{"id":1213,"date":"2010-06-08T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity\/"},"modified":"2010-06-08T10:03:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T10:03:00","slug":"the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html","title":{"rendered":"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/otagosh.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/new-angle-on-old-carol.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Otagosh shared this video of a funny song<\/a> which transforms a traditional carol into \u201cThe Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\u201d The irony (presumably intentional) is that it starts with the doctrine of perspecuity \u2013 the teaching that Scripture is clear \u2013 and yet goes on to list doctrines about which Christians who agree in affirming the authority and clarity of Scripture disagree on. This is too good to save until Christmas\u2026<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jW58lVVcu4w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Of course, in recent discussion of earliest Christianity, this is something of a moot point, both because the only Scriptures the Church had were the Scriptures of Israel, and so there were no direct answers to \u201cNew Testament questions\u201d, but also because options such as allegorical interpretation allowed one to read one\u2019s beliefs into Scripture. [UPDATE: <a href=\"http:\/\/pursiful.com\/2010\/06\/first-century-ecumenism\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Darrell Pursiful has posted again on this topic, on early Christian \u201cecumenism\u201d<\/a>, offering a list of major groups\/currents reflected in the New Testament.]<\/p>\n<p>That leads on to the next post I\u2019d like to share, with a slight rewrite. Today <a href=\"http:\/\/unreasonablefaith.com\/2010\/06\/08\/quote-of-the-moment-eisegesis\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">at Unreasonable Faith there is a post about Eisegesis<\/a> \u2013 i.e. the reading of beliefs already held into Biblical texts. To rework a quote there, this approach (of which we are probably all guilty at least sometimes) transforms the bumper sticker slogan into a more honest form: \u201cI believe it, (therefore) the Bible says it, that settles it.\u201d There\u2019s also an article on this topic on <a href=\"http:\/\/slacktivist.typepad.com\/slacktivist\/2010\/06\/sex-money-part-2.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Slacktivist<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also related is Tripp Fuller\u2019s post on <a href=\"http:\/\/homebrewedchristianity.com\/2010\/06\/07\/the-future-of-christianity-is-not-a-postmodern-glorification-of-diversity-moltmann-speaks\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Juergen Moltmann\u2019s view of the relevance of Trinitarianism to Christian unity-in-diversity<\/a>, as is Joel Watts\u2019 post on <a href=\"http:\/\/thechurchofjesuschrist.us\/2010\/06\/building-the-appalachian-hermeneutic\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">building an Appalachian hermeneutic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, there is a post including a video on Pharyngula which illustrates in both a comical and a serious way our blind spot as a society when it comes to recognizing that <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/pharyngula\/2010\/06\/sometimes_youve_got_to_wondera.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">we\u2019re the baddies<\/a>, and another from Ken Pulliam on how <a href=\"http:\/\/formerfundy.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/belief-in-god-right-hemisphere-and.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">cases of split brain can apparently result in simultaneous belief and non-belief in God<\/a>. Perhaps what we should learn from this is that the roots of diversity and disagreement are within each of us and not merely a result of our interaction with others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6202076961152790893?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into \u201cThe Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\u201d The irony (presumably intentional) is that it starts with the doctrine of perspecuity \u2013 the teaching that Scripture is clear \u2013 and yet goes on to list doctrines about which Christians who agree in affirming the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into &quot;The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.&quot; The irony (presumably\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into &quot;The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.&quot; The irony (presumably\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6202076961152790893?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html\",\"name\":\"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into \\\"The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\\\" The irony (presumably\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity","description":"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into \"The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\" The irony (presumably","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity","og_description":"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into \"The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\" The irony (presumably","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6202076961152790893?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html","name":"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-08T10:03:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"Otagosh shared this video of a funny song which transforms a traditional carol into \"The Twelve Doctrines of Christmas.\" The irony (presumably","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/06\/the-clarity-of-scripture-and-christian-diversity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Clarity of Scripture and Christian Diversity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}