Post #25 It's All About The Context...
A couple of years ago, my wife, travelled to Ireland for two weeks. She was matched up with three flatmates from Italy. One young Italian woman was working on her English, so Michelle became a sort of tutor. She often asked Michelle for help with the language. There was some confusion about words that had different meanings. She soon realized that it is "all about the context." This became a sort of joke around the flat, but the statement is very true. To understand the words, you must also understand the context.
In his book, "Everything Must Change," Brian McLaren discusses the importance of context.
If we focus on what Jesus said without determining what he meant in his original context, we run the risk of misquoting Jesus even when quoting his words..."
He comes back to this a little later,
We must carefully seek to determine not just what Jesus said, but what he meant, and how he would have been heard by his original hearers. Only then can we venture to explore what his original meaning would mean for us today, and even then, we must do so with great humility and awareness of our amazing human capacity to be wrong.
How does context affect the meaning of words or phrases?
Think about the different types of context: historical, social, cultural, political, occupational, educational, religious, regional, etc.
How do each of these types of context potentially change the meaning of words?
Labels: Brian McLaren
posted by Mike @ 5:05 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Very good post, Sir. I am afraid that this is something many Christians are unaware of. It seems like common sense to those who've been taught how common sense it is, but if you've not been taught the importance of socio-cultural backgrounds (and all that entails), then I am not sure if you're to be held accountable for that ignorance. I'd bet the accountability would fall upon the shoulders of those who teach that background means nothing.
Just a few days ago, I had a woman scold me for paying too much attention to the socio-cultural settings of a particular passage (1 Cor 1.1-16). She said that since the scriptures are God-breathed, inspired, and profitable, then context means nothing. I agreed with her half-way: the scriptures ARE God-breathed, inspired, and profitable, BUT they are also rooted in a socio-cultural context, and if we are to receive the greatest profit they have to offer, then we would do well to pay attention to the backgrounds. To do otherwise is to assume that the scriptures are 21st Century, Western American documents written specifically to us, while--in reality--they are not directly written to us but written to Christians separated from us by a vast sea of distance: geographical, literary, historical, religious, cultural distances that must be bridged by a knowledge of the socio-cultural backgrounds.
In short... Good post.
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