Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <cctr114 AT csc.canterbury.ac.nz>]

>But then I thought a bit more about the nature of the materials before 
>us in b-hebrew. Would you, any of you, agree that in order to properly 
>understand an ancient (or modern) religious text you need to have at 
>least a sympathetic understanding of the religion of the writers? The 
>same would apply to e.g. ancient Babylonian or Indian scriptures. 

This is somewhat off topic so delete this rather than complain if you
don't like it.

The people in the Religous studies department here are often openly
disdainful of the religions which they research and teach. They
often convey the impression that they are somewhat like a doctor
poking around at some pathological human condition. But they certainly
are not alone, many visiting scholars give the same impression. 
They question that you ask has the loaded phrase "properly understand".
While I think that in some of what they say they are being deliberately
stupid in taking the text in a super-literal manner, enough to make
even the hardest core literalist fundamentalist blush, I think they
would claim that they "properly understand" the text, it's everyone
else who are avoiding the clear meaning.

In some of what I've seen and others here agree with me, a number
of lecturers in religious studies trained for some type of ministry
within their religion while young and underwent some crisis of faith
and no longer believe the religion in question. Instead of retraining
for a different job, they went into religious studies instead. In one
lecture I attended, a former Anglican clergyman recounted how he felt
he needed to destroy any faith his students possessed so that they might
come to a true understanding of the religion. He lectured in both
Christianity and Judaism. 

If you draw a parallel with ornithologists and birds, people in 
religious studies are very often ornithologist-like, they are
not a member of the bird family (religion) they are studying.

Bill Rea, Computer Services Centre, \_ E-Mail   b.rea AT x.csc.canterbury.ac.nz
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