Making Sense of the Bible Post-Deconstruction

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I’ll admit, I (Gary Alan) really don’t like playing board games with my kids. Cards? Yes. Movie nights? Absolutely. But board games? Pass. But with summer comes more time at home and longer evenings as bedtime grows later and later until someone finally suggests we play a game. This is traditionally my cue to quietly head upstairs, but last night I was cornered and forced to play Jenga with the family. Horror of horrors.

Though I reluctantly joined, I found myself getting into it and wanting to win. The game went on and the tower became shakier and more unstable, until finally my son removed a block and the entire structure collapsed. He wasn’t happy. There were tears and ripped sackcloth and gnashing of teeth. 

The crashing of the tower got me thinking about the untenable structures upon which we often build our faith. As I mentioned last week, we’ve particularly done this with the Bible, especially in the 500 years since the Protestant Reformation. The foundation of our understanding of what the Bible is and what it’s for was laid on the sinking sand of inerrancy, with the rest of the framework taking shape around it. And because it was the foundation, it inevitably became the lynchpin of Christian belief: Pull on it, and the entire structure collapses, threatening to take the rest of our faith with it. 

But it doesn’t have to.

Buried under the rubble of our modern interpretation are the blueprints for an ancient, much more solid (and faithful) understanding of the Bible, one that takes into account the ambiguity of the text and how it was shaped over thousands of years by our spiritual ancestors. These blueprints can help us create a more realistic structure that isn’t built on a foundation of sand. Unfortunately, most of us are not taught that these blueprints exist, so once our old understanding crumbles, we’re left with a huge void, lots of unknowns, and no way forward.

That’s why we’re launching “Making Sense of the Bible Post-Deconstruction,” an online course designed to help you rediscover and embrace a more ancient, nuanced, and transformative approach to the Bible. We’d love for you to join us for this LIVE course next month! Please click here for more details about the class and how to gain access.

Even if this is not something you’d find helpful right now, do you know someone who would? We want this course to be available for as many people who need it as possible, but we can’t do that without your help. If you are able, any tax-deductible gift you make to Sophia Society during the month of June will be applied toward the development of the course and scholarships for those who can’t afford it. We also need your help in spreading the word, so please forward this email to someone who might be interested in the course. (Also, please share any and all of our social posts about it! You can find us on Instagram @sophia.society, on Twitter @sophia_society, and on Facebook @sophia.society.)

Course Details

When: Starting mid-July, this course will meet for an hour once a week for four weeks.

Cost: FREE to all Patreon supporters and/or donors of the Sophia Society. If you’re not yet a supporter, click here to become a Patreon patron or click here to make a tax-deductible gift! Any gift amount will qualify you to be enrolled in the course (or you may gift your enrollment to someone else, just email us at course@sophiasociety.org to let us know who you’d like to gift it to).

Where: Online (Zoom)

WHAT WE’RE READING, LISTENING TO, WATCHING

Melanie:

• Listening to: Dead Run: The Murder of a Lawman and the Greatest Manhunt of the Modern American West by Dan Schultz

• Watching: A Million Little Things (ABC)

Gary Alan:

• Watching: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Amazon Prime)

• Listening to: Blue by Joni Mitchell