Wat moet ons weet en wat kan ons nog glo?

Abstract

Someone once said: “Today’s children are born with more knowledge compared to that with which their grandparents died.” This remark reflects the enormous growth in our knowledge about the origin of the cosmos, the earth, and life on earth. Our knowledge about Second Temple Judaism, the origin of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism has expanded likewise, and it is inevitable that this knowledge will impact on our beliefs. There are theologians throughout the Western world who are revisiting the Christian faith and even revising it. This article argues that orthodox Christianity is a creation of the Greek and Latin fathers of the Church and one should not take their interpretations of what Christianity entails as the be all and end all of the Christian faith. Their theology is a reflection of their knowledge and interpretation of Scripture. Our knowledge and our methods of interpretation require from us finding new ways of expressing our understanding of Christian faith.
We read the Bible in the light of almost two thousand years of church tradition and theological reflection (David Ord & Robert Coote).
Isn’t our own faith more securely ours because we worked it out from the material parents and teachers gave us, rather than because we inherited it intact? (Harold S Kushner).