On Heaven and the Holy Bible

Dear Abbot:

People have many different interpretations of the Bible. How do you personally decide which possible reading is right?

- Dazed and Amazed


Dear DA:

Good question. First, I do not accept the value of textual criticism as practiced by, for example, the “Jesus seminar.” It is irrelevant. The Bible as it is was accepted by Church council; at this point, it does not matter who wrote or said what when. The Bible as given has been declared to be authoritative, not any subset of it.

In any case, textual criticism of this sort gets us nowhere; the assumptions on which it is based are always arbitrary, and must be, at this distance in time.

It also subverts the Bible's purpose, which is to serve as a guide to the faithful. Once you can pick and choose among its passages and take them out of context, you can quote it to advocate almost anything, and it is no longer any kind of guide.

Arriving at the correct interpretation of the Bible, it seems to me, follows the common sense rules for arriving at the correct interpretation of any document or piece of literature. Apparent contradictions must be reconciled, not ignored or chosen between. Genre, intent, and audience should be considered. Cultural and historical background is relevant. One must make allowance for literary devices, such as irony, hyperbole, metaphor. This last is the mistake Bible “fundamentalists” make. They imagine the Bible is a shopping list or a piece of technical writing.

Abbot

Dear Abbot:

Jesus kept making two apparently contradictory claims about heaven:
1. You never know when it is coming
2. It is here right now among you
Which is correct?

Dazed and Amazed


Dear DA:

Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven as a seed, as leaven, as a treasure hidden in a field, as a pearl, as a fishing net. These all suggest heaven as a potential; whereas at the end of time, often in the same allegories, it becomes a vast judgment, in which good is separated from bad. It has these two phases or conditions, as water can be either liquid or ice.

It is in that first sense, surely, that it is present among us now: as a potential. As a potential, I would even suggest that its seat in this world is the imagination.

Also, even at the end of time, heaven clearly does not embrace everything. The chaff is thrown out; the bad fish are thrown back; the evil servant is driven away.

Heaven is found among us, I would think, firstly in loving, altruistic acts and relationships. If all our acts and relationships were mutually loving and altruistic, this world would be heaven. We would be there now.

It is found at the pinnacle of prayer, and by extension in ritual, in the mass and in the Eucharist; in the sacraments. This is what is called the “mystical experience.” If all our moments were as God-directed as we are at the pinnacle of prayer, this would be heaven. For that is the essence of heaven: being in the full presence of God.

And, I personally believe, it is found in great art, or more correctly, in the experiences expressed and evoked by art, the experience we call inspiration. If this world were to become all art, it would be heaven. God himself is a potter, in Genesis, a Creator, and he made us in his image: he made us to be artists. The architectural vision of the New Jerusalem is a vision of living in a vast work of art. The Mass is high art, multimedia.

Romans 14:7 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”

At the same time, every act of kindness, every work of art or craft, and every mass or prayer, builds the eventual articulated heaven, the New Jerusalem.

Abbot