This is the second part of my conversation with Matt Leavenworth. On his suggestion, we recorded a conversation on trying to tease out the truth about God, the Bible, and mythology. How should we understand these ancient human fixtures in light of changing standards of truth? What we intended as a guest-hosted interview to help me sort through my changing views on these topics turned out to be more of a heart-to-heart between two earnest seekers. 

Story mentioned on parenting: https://link.medium.com/j7CWjl1fCmb

Matt's climbing group meets at SteepWorld on the 3rd Saturday of every month at 5:30PM. Cost: $10.00 for climbing, $5.00 for pizza. Reduced admission is available upon request. Pay what you can! The focus is on setting goals and building a compassionate community around mentorship and the shared experience of climbing. Ages 8-18+. Members pay for pizza only. Families welcome.

SteepWorld: 
(406) 696-2500
1230 S 31st St W, 59102

Matt Leavenworth is a new friend of mine. On his suggestion, we recorded a conversation on trying to tease out the truth about God, the Bible, and mythology. How should we understand these ancient human fixtures in light of changing standards of truth? What we intended as a guest-hosted interview to help me sort through my changing views on these topics turned out to be more of a heart-to-heart between two earnest seekers. 

The way we handle our knowledge of good and evil divides the world, philosophically, into two camps. On the one side are those who implicitly rely on their grasp of good and evil to inform and justify their attempts to control the world. On the other are those who hold loosely or doubt or reject their own ability to parse good and evil.

The first type ends up doing things like making laws to condemn particular behaviors and beliefs. The second type sees the futility of condemnation as a solution—not out of a denial of moral values, but because the one who condemns the world must try to control it, and because those changed by condemnation will extend that condemnation to others.

The Hinterlands publication on Medium: https://medium.com/the-hinterlands

Transcript of episode (with images): https://medium.com/the-hinterlands/a-farewell-confessional-dca7a0cedd04

Given the scope of the topic, this discussion is bound to be both insufficient and controversial. Be that as it may, I'm grateful to have such an experienced voice on the podcast. Steve Scansen shares some of his background in the faith and suggests three categories of biblical difficulties--similarity to other ancient texts, internal discrepancies, and OT citations in the NT--while I press him with my hopelessly anachronistic expectations of the text. Am I a child of the Enlightenment? Guilty as charged.   

Books referenced and recommended by Steve:

The Enuma Elish
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Code of Hammurabi
The Bible Tells Me So, Peter Enns
Cross Vision, Gregory Boyd

In the process of discussing Rule 9 on the topic of listening to the person you're talking to, Seth and I stumble into religion and politics, personhood, self-examination, advice-giving, the divide between love and truth, intellectual blindspots, and coping with the discomfort of disagreement, among other amusing conversational pitfalls. 

Email comments to: abram.hinterlands@gmail.com

Have you ever thought of yourself as a character in your own story--the story you tell yourself to make sense of the world? Do you feel the stress of needing others to be different so that you can be okay? How does emotional maturity arise?

Henry and I continue our discussion of these questions and others, including the nature of a God who doesn't protect us from the pain and discomfort of our lives. 

How do you deal with the things you can't change? What stories do you tell yourself to make sense of your experiences? How do we relate to truth and reality when they seem to be bent on taking us apart?

In this two-part interview, Henry Kennah and I discuss these and related questions through the lens of Byron Katie's book, Loving What Is, and Henry's experience with addiction and sobriety. 

A cordial conversation of differing perspectives on the fallibility of the Bible, the cultural relevance of Christianity, roles in relationships, spiritual leadership, and how agriculture whetted man's appetite for controlling the world around him.