Archive for November 3rd, 2007
Brian McLaren and his “choose your own adventure hermeneutic”
Speaking of the OT Prophets, “They spoke of a day when lions would lie down with lambs (an image not of literal biological upheaval but of social transformation – so that the violent, lionlike people with power would no longer oppress the vulnerable ones: the poor, elderly, orphans, and widows). They described a time when swords and spears would be melted down and recast as farm implements, when nations would not “learn war anymore.” The Secret Message of Jesus.
What markers or indications in the text allow Brian to redefine lion and lamb? Why are lion and lamb not literal, but swords and spears are literal? I’m really starting to see the importance of our consistent, literal hermeneutic.
If lion does not equal lion and if lamb does not equal lamb, then don’t the swords then represent the people who oppress others within their own families (swords are hand-to-hand only), and then the spears represent the people who oppress others in other societies and families (spears can be thrown a distance)? So the message is that these oppressors are going to be made into farm implements, or people who work God’s kingdom farm, i.e. fix the problem of world hunger!
