Loving God through Dialectic Thinking (You're not supposed to love God with all your mind?)

The problems with translation:

I've often heard it that those who wrote the Bible were inspired and guided by God. And those who translated the Bible were too. And even when you read it you are inspired to get the right message.  Really? So, if I read a verse in the emptiness of my room- I am guaranteed to know exactly- or even pretty closely-what I'm supposed to from that verse? Or what God really meant or Jesus said? I'm not so sure.

For example, our study group looked at "the greatest commandment"- Matthew 22:37. I figured if we should delve into the true meaning of anything- it would be the greatest commandment. The greatest commandment usually reads something like this in English: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind." Seems pretty simple to me- although I'm a little fuzzy on what the heart and soul are. If anything, the mind is the most clear of all of those words.

But let's look at the Greek for that verse- arguably what Matthew was written in (some will hold it was written in Aramaic, but others argue Greek. Regardless, the oldest version we have is Greek and the Latin, German, and English versions came from the Greek).

o de ephē autō agapēseis kurion ton theon sou en olē tē kardia sou kai en olē tē psuchē sou kai en olē tē dianoia sou

Most of the words don't offer too much trouble as far as linking them to the English translation. But, the bold words are worthy of a closer look. First, agapeseis- familiar to most Christians as "agape love". Greek, it turns out, has four words- that I know of- for the English catch-all word: "love". Agape, Eros, Philia, and Storge. In this case, agape was what was used- love the Lord with Agape love. It is defined as a deeper love than the attraction suggested by "eros" and a more sacrificial love than that associated with Philia. Without the Greek translation, Christians would not be familiar with the term "agape"- and its special meaning.

"Kurion" means "Lord." "Kardia" is "heart"- and was meant to depict one's character. "Psuche", or psyche- "soul" was associated with the breath of life, what makes us human- as opposed to an animal. And now we come to "Dianoia".

Dianoia, it turns out, does not mean "mind." Instead, this term was associated with Plato and discursive thinking. Discursive was thinking that came from reason and not one's intuition. Further, reasoning, by the Greeks, was thought of as very difficult- if not impossible- for most humans to engage in... alone. The Greeks overcame this by engaging in dialectic thinking.

The Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that relies on two or more open-minded individuals presenting conclusions based on logic to each other and all arriving at a different and higher level of understanding about the particular subject. Note the difference between this method and debating- wherein someone "wins." In the dialectic, everyone is assumed to be wrong, and yet through the sharing of different ways with which to think about a subject- all are changed.

If this is really what Jesus said, then the commandment- remember, the greatest one- the one that all other laws hinge upon- might read more like this:

"Have a sacrificial love for God with your character, your individuality, and through discursive and dialectic  thinking."

My conclusion to this is that there may be other areas- areas that are important to our understanding of the Bible and God- that we may benefit greatly from reading the original language it was written in.

Now, some may argue that loving God with one's "mind" may encompass both individual study and dialectic- and even other types- of thinking and that may be true. But if the real command was to engage in reason- and you buy into the Greek concept of reason- that on one's own reason is very difficult- if not impossible- then I'm not sure how one can arrive at any other conclusion but that in order to love God, one must engage others in discourse with an open mind.

Now, I'm not saying that one shouldn't read the Bible alone or think about God alone- but I am saying it is possible that that would not be following that specific part of the commandment. It might be that reading the Bible alone fulfills loving God with one's individuality. But loving God with one's dialectic thinking implies more than one person. It also implies an open mind. Even more- it implies using one's mind.

I've heard a lot of people discount using one's senses, reason, and intellect. It is- I think- true that to God we are pretty ignorant. And it should be true in my opinion that we can't possibly be comfortable with any conclusions drawn from our relatively small amount of sensory capabilities. But, I would argue that is why the dialectic is so important. Harnessing the ability of others to further one's own understanding- and contributing to others' understanding: that may be the best we humans can do to overcoming our limitations.

If this is true, then maybe God was attempting to help us by specifically steering us towards the dialectic. It's something worth thinking about...

