist and individualistic cultures, honor/shame and right/wrong cultures and time.

Part three focuses on rules and relationships, then virtue and vice and finally God’s will.

This is a fairly light book. I read all of it in two days. But it is not a light weight book. The subject matter is serious and handled well. But the tone is light, full of stories and illustrations, practical and rooted in the bible. It is also clear that Western is not wrong and Eastern is not inherently right. The issue instead is that we need to understand our own culture so we can see how scripture can speak to it. The authors quote the famous CS Lewis line about reading old books. But too often when we hear that line quoted, the point is missed. We don’t read old books because old books are better. We read old books because the authors of those old books had different cultures and assumptions from our own. The different ways those old books look at the world or at scripture or at culture help us to better understand our own time, culture and theology.

The problem with books like this is that we can become lost in the enormity of the task of reading scripture. We will never fully understand all of the nuances and cultural and linguistic issues. And so some people will simply say, there is no reason to read the bible for ourselves. But that is not the point of this book. The point is that scripture is important and should be read both individually and communally with our church. But we should not just read the surface, we should seek out the deeper meanings of scripture and see where we have become blind to the meaning of the text because we are reading the bible with underlying assumptions.

We all have those assumptions and this book makes a good start at showing the reader where some of those cultural reading have actually inverted the meaning of scripture. As a person that wants to take seriously scripture, not just read the surface words, I think books like this are essential.

If you are interested in learning more, I think this is the book to start with. Then NT Wright’s Scripture and the Authority of God, then Peter Enns’ The Bible Tells Me So, then John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One (links are to earlier Bookwi.se Reviews). From there there are lots of directions to go. But the four books together will illustrate:

-how we need cultural and historic awareness,
-how we need to place scriptural authority not in the words on the page and our understanding of those words, but in God,
-how we need to rely on biblical scholarship
-how scripture is a big, diverse story of God working through people, events and time to accomplish his purposes
-and how we need to see the interpretation of scripture as tentative and not fixed.

For some this list will show that I am no longer Evangelical, but I believe at this point, with tools that I have been given by a variety of authors, and by reading scripture in communication with historic tradition and a community of faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I think I am investing much more weight in the power of scripture to change and guide than I ever have before.

166 people found this helpful

Eye-opener for a Bible-veteran

Would you consider the audio edition of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes to be better than the print version?

This is one of the best audiobooks I've listened to. The narrator does an excellent job and helps to dive into this book that is giving me food for thought for many weeks.

Any additional comments?

It was a great book that helped me open my eyes for many surprising blind-spots I developed reading my Bible. The writers explain their points clear, also from out of their own experiences in different cultures.

36 people found this helpful

Great premise, terrible execution.

One of the authors spent much time in Indonesia. This led the author to draw HUNDREDS of conclusions from Indonesian culture. This book fails completely to "remove cultural blinders" as it states, but rather swaps one set of blinders for another. This book will encourage you to stop reading the Bible through Western eyes, and start reading it through Eastern eyes.

This book is also exhibits that ineffable Christian quality of passive judgement, which assumes that the reader will be on board with the authors' (skewed) view of Christian character and appropriate behavior.

I strongly encourage reading this book ONLY if you are extremely well educated where the Bible is concerned, as well as have spent copious time in foreign countries teaching the Bible to new believers. That way you will not be led to believe that the Indonesian way of interpreting scripture is correct, anymore than the Western way is.

The other author, a historian I believe, provided some helpful insights, but was cut short by the author-with-Indonesian-experience all too often. As good point was about to make an appearance, in would swoop that wonderfully overused segue "When I, Randy, was in Indonesia..."

The narrator was pretty good.

40 people found this helpful

Delivered more than what was promised!

Educational, even for the religion and philosophy majors out there! Interesting to finally see a mainstream Christian book address the conflicting passages in light of historical evidence and a treasure trove of truly fascinating topics discussed. I learned to read both Hebrew and Koine Greek in college and became able to translate original texts in their ancient language in to modern English. This took those lessons I learned a long time ago and expanded on them by providing historical notes that I didn't get in college. It was hard to put down, it's a real eye opener! If you want the truth, be plenty sure you can handle the truth before embarking into this book. It sets the record straight on many topics that the majority of Christian churches today have got all wrong. I can attest to its' conclusions, logics and truthfulness in the lessons. I studied this all before and this really is a collection of what most pastors either don't know and just get wrong, or worse, they know the truth but continue to distort it to not rock the boat and help them to feel safe preaching theology that conforms to their personal taste and opinion, instead of preaching the truth and letting the chips fall where they may. I recommend this book highly and believe it could be the first step you take on your journey to research, translate and study God's word for yourself instead of being happy to sit back and be fed less than sound doctrine that makes us all feel good.

