In this episode, we get into our ever evolving relationship with the Bible. We reflect on our early experiences with the Bible as children, including the simplified and often traumatizing stories we were taught. As we grew older, both of us felt pressure to read the Bible regularly and experienced a ton of guilt when we didn’t meet those expectations. Brian shares how his discovery of his queerness led him to search for inclusion in the Bible, while Shannon explores his journey of reading the Bible academically and finding new meaning through artistic interpretation. We also discuss the importance of understanding the historical and cultural context of the Bible and the importance of knowing history to help make sense of faith.

Takeaways

Chapters

(00:27) Early relationship with the Bible  

(04:07) Searching for inclusion  

(05:32) Viewing the Bible as a creative story  

(06:02) Source material for creative works  

(06:30) Reading the Bible from a Jewish perspective  

(07:00) Different interpretations of the Bible  

(09:21) Navigating Christian and Jewish perspectives  

(10:48) Transitioning and reimagining the Bible  

(13:23) Memorizing Bible verses and devotionals  

(14:49) Engaging with the Bible academically  

(16:14) Finding new meaning through artistic interpretation  

(24:27) The power of texts and foundational documents  

(30:07) Knowing history and making sense of faith  

(34:20) Living with tensions and making decisions  

(44:10) The importance of community and communal discernment

Resources:

If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

The post The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of The Bible appeared first on Queer Theology.