Dead Bible Sketch

By a round-about means, a conversation on Facebook among bibliobloggers led to Tim Bulkeley offering a variation on the famous Dead Parrot Sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He wrote:

Preacher: This Scripture, Sir, is not dead, merely sleeping, or somewhat lethargic.

Congregant: No I tell you! It’s dead, deceased, karked it, it has kicked the bucket right out of the stadium…

At which point I immediately thought two things. First, the phrase “It’s been nailed to the pulpit” crossed my mind, followed promptly by the desire to share what Tim had come up with on my blog.

In the academic study of any text there is a process of disenchantment (learning to use our critical facilities, to analyse, to probe and in some cases dissect, in a way that increases understanding of a text but often at the expense of the magic it once had for us) and reenchantment (learning to appreciate the text as a living, vibrant thing even after becoming acquainted with issues, aporias, inconsistencies and other things that are part of all human literature). The Bible is no different, in one sense, but in another, getting from enchantment to disenchantment can be more of a challenge, as can getting from disenchantment to reenchantment. Sometimes assumptions about the Bible being the “living Word of God” make people resist learning more about what the Bible really is, while for others, discovering the humanity of these texts robs them of everything that made them interesting.

However, many have found that they can “read the Bible again for the first time” and discover the ability to encounter it as a living, vibrant, challenging and provocative text when viewed from the perspective of such a “second naïveté.” And so I find myself wondering whether anyone might have interest in putting together a Monty Pythonesque “Dead Bible Sketch” that explores and illustrates that theme of the Bible’s deadness and/or aliveness in a humorous manner.

If you’ve never seen the original sketch, here it is: