Die Gevare van ’n Moralistiese Skrifgebruik

’n Teologies-filosofiese ondersoek

Authors

  • B. J. van der Walt, Prof. North-West University, South Africa

Abstract

Bible readers and preachers today often use the Word of God as a book of moral examples. Especially characters from the Bible are used as either heroes or warnings applied to contemporary Christians. This moralistic hermeneutic approach is questioned, both from a theological and a Christian philosophical point of view. The investigation is developed in the following five main steps. (1) The introductory section provides some examples, explains its popularity and defines moralism. (2) The second part contains a mainly theological critique of this kind of Bible interpretation. (3) Next, against the background of a Christian-philosophical multidimentional view of Scripture, the limited place of the moral aspect is indicated. (4) This is followed by a distinction between three concepts: the ethical (an aspect of reality); the moralimmoral distinction (e.g. what is normative in relationships between men and women or in friendship – (“sedelike” in Afrikaans); morality (in the sense of the  values adhered to by a community). (5) The last part contains some final conclulsions about the moralistic use of the Scriptures.

Published

2009-09-30

How to Cite

van der Walt, B. J. (2009). Die Gevare van ’n Moralistiese Skrifgebruik: ’n Teologies-filosofiese ondersoek. Tydskrif Vir Christelike Wetenskap | Journal for Christian Scholarship, 45(3), 33-54. Retrieved from https://pubs.ufs.ac.za/index.php/tcw/article/view/177

Issue

Section

Artikels | Articles

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