Hi Carl - if I am to understand Stephen properly, and since I did have a healthy dose of Alan Watt in my youth, it is not book burning at all. Rather, it is the non literalist tradition, be it Watt's brand of Zen, or the Chinese Confucian scholar, Wang Yuen Ming, who said, "if [one has] blind faith in books, it is better to have no book." They all advocate the searching of one's heart and mind to uncover the truth. After all, when the wise men of ancient Greek talked about Logos, it is certainly not written words. While I am not a scholar of the New Testament, but the Gospel of St John is one of my favorites, but I suspect one may get into dark alleys when one tries to interpret his words literally. BWDIKAB!
Personally, I am rather willy nilly about it. I certainly agree with you that there is plenty of wisdom recorded in written and spoken words. Even contemporary British philosophers [maybe Stuart Hampshire,] do not want to pass up the Rule of Thumb doctrine.
That said, to me, many holy books are a mixture of spiritual, moral and cultural imperatives. More, to me, as an a-religious amateur historian, they are more a composite spanning countries [as we know them] and centuries. A Christian colleague [of the Calvinist/Lutheran tradition, I think,] disagrees. I certainly have to respect his viewpoint. Still, to me, without going to the Tower of Babel extreme, I do believe one should be reasonable with doctrines, or else one risks being an extremist in one's own way.
best, Bosco |
