Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by Randy Richards and Brandon O’Brien is englightening and really challenged my heart and mind in some key ways. I have been privileged to travel the world both for vacation and on mission and it never ceases to amaze me how much I take for granted and how quick I am to make assumptions based on my own comfort and context. To be fair, I’m sure we are all wired that way…it’s part of the Fall from Genesis 3. One of the greatest gifts of the Kingdom of God is the variety of backgrounds brought together in the Unity of Spirit. This book challenged me to make sure that I take some time to thoughtfully consider that there is always “more to the story” as far as what the Lord is trying to show me in Scripture. Where there is truth, there is always more truth to be found and considered. I’m so grateful for the Bible to help me light the way in this glorious adventure of life!
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…
- Our goal is to raise the question: if our cultural context and assumptions can cause us to overlook a famine, what else do we fail to notice? p. 15
- Church history is a two-thousand-year-long conversation about how the eternal truth of Scripture applies in different cultures at different times. p. 19
- Since habits have histories, we will try to point out not only what we assume when we read the Bible but also why we assume these things. p. 19
- Start paying attention to your instinctive interpretations as you read biblical passages that have to do with values, in order to uncover which parts may be connected with cultural mores. p. 48
- Finally, the best way to become sensitive to our own presuppositions about cultural mores-what goes without being said for us-is to read the writing of Christians from different cultures and ages. Being confronted with what others take for granted helps us identify what we take for granted. p. 49
- How do we discover what goes without being said about race and ethnicity? A first, and difficult, step is making a thorough and honest inventory of your assumptions about people who are different from you. p. 66
- The words we use are a good indication of what we consider important. p. 73
- Reading in the plural is unnatural for Westerners. But it’s an important skill to learn if we hope to be the Christian community God has made us to be. p. 111
- How do we become sensitive to the way Scripture is discussing time in a given context? When you run across a word that indicates time is under discussion (day, hour, season, time, opportunity, etc.), decide whether you think the biblical author has chronos or kairos in mind. p. 150
- This misreading of Scripture arises from combining our individualism with a more subtle, deeply hidden and deeply rooted aspect of our Western worldview: we still think the universe centers around us. p. 193
