In the early years, I viewed the Holy Bible as just a book that had some sort of mystique to it, a judgmental aurora, an essence of power.
I grew up in a “kind of” religious family. However, we would only go to church on holidays, and even that half-efforted attempt of faith fizzled out as my sisters, and I began to assume our sovereignty.
I always felt the messages to be obsolete and unable to be understood through all the fancy dress, decorations, and sacraments. I never felt a spiritual connection in my time in the Catholic Church.
In contrast to my family, my best friend’s family is very religious. The type of religion that other people, even myself, view as obnoxious or misguided. However, I always admired their passion for their faith; and my relationships with their family allowed me to experience faith differently.
My friend’s family attended a nondenominational Christian church that read and interpreted the Bible in a way that I was not familiar with. So I spent several months being very devoted and making an effort to read the Bible and do as much as possible with the church.
The beauty that came with uncovering this type of version of Christianity versus what I had been used to in Catholicism. Comparing my friend’s family with my own family, I learned more about how the Bible has worked following society.
I observed how there were many different and more appealing ways of celebrating and worshipping God. Yet, the one constant was the Bible.
I also observed through reading the Bible that my family was just as religious as my friends’ family. Without blatantly speaking religiously, my family’s values and attitudes were apparent through stories and wisdom articulated in the text.
Despite all of the diversity of all these things, the one thing that all of these things had in common was they are all based on this book. Hundreds and thousands of years, and this book was still standing. Hundreds of thousands of years and new interpretations are still forming every day.
When I got to Dickinson, I began reading and learning more about English literature. I read countless poetry and prose with allusions to biblical stories. I learned about how the first manuscripts of Shakespeare and John Donne were made, how they persisted, and subsequently how nothing came close to perpetuating time quite like the stories in the Bible.
My interest in the Bible lies in my fascination with faith and spirituality. Specifically in how it expresses wisdom on human nature. Also, I am fascinated by the historical aspect of Christianity and how atrocities are justified by specific interpretations of the Bible.
I am also moved and humbled by the power of literature. It fascinates me how some stories and books can perpetuate time like Shakespeare, Homer, Aristotle, and the Holy Bible. I feel as if there is great power and influence in these works that touch a certain part of our spirits and beings we may not comprehend. Given this, I feel it is important to study and work to understand these texts- even if that understanding comes from the paradoxical wisdom of Socrates “The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.”
I also heard this quote a few years ago and believe it captures this power:
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love, and at this hour, millions of men would die for him.”
While I’m not a Christian, I identify with a lot of this as I practice a different Abrahamic religion and share a lot of similar perspectives to you. I found growing up I didn’t quite like traditional interpretations of religious texts and often found myself applying close reading (before I knew what that meant of course) to think more critically about what message I’m taking away from a religious text. I often think verses are quoted out of context for almost all Abrahamic texts, and often do not take into account history, culture or even how it may translate for a modern audience that may not necessarily even relate! I think a good part of faith (for me at least) is learning how to bring these interpretations into a more nuanced area of thinking, and how that might help people navigate faith (or just think about religion as a whole).
As someone who grew up and continues to practice in the Christian faith, I really liked reading about a separate but familiar experience. In my experience, I think a lot of people reach a point in their lives at which they either find their own version of this faith or surrender to abandon it. Whatever that choice may be, I find it interesting to read about the challenges of faith and how they can be explored through the literature which is connected across time. All in all, I found this post rather inspiring!
I grew up in a religious household and I went to Catholic school my entire life, so I completely empathize with your struggles of faith and how personal expression of faith can evolve the older we get. I was struck when you mentioned that you saw your family still practicing religious even without knowing. We think about religion and automatically link it to the church or the grand institution of it all, but at least in terms of Christianity, it’s really just forgiveness, mercy, charity, honesty, etc. These are things that I think most people strive for and so I think it’s important to think about it striped down in this way.