26 people found this helpful

A bit of a bait and switch

After listening to the audio sample of this book, I knew I had to read it! I was so excited to get a better understanding of the Scriptures through the original cultural context, which the audio sample give a very clear example of. Unfortunately, there were only two or three nuggets of historical cultural context that lenses to a better understanding of certain scripture passages. Most of the book describes how modern eastern cultures understand the Scriptures, which provided little value from what I came to expect from the audio sample.

34 people found this helpful

words and stuff

I would have probably liked this book more if the author didn't stop the whole book half a dozen times to talk down to "white men". perhaps it was the voice talent projecting. either way the chiding my skin color detracted from the text.

9 people found this helpful

Important read for anyone who preaches, teaches...

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Brandon O'Brien and Randolph Richards it a healthy reminder to any Christian preacher or teacher that the task of exegesis is necessary if one wants to get at what is actually in Scripture and not just preach on one's favorite prejudice or cultural stereotype. They point out that Scripture comes from a cultural context that is far removed from 21st century Western thinking. The assumptions made by the human authors of Scripture and the assumptions we make are profoundly different and can influence how we read and interpret the meaning of Scripture. If we are not careful, our understanding of what the authors are saying can be radically different from what they were trying to say when they first put pen to paper.

The authors identify a variety of ways in which grave errors of understanding can be made and then spend several chapters trying to explain and illustrate how such errors can be made. The authors are pastors, seminary teachers and have spent a number of years as missionaries and pastors in very different cultures from contemporary America. These cross-cultural experiences help to enrich their discussion with illustrations that bring the discussion from the abstract to the concrete. Factors such as individualistic versus collectivist cultures, what behaviors are considered virtue or vice in one culture or another, as well as what aspects of the Bible text stands out as more or less important all relate to cultural differences and how Scripture is understood. In the end the authors offer no easy list of do's and don'ts. Such a list is too "Western" and misses the point that an cross-cultural interaction demands careful attention to the assumptions and mindset that we bring to the interaction. Reading and understanding Scripture is very much a cross-cultural experience. The best way to approach this challenge is to apply the challenge of solid exegesis to the task of understanding Scripture.

I spent about 25 years of my adult life in the Western Pacific Islands in cultures quite different from mainland America. Much of that time was spent in one form of ministry or another and currently I am involved in the formation of men for ministry as permanent deacons in the Catholic Church. Thus, my background is similar to that of the authors. I also did graduate work in anthropology. The book resonated with my experience. Frequently I would say to myself, "Yes, they got that right!"

The narrator did a good job in keeping the listener engaged and in speaking clearly.

If I have any critique of the book is that toward the end it seemed to drag a bit. The authors had made their point but continued on with the discussion. This may be a function of my familiarity with the topic more than their writing or editing. Someone less familiar with the material may have benefited from the additional discussion.

It is a book well worth reading/hearing and should be required reading for anyone ministering in a cross-cultural context or who desires to be sensitive to the cross-cultural implications of interpreting Scripture.

24 people found this helpful

Awesome!

What an eye opener. This book will definitely change the way I read the Bible.

7 people found this helpful

It makes some good points

The main message of this book is that a Western reader is all too likely to bring a couple of biases when trying to understand stories from the Bible because of some major differences that contemporary secular culture has compared to those of the cultures of the original authors. The first is a more individualistic way of understanding directives as opposed to a communitarian, tribal-based understanding. One of the two authors brings out numerous examples from his experience in the communitarian cultures of rural Indonesia while on mission, which probably isn't exactly the same as where the biblical authors were coming from but closter to the the pronounced emphasis on the self in Western culture. The examples of incidents in the scripture which transform in meaning when considered as addressing an entire community or nation rather than an isolated reader are quite helpful and lend credence to this topic.

The other is how our idea of private shame and guilt is contrasted with public shaming before the entire community in ancient times, where it was one of the most extreme penalties to be applied to one considered to be a wrongdoer. Again, there are examples with citations which make the point clearer. They do not break down the object of shame too much according to social rank, gender, free vs. slave but it is pretty clear that readers have to be on the lookout for these dimensions as well.
The authors are not strongly in the camp of literal interpretation of Scripture, which I appreciated, or at least it did not come off as strongly Fundamentalist exegisis. My guess is that they are coming from a broadly mainstream mainline US Protestant perspective, but sensitive to a wider audience. The narrator of the audiobook did a decent job of communicating the authors' ideas, distinguishing between the two of them by name where one of them was responsible for a particular observation.

6 people found this helpful

Extremely disappointing

Vanishingly few Biblical historical examples giving new insights to understanding of scriptures via linguistic or archeological facts. Mostly made up of naval-gazing social theories explained at a middle school academic level. There was a five minute period where the phrase "white male" was used about a dozen times, as well as a virtue signaling digression wherein the USA is judged to be horribly, heavily bigoted against "minorities", while the fact that the author adopted an "African-American" child somehow adds value to the argument.

The authors seems to think that everyone is as caught up with "race/ethnicity" as they are.

33 people found this helpful