Fundamentalists and biblical critics alike fail to acknowledge the political character of their account of the Bible, and they fail to do so for very similar reasons. They want to disguise how their “interpretations” underwrite the privileges of the constituency that they serve. Admittedly, such realities may also be hidden from themselves, convinced as they are of the “objectivity” of their method. According, fundamentalism and biblical criticism are Enlightenment ideologies in the service of the fictive agent if the Enlightenment – namely, the rational individual – who believes that truth in general (and particularly) the truth of the Christian faith) can be known without initiation into a community that requires transformation of the self.
Stanley Hauerwas, Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America, page 35
Excerpt #9
Published
Justin DaMetz 