Religious Studies – Square Peg: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists Essay

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Religion and human society have always been a great part of any country or nation. A person’s belief in something that is unexplained and higher is inseparable from a human being. One might even argue that the disbelief in any form of Higher Being is also a form of belief; it is the belief in Nothing, just in life as it is, without any continuation. There are many people who would argue that there is an afterlife but this belief does not necessarily mean that they have to believe in a particular God, they simply believe into another form of existence.

“Square Peg: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists” starts the discussion of Christianity through fundamentalism. Even though there is no hard definition, its principles rest on three things: The Bible is free of any error, The modern study of the Bible is improper and that people who do not share the same view point as fundamentalists cannot be considered as proper believers (Truesdale 28).

Another perspective adds to this definition by saying that the Bible should be taken as a factual recollection of events, which exact and truthful definitions of science, history, and morality. From one perspective, it is understandable where such views would come. Reason bases itself on rational thinking of a wise and educated human being. Religion is what is taught by culture, society, family, and possibly friends. The close relationship between Christianity, culture, science, and psychology is, in reality, the same thing.

“Reading the Bible from the Margins” by Miguel A. De La Torre talks about groups interpretations by society and governing systems, making the Bible hardly accessible or believed in the modern day. The author states that interpretation in reading the Bible is what makes it different for each person. He brings about a concept of football players and all of them being damned, as they touch “pigskin” from which the ball is made (De La Torre 1).

Surely, this interpretation is extreme and would not mean that God will punish all the players, as it is unreasonable. At the same time, it might be a warning that people should not make balls out of the skin of a dead animal. Even though it might have been impossible to manufacture other materials in the past, modern society is capable of replacing materials with synthetic made.

“The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha” talks about the unity of religious texts. With the rationalization period, famous philosophers have questioned some components of the Torah, which was thought to be a unified text of Christianity (Coogan 4). It is also noted that several texts describe the unique relationship between people and God. Sometimes, it is close and sometimes somewhat distant.

There is no denying that Christian laws of “do not kill, respect the neighbor and yourself” are all based on the wisdom of the world and all creation. Psychology or sciences are essentially concrete laws, which determine the life of a human being. If a person is of sane mind and healthy, they understand that to hurt anything that is alive is wrong and this is based on the fact that if you do not want to be hurt, do not hurt others.

In the end, the Bible and other Christian religious texts have the same thing in common, which is to live by the highest moral principles. But life is too diverse to have a connection to the Bible, so people should interpret it as a valuable and wise guide.

Works Cited

Coogan, Michael D., Et Al., Eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible With Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version With Apocrypha. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.

De La Torre, Miguel A. Reading The Bible From The Margins, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2002. Print.

Truesdale, Al, Ed. Square Peg: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill, 2012. Print.

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IvyPanda. 2020. "Religious Studies - Square Peg: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists." March 26, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/religious-studies-square-peg-why-wesleyans-arent-fundamentalists/.

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