It started here, and for more you can go here, but Dr. Gayle tagged me (here) before he quite blogging (for only a season, I hope).
Here are the rules:
- Name the five books (or scholars) that had the most immediate and lasting influence on how you read the Bible. Note that these need not be your five favorite books, or even the five with which you most strongly agree. Instead, I want to know what five books have permanently changed the way you think.
- Tag five others.
So, here’s mine:
- Paradox of Salvation.
- Kenneth Bailey
- Eugene Nida
- Bart Ehrman
- The aforementioned Dr. Gayle
Why?
When researching Wisdom/Logos, I came across book number 1, and it took me a while to get it (financial reasons), but once I did, it opened my eyes to the world of hard hitting scholarship without being untrue to bible-based principles. I learned about ‘theologia crucis‘ and the finer points of looking at the author’s connectivity to another.
I was in Logan County, WV, visiting a Presbyterian minister when he suggested Bailey and his view on the parables. It didn’t take long to figure out why.
While struggling with biblical translation, I came across Nida who thoroughly takes you through translating the bible for the reader.
I know, I know – Bart Ehrman. As much as I dislike his approaches and his conclusions, sometimes Iron is needed to sharpen Iron. All of his distracting as made me focus on a defense.
Dr. Gayle, lately withdrawn from blogging, has forced me to think deeply about a lot things, especially the gender roles in the Bible, as well as translation techniques in trying to drawing out not only what was being said, but what was being heard.
Now, for the tags -
June 20th, 2009 6:11 pm
[...] at The Church of Jesus Christ: Peter Doble, Kenneth Bailey, Eugene Nida, Bart Ehrman, J.K. [...]
June 25th, 2009 5:40 pm
Polycarp,
Even if several days late reading what you write, even if you humble me by including me in a list with profound thinkers like Doble, Bailey, Nida, and Ehrman – I still appreciate reading your blog. You make many of us want to keep blogging.
J.K. Gayle
June 25th, 2009 9:38 pm
Dr. Gayle, while things do pull back to different worlds, I hope that perhaps one day you will return to blogging. I personally have felt enriched by your viewpoint, even as the Fundamentalist (I once was.) I have felt, even in a late trial, that the drive to look beyond the presentation has helped me deal with things in a better way in which I might not have in the past. While reading the Scriptures, I have found that I enjoy trying to look at it from different viewpoints – and that not everything different, not every viewpoint, either more liberal, or more conservative, is ‘bad’ because it is different. I believe that a certain feminist viewpoint is needed when reading something that has been taken as so centered on the masculine. But I digress.
I appreciate the kind words, Kurke (trying it out).