Back on March 22, host Stephen West was joined by Wes, Michael Burgess, Ken Presting (calling in from the center of a vacuum cleaner, apparently), and (after 15 min or so) Law Ware reflect further on whether hermeneutics can really give us a reading of the Bible that gives us modern folks something that's not morally backward or otherwise crazy. This last Sunday, April 19. Continue Reading …
Episode 113: Jesus’s Parables
Drawing on John Dominic Crossan's The Power of Parable, mainly ch. 3 (2012), Paul Ricoeur's "Listening to the Parables of Jesus" (1974), and Paul Tillich's The New Being, ch. 1: "To Whom Much Is Forgiven..." (1955). Are these weird stories riddles, where if you figure out what they mean you get salvation? Are they homilies, telling you to go be like the Good Samaritan? Continue Reading …
Ricoeur on the “Second Naïveté”
If you were curious and confused as I was when Law started talking about the "second naïveté" on our Ricoeur episode, check out this page for a quick explanation. We start out (with the "first naïveté") taking all these religious fairy stories at face value. We then grow up and acquire critical distance, which not only involves applying what we've learned by actually dealing Continue Reading …
Topic for #113: Jesus’s Parables (Plus a Not School Group on Historical Jesus)
On 3/18, Wes, Mark, and Lawrence Ware discussed Jesus's Parables. Listen to the episode now. To read the versions of the Parables that we read, follow the links from the Wikipedia entry on the Parables. These entries generally give the traditional interpretations for each parable and include historic depictions of them in artworks, so that's pretty cool. If you're not Continue Reading …
Episode 112: Ricoeur on Interpreting Religion (Citizen Edition)
On Paul Ricoeur's "The Critique of Religion" and "The Language of Faith" (1973). Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it's a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it Continue Reading …
Episode 112: Ricoeur on Interpreting Religion
On Paul Ricoeur's "The Critique of Religion" and "The Language of Faith" (1973). Last episode taught us about hermeneutics, but how can this best be applied to the text for which hermeneutics was originally developed, i.e. the Bible? For Ricoeur, it's a two-way street: We need to change our understanding of the text (i.e. read it historically, recognizing for example that it Continue Reading …
Topic for #112: Paul Ricoeur on Religious Hermeneutics
On 3/4/15, we were joined by our former guest Law Ware to discuss two 1973 Paul Ricouer essays on applying hermeneutics to religion: "The Critique of Religion" and "The Language of Faith." Listen to the episode now. "The Critique of Religion" advised religious folks that they need to take the criticisms of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud seriously. He conglomerates them all in a Continue Reading …