Flooding in front of our eyes: Are we ignoring God in favor of the Bible?

If any of you have been reading this blog for some time you've probably noticed a trend in some of the posts: a struggle with how to interpret the Bible. I see some issues with a literal translation, and yet- what is the alternative? As one of my youth pastors once said: "in picking and choosing what to believe from the Bible you, in effect, become your own god."

But can that be all there is to life? Believe a literal translation of the Bible, blindly, and, through little effort of your own (unless you were unlucky enough to have been born into a non-Christian family and/or country, which would mean you would have expended lots of effort overcoming your cultural background) you reach Heaven? As a non-believe once asked me, "Why would God be so enamored with a bunch of automotons- bent on believing whatever their parents and/or society told them to- without so much as a critical thought?"

It reminds me of a story that I've posted once or twice already, but I think it is worth repeating:

A farmer is in Iowa during a flood. The river is overflowing, with water surrounding the farmer's home up to his front porch. As he is standing there, a boat comes up, The man in the boat says "Jump in, I'll take you to safety."
The farmer crosses his arms and says stubbornly, "Nope, I put my trust in God."
The boat goes away. The water rises to the second floor. Another boat comes up, the man says to the farmer who is now in the second story window, "Jump in, I'll save you."
The farmer again says, "Nope, I put my trust in God."
The boat goes away. Now the water is up to the roof. As The farmer stands on the roof, a helicopter comes over, and drops a ladder. The pilot yells down to the farmer "I'll save you, climb the ladder."
The farmer says "Nope, I put my trust in God."
The helicopter goes away. The water comtinues to rise and sweeps the farmer off the roof. He drowns.
The farmer goes to heaven. God sees him and says "What are you doing here?"
The farmer says "I put my trust in you and you let me down."
God says, "What do you mean, let you down? I sent you two boats and a helicopter!!!"

Now, we all laugh at this joke today and if you're like me you wonder at someone who would believe in something that he can't explain (God) and yet not believe in something he can. It reminds me of those people who deny medical treatment to their kids in favor of prayer. I want to yell out: "maybe God already answered your prayer and sent you a doctor!"

Likewise, I sometimes get the feeling that something similar may be in store in the Afterlife for me if I have lived by a literal interpretation of the Bible alone and ignored everything else as "man's folly". I can imagine God saying, "I created you in my own image (knowledge of self?), gave you reason, gave you the scientific method, gave you the potential for critical thought, etc.- and you chose to waste those gifts? How could you be so confident in something that you devoted no critical thought to? How can you be so pompous as to think you have Me figured out from only one of the tools I provided?"

To me "faith" is a more complex topic than we give it credit for. Believers seem to want to wrap it up in a nice little box and either you have it or you don't. Blind faith, some will say, is what God wants. Doubt, examination, and alternative possibilities are the Devil's tools and man's undoing and overconfidence. And yet I can't get why God would reward an uncritical approach to His universe. Why give us all the tools He has given us if He didn't expect us to use them- not to come to a total understanding- but to grow closer in understanding?

Maybe faith isn't just a blind faith in what our parents and society tells us, but instead faith entails believing that not everything is as simple as it appears. Maybe faith means trusting our senses and not ignoring them when they seem (from our vantage point) to contradict church doctrine. Maybe faith involves assuming that we don't live in a "matrix"-type existence and that what we see, measure, feel, etc.- is reality. To believe that all scientists are part of some worldwide conspiracy headed by the devil seems to me to run counter to that definition of faith.

Surely the knowledge of physics passed on through the generations for the past few hundred years has done wonders for the collective knowledge of the human race. If anything, I would propose it has deepened the mystery as to how God functions and how the universe came into being. I'm not saying ignore all verses in the Bible as false and start believing everything that comes out of scientific journals. But, I'm not sure we should discount them all either- the reality of God may exist in some mysterious mixture of both the Bible AND science- and wouldn't we hate to have been working at cross-purposes because we think our grasp of the Bible gives us all the answers? Can we be so confident?