A new concept for me is the idea of biblical authority.
In my church, we were never taught to consider the text of ‘The Bible” or the teachings of our faith leaders as authoritative voices.
Rather, we were taught to believe that faith is personal journey and a personal conviction that looks different for each individual and that the stories of ‘The Bible’ and the messages faith thought leaders were tools by which we could discover what our own relationship (or non-relationship) to christianity looked like.
The idea of biblical authority is so contrary to the critical thinking approach that was central in all realms of my education - both religious and secular.
The way my brain works (lit major here), being given the language to describe the phenomena of biblical authoritarianism is helping me to contextualize and understand and approach to christianity that has been difficult for me to understand as I have begun expose myself to the wider world of conservative christianity.
I can understand now why some christians seem to be unwilling to accept and/or acknowledge that christianity is a varied system of beliefs and practices rather than a singular approach to the world. If your relationship to “The Bible” is one of authority, of course you would interpret others communicating their belief that their own thoughts and/or the thoughts of secular thought leaders held equivalent weight to biblical teachings as heretical and threatening.
