Everyone's Pressing Holy Scripture Questions

Countless binaries have been left in the wake of religious movements' continuous splintering. Some continue to find loosely scattered points of intersection but, for the most part, the separations firmly mark a taut and strained relation of direct opposition. If Christianity is used as an example, the most unremitting question and source of dispute is, what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? A hard question if there ever was one.

By common practice Christianity is divided into three large groups: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Each group has and continues to undergo internal strife beyond the major ones that so profoundly separated in three the single original entity. Church leaders and regular folk alike go about attempting to answer the overarching question by wondering about seemingly less complex -- but no less important -- matters. Of course, these matters are not really much simpler, despite the hope they raise, and these more newly developed elements Doctrines of Grace, for example -- create even more points of contention among people frequently identified as members of the same group.

Very well known among the topical sore spots is the prosperity message, more darkly referred to as the gospel of greed.Standard schoolbooks point to a historical Jesus that was a humble man who faced institutional rejection in his lifetime, died young while on earth, and established a real following that's lasted millennia. But the record also shows that despite the rich collection of his teachings, he, like Socrates before him, left no writings of his own. Did Jesus teach to be good by obtaining the fruits of the earth through prosperity or is prosperity attainable within earthly poverty?

People go back to their books to answer this but, mostly, people just do the best they can. In the U.S. proselytizing or soul winning is probably one the most often encountered expressions of faith. It's an obligation for many and Americans are likely to experience it by zestfully seeking out souls to win or by receiving (if not politely declining) miniature Bibles while waiting at the crosswalk. Tellingly, it's not just the interpretation of scriptures and passed-down oral histories that are at stake: up for debate is the authenticity of the written documents themselves. Or, more precisely, how it is that the holy writings should be collected, arranged, read, and passed down -- meaning, what does the definitive collection consist of? Most people own a copy or two of the Bible, but how does one begin to decide what to do about all the remaining apocryphal texts? Follow common wisdom, maybe, and take it one question at a time.

Gospel of Jesus Christ|Doctrines of Grace