The Bible in today's society

Introduction

Evidence going back to the 1930s from both primary and secondary schools in the UK consistently suggests that many pupils (and teachers) find the Bible difficult. Reasons given range from difficulty with the language, to questions about its validity and relevance in today's society. Yet the Bible constitutes part of the cultural legacy of the western world. It has influenced and inspired art, music, literature, language and law, and its effects are no less real even where people are not aware of this legacy.

Although cultures have come and gone since the books contained within the Bible were written, their narratives may still be seen as powerful insights into human nature and emotions. The Bible may not speak with special or divine authority to all, but it can act as a 'cultural key', providing an explanation of how the culture in which people live today has been shaped.

For the Christian faith, the Bible is a defined collection of sacred writings, assembled in its completed form towards the end of the fourth century AD. The Bible has had a somewhat symbiotic relationship with Christianity. Christian communities created, assembled, preserved and translated the Bible. At critical points they have been reformed by it, as prophetic figures have appealed again to what they saw as forgotten aspects of its message e.g. that the just shall live by faith (Martin Luther, from Paul's letter to the Romans) or that Christ will come to teach his people himself (George Fox, from the Gospel of John). In addition, a spectrum of views regarding the inspiration and interpretation of the Bible have arisen in the course of Christian history, and created vigorous, ongoing debates.

Judaism's 'Bible', the Tenakh, or Hebrew bible, contains the same 'books' as the Christian Old Testament, although the order of the collection was changed by the Christian canon (official list) and the number of books in the Christian Old Testament appears greater than in the Tenakh owing to splitting several texts into two 'books' (e.g. I and II Samuel). Jewish textual interpretation historically has proved as diverse as the patterns in Christianity.

Islam has its own sacred text, the Qur'an, delivered by Angel Jibreel to Prophet Muhammad as the revealed will of Allah (God), assembled later in full written form by Caliph Abu Bakr. But Islam is connected to the Bible in three ways. In the first place it acknowledges the original texts to be revealed by Allah, even though in their present form they are held to be distorted and incomplete. Second, Islam respects as prophets a whole line of 'biblical' figures, from Prophet Adam to 'Isa (Jesus) who also appear in the Qur'an. Third, the Qur'an describes Jews and Christians as 'People of the Book', recognising that they have some common ground with Islam, while affirming that Qur'an as the final and complete revelation.

Key points

• The Bible contains the sacred writings of two religions and material of relevance to a third.
• Use of the Bible in schools must take into account the complexity of the Bible within the three religions referred to whilst also noting its proper secular significance as a 'culture creator'.
• Presenting the Bible to children must not fall into the trap of secularising biblical narrative and editing God out.
• Use of the Bible in schools must also take into account the diversity of belief and disbelief within the classroom and the diversity of interpretation of the texts both between and within the different religious traditions.
• In order properly to understand and interpret biblical narrative, readers today need to be provided with clues from the originating cultural and religious background to the material.
• Children will react adversely to an authority text they are not allowed to question or engage with.

Things to consider

• What difficulties do you think young people today might experience when studying the Bible in schools?
• What do you think might help to make the Bible more accessible to young people?
• Does the Bible have a bigger image problem in the classroom than other sacred texts, e.g. the Qur’an (Islam) or the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikhism)?
• Is part of the Bible's 'problem' that it is a book in a culture in which reading long or difficult books in not in vogue?
• Why do you think that a survey of 730 15/16 year olds revealed that Muslim children were more sympathetic to the Bible in RE than those identifying with Christianity?