Hermeneutics used to defend slavery.
i am looking for help on the topic from people who have done some research on the topic. The study was interrupted by my sunday school class on institutes, but that is over in 5 weeks so it is time to pick up where i left off.
here is my amazon list:
I read several chapters in _America's God_ by Mark Noll that got me very interested in following up the idea that the difference between the abolitionist and pro-slavery Christian interpretations of Scripture in the US prior to the Civil War was a hermeneutic question more than a battle of different cultures.
Here's the beginning of the topic:
The abolitionist tended to argue from first principle, the big ideas that they had drawn from Scripture. God means for human beings to be free. The proslavery forces argued from prooftexts, from individual verses. Very much from a literal common sense, viewpoint that supported the dominant cultural, economic, political forces that surrounded them. This is a contrast in exegetical and hermeneutical principles very much like the arch of knowledge in how epistemology works. But more to my continuing interest it greatly reflects the debate between the young earth creationists and the forces of secular science. One argues from particular to general, inductively, commonsensial. the other is big principles, topdown reasoning.
so here is my reading list thus far:
please contribute via an email to rwilliam2@yahoo.com thanks
note: this study is on hold until i finish the Calvin Institutes class at the end of August. Eager to get back to it, the books tease me everyday. *grin*
'America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln'
this is the book that got me going. see chapters 18 and 19.
'Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation (Conrad Grebel Lecture)'
chapter on slavery is short, but points in the same direction
'Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis'
'America's Providential History'
'Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture'
'Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860 (New American Nation Series)'
'Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920'
'The Southern Tradition at Bay: A History of Postbellum Thought'
'The Uneasy Center: Reformed Christianity in Antebellum America'
historical and general, but does point to slavery as crucial issue
'A Defense of Virginia and the South'
'The Mind of the South'
'Religion and the solid South (An Abingdon original paperback)'
'The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Oxford Paperbacks)'
'The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity and Race in America from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century'
'Quest for a Christian America, 1800-1865: A Sicual History of the Disciples of Christ (Religion and American Culture (Tuscaloosa, Ala.).)'
'Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840'
'Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America'
'Abolitionism and American Religion (History of the American Abolitionist Movement)'
'The Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture'
'Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation'
adding:
'The SLAVE TRADE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: 1440 - 1870'
i've picked up a few good hermeneutics books as well, but looking for recommendations there as well.
What i'd like to find out is the distinction between high order abstraction: freedom is good and slavery is bad, and the lower order theory that relies on proof texting, Abraham had slaves, Paul mentions slavery but not overthrowing it.
There seems to be an active tension between the two and i'd like referneces that recognize this and talk about it.
thanks for the help.
i am looking for help on the topic from people who have done some research on the topic. The study was interrupted by my sunday school class on institutes, but that is over in 5 weeks so it is time to pick up where i left off.
here is my amazon list:
I read several chapters in _America's God_ by Mark Noll that got me very interested in following up the idea that the difference between the abolitionist and pro-slavery Christian interpretations of Scripture in the US prior to the Civil War was a hermeneutic question more than a battle of different cultures.
Here's the beginning of the topic:
The abolitionist tended to argue from first principle, the big ideas that they had drawn from Scripture. God means for human beings to be free. The proslavery forces argued from prooftexts, from individual verses. Very much from a literal common sense, viewpoint that supported the dominant cultural, economic, political forces that surrounded them. This is a contrast in exegetical and hermeneutical principles very much like the arch of knowledge in how epistemology works. But more to my continuing interest it greatly reflects the debate between the young earth creationists and the forces of secular science. One argues from particular to general, inductively, commonsensial. the other is big principles, topdown reasoning.
so here is my reading list thus far:
please contribute via an email to rwilliam2@yahoo.com thanks
note: this study is on hold until i finish the Calvin Institutes class at the end of August. Eager to get back to it, the books tease me everyday. *grin*
'America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln'
this is the book that got me going. see chapters 18 and 19.
'Slavery, Sabbath, War, and Women: Case Issues in Biblical Interpretation (Conrad Grebel Lecture)'
chapter on slavery is short, but points in the same direction
'Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis'
'America's Providential History'
'Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture'
'Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860 (New American Nation Series)'
'Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920'
'The Southern Tradition at Bay: A History of Postbellum Thought'
'The Uneasy Center: Reformed Christianity in Antebellum America'
historical and general, but does point to slavery as crucial issue
'A Defense of Virginia and the South'
'The Mind of the South'
'Religion and the solid South (An Abingdon original paperback)'
'The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (Oxford Paperbacks)'
'The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity and Race in America from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century'
'Quest for a Christian America, 1800-1865: A Sicual History of the Disciples of Christ (Religion and American Culture (Tuscaloosa, Ala.).)'
'Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840'
'Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America'
'Abolitionism and American Religion (History of the American Abolitionist Movement)'
'The Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture'
'Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation'
adding:
'The SLAVE TRADE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: 1440 - 1870'
i've picked up a few good hermeneutics books as well, but looking for recommendations there as well.
What i'd like to find out is the distinction between high order abstraction: freedom is good and slavery is bad, and the lower order theory that relies on proof texting, Abraham had slaves, Paul mentions slavery but not overthrowing it.
There seems to be an active tension between the two and i'd like referneces that recognize this and talk about it.
thanks for the help.
