The Old Testament is Dying: Blame the System

Here is a stinging quote from Strawn:

“If individual believers’ knowledge is suffering, if they can’t speak the language, then at least part of the blame must be laid at the door of the religious systems (and their leaders) to which they belong and to which they adhere (even if only loosely, which is, of course, part of the problem). To be more direct, the failures in religious knowledge reported in the [U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey] appear to reflect massive failures in the religious system(s) in question, especially the education arm(s) of said system(s), and the leaders responsible for those systems and that education. For Protestant Christianity, that means not only the failure of “Sunday school” or “Bible study” phenomena (whether for children or adults), but also the failure of the sermon to be an effective tool in disseminating the language that is the Christian faith, not to mention other failures to provide adequate linguistic instruction in the Bible’s—and, more specifically still, the Old Testament’s—contribution to that faith” (The Old Testament is Dying, 27).

In The Old Testament is Dying, Strawn invokes an analogy. The Old Testament is a language. Just as language can describe the world, construct a worldview, and articulate reality, so too can the Old Testament (Scripture as a whole for that matter). Yet just as a language can suffer and die, so too can the Old Testament (as well as Scripture). To prevent the death of a language, it must be used…used often…and used properly. So too for the Old Testament and Scripture. But what happens when the data tells us that a language is suffering? What happens when the data informs us that people no longer use it properly, can handle it, or use only small portions of a language? Logic would tell us that said language is on its way out the door. Or, at the very least, it’s on its way to be being so transformed that it’ll no longer be identifiable.

According to the United States Religious Knowledge Survey, which is discussed extensively by Strawn in his second chapter, this is what’s happening to the Old Testament and Scripture. For example, only 55% of people surveyed know that the Golden Rule is NOT one of the Ten Commandments. Or, only 45% know the names of the four gospels. Perhaps most strikingly, only 16% know that the critical difference between Protestant and Catholic views on the conviction that salvation hinges on faith in Jesus Christ alone (Strawn, 23). Indeed, some of the people in the survey make no claims to be Christian, but what if I told you that the raw data of those who claim to be Christian shows a higher level of error than Jews, Mormons, and atheist/agnostics? To put it bluntly, a vast number of people surveyed who claim to be Protestant Christians know little more than jack-squat.

So, to revisit the linguistic analogy again, “The vast majority of people surveyed are adherents who, presumably and by their own profession, “speak the language of faith,” but who are actually missing huge portions of the most basic vocabulary, syntax, and so forth of their (putative) religious tongue” (Strawn, 26). Thus, we must acknolwedge that we are the farthest thing from being fluent. And if we are not fluent, then the danger of losing the language lurks just around the corner.

Consider an example from my OT 100 class. I ask my students to watch a couple brief videos about the prophetic institution in addition to reading basic material from our textbooks. In turn, I ask them to share some new ideas and revelations about the institution that they have gleaned from the course material. Without exception, there are comments such as, “Well, I just thought the prophets were concerned with predicting the future.” Or, “I didn’t know that some of the prophets were not ‘prophets’ by vocation.” Then there is, “I just thought the prophets spoke to their context.” Translation: there are massive gaps in our students’ understanding of one of the foundational institutions of the Old Testament.

Sadly, all of this makes sense. Strawn goes on to share more data that exemplifies how the Old Testament is used. First, sermons that are “OT-only” sermons are dwarfed by their counterparts, “NT-only” sermons, by approximately 2.5 times. In fact, “OT-only” sermons are surpassed by “no-text” sermons! Second, the Psalter is used with prejudice, and the lectionaries are similarly prejudicial in the OT content they employ. All of this adds up to a scenario where using the Old Testament is highly selective, if at all. The result is, at best, a skewed view of the Old Testament. Again, how can we even begin to call ourselves fluent?

So, in closing let's return to the beginning. We are suffering the results of a flawed system. If Strawn's data is true, and there is really little reason to doubt the essence of what it communicates, then our youngest generations are doomed from the start. We don't give them a steady dose of the Old Testament, and if we do we are giving it to them at our own convenience. Naturally, then, the question that arises is what can we do about this flawed system. Can anything be done? Can it be redeemed? Or, are we merely just going to flounder in our illiteracy until the moment when the language goes the way of ancient Sumerian?