On Thursday, I attended Dan McClellan’s book signing event at the Duniway Hotel in Portland. If you are unfamiliar with McClellan, he is a biblical scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of Exeter in Theology and Religion and a robust social media following (Twitter, Instagram, et al.). He also co-hosts a podcast called “Data over Dogma” with Dan Beecher.
McClellan is a somewhat controversial figure in religious circles because he frequently and unapologetically discredits religious myths and dogma posited by the far right. He does this very unemotionally and intelligently, presenting irrefutable facts and scholarly research to the conversation. Watching him in action has been both educational and entertaining.
Dan’s new book is titled “The Bible Says So — What We Get Right (and Wrong) about The Bible’s Most Controversial Issues,” The book delves into provocative subjects such as whether or not the Bible is the inspired word of God, its inerrancy, Creation, Slavery, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, and whether or not the Bible says women need to cover up. True biblical scholars like McClellan add historical, cultural, literary, linguistic, and theological context to the conversation. In doing so, he tries to understand Biblical Texts as their authors, editors, and earliest audiences understood them. From McClellan’s introduction:
Many people approach the Bible as authoritative, maintaining boundaries regarding what it is and isn’t allowed to say. Allowing the Bible to transgress those boundaries can raise doubts regarding deeply held beliefs people don’t want to see subjected to scrutiny. They are not beliefs that people adopt because they’ve been convinced by data or evidence. They’re beliefs that people choose to accept because doing so is required or incentivized within the social identities that are important to them. Sometimes these beliefs are supported by data and sometimes they are not, but what is true of all of them is that they’re not negotiable. I call this type of belief dogma.
McClellan’s presence on social media frequently intersects with people who assert dogmas such as biblical texts as divinely inspired, inerrancy, and univocality. You’d have to read the book to get all the details, but in a nutshell, McClellan rejects these assertions. He asserts that these beliefs arose over time as people contemplated the implications of different approaches to the Bible and constructed perspectives that made the scripture most useful to their structuring of power, values, and boundaries.
Perhaps the most eye-opening takeaway from McClellan’s message is from a linguistics perspective — that the Bible is a collection of texts without inherent meaning. Meaning comes into play when we attempt to interpret the text, so at the end of the day, it’s whatever you make of it based on your own experiences. We are never just extracting pure and unadulterated meaning. We’re continually constructing it ourselves. We end up guessing the original authors’ needs, circumstances, values, and goals. Why? Because the needs, circumstances, values, and goals of authors and editors two thousand years ago are wildly different than those of today.
My interest in these topics stems from the fact that I am writing a book myself, “It’s Complicated, Isn’t It?” For most of my adult life, I’ve been interested in engaging in discussions with others (if it can be done intelligently and unemotionally). It’s a frustrating endeavor because, in the age of social media, you’re more likely to run into people so steeped in misinformation that they instantly refute your point with lies and propaganda. There’s no moment to pause and stop to actually think things over. They just immediately pull out some parrotted talking points as a rebuttal (usually half way through your sentence). I’ve taken on Republicans in debate forums where Biblical quotes are weaponized in many different ways. In the twenty first century social media landscape, I appreciate guys like McClellan who are out there pushing back on misinformation in an educated way.
I briefly met Dr. McClellan at the book signing and later followed up with a question about the origins of ethics and morals. I was delighted to have him confirm one of the basic hypotheses of my book—believing that ethics and morals originated from the Bible is a fallacy. Ancient philosophers contributed more to framing ethics and morals than the Bible. Most early Christian ethics writing was based on Greek philosophy anyway when the Bible was translated from Aramaic to Greek in 200 – 250 BCE.
It feels good to get validated once in a while.
View from my PDX Window 