This began with a comment on an Episode 14 clip, that asked "why would I credit christians for abolishing chattel slavery when it was christians who started it?"Valid question. And one we explore in this video.
If slavery is wrong (and it is), why doesn’t the Torah simply prohibit owning another human being?
Leviticus 25 really does permit foreign slavery, and this Q&A does not attempt to explain the passage away.
Instead, we examine ancient Israel in its own historical and legal world, the very different institutions grouped under the English word slavery, Jesus’ distinction between Mosaic permission and God’s created ideal, Paul’s treatment of slave and master, Gregory of Nyssa’s early Christian attack on slaveholding, and the moral trajectory toward equality in Christ.
Christians practiced and defended slavery. Christians also drew from Christianity the principles by which slavery could be condemned.
So this is NOT a defense of slavery:
"Historical-cultural context does not make slavery good, it tells us what slavery we are talking about" (2 minutes 53 seconds)
The difficult question is not whether slavery existed in the Bible.
It is why the biblical story did not end there.
In Part 2, we will explore slavery from an Israelite's point of view, faithful application of these difficult passages, and the abolitionist movement across human history.
Difficulty isn’t contradiction.
Context isn’t an excuse.
And the abuse of a thing is not its essence.
Rants with Reason - Episode 14: God Reveals Beauty, Cultural Christianity & The Capacity To See
Check out the written version of Episode 14 on the blog:
https://www.riddleruns.com/rants-with-reason/episode-14-god-reveals-beauty-cultural-christianity
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and the world could use them.
Dialogue is the aim.
Truth is the goal.
Gentle with people.
Relentless with ideas.
Setting fire to presuppositions,
one discussion at a time.
Chapters
(00:00) - If Slavery Is Wrong, Why Didn’t God Say So?
(00:19) - Leviticus 25 Really Does Permit Slavery
(00:43) - The Bible Was Written for Us, Not to Us
(01:16) - “Slavery” Is Doing a Lot of Work
(01:46) - Ancient Israel Was Not the Atlantic Slave Trade
(02:29) - Warfare, Ḥerem, and Historical Categories
(03:02) - Why Regulate Slavery Instead of Abolishing It?
(03:21) - Jesus, Divorce, and the Hardness of Human Hearts
(04:21) - Regulation Does Not Equal God’s Ideal
(05:01) - Israel Is Called Somewhere Else
(05:32) - Has Torah Reached the Final Moral Horizon?
(05:46) - Christ Reverses the Logic of Power
(06:32) - Neither Slave Nor Free
(06:48) - Paul, Masters, and Onesimus
(07:17) - The Moral Architecture Is Being Dismantled
(07:55) - Christians Defended Slavery
(08:13) - Gregory of Nyssa Condemns Slaveholding
(08:49) - Why Credit Christianity With Abolition?
(09:25) - So Why Didn’t God Abolish Slavery?
(10:05) - The Story Has a Direction
Rants with Reason Episode 14 (Q&A): God Reveals Beauty: Cultural Christianity, and the Capacity to See
Rants with Reason is an extension of Hope and Love Works, a faith based media company, registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, dedicated to bringing hope and love to a world that desperately needs it.
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