DESCRIPTOR TO PRESCRIBER:

SCRIPTURE, THEOLOGY AND PRAXIS

IN A SUBMERGENT WORLD
Vctor M. Armenteros

INTRODUCTION
There is no doubt that the vision of reality presented by the biblical
record does not always correspond with the valuations of the neighboring
societies. What, in some occasions, is considered as decadent and a bad model
in the Bible is contrasted with positive and respectful evaluations of the
contemporaries. An example will be enough to prove it. On one hand, Omri
did evilin the eyes of theLordand sinned more than all those before him.He
followed completely the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, committing the same
sin Jeroboam had causedIsrael to commit, so that they aroused the anger of
theLord, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols (1 Kings 16: 25-26); on the
other hand, Omri was king of Israel and he oppressed Moab for many days
because Kemosh was angry with his land (Mesha Stele, lines 4-6).
For decades, the omridas will describe the House of Israel to allies
and enemies with the connotation of governments of commercial success
and armed forces. Their diplomacy practices are among the most prominent
of their time. As Grabbe indicates commenting Liverani:
The main contribution of Omri was the new capital at Samaria which was not just
a simple royal residence but a true administrative centre of the kingdom. Under
Omri and Ahab Israel experienced a notable growth in economics and culture
After the Israel of the house of Omri - censured for Baal worship by the prophets
and later historiographers but politically strong and culturally flourishing came the house of Jehu - lauded as Yahwistic but politically subordinate and
territorially reduced to a minimum experienced a notable growth in economics
and culture.1
1
L. Grabbe, "Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty", Journal for the Study of
the Old Testament Supplement 21 (Londres: T&T Clark, 2007), 4.

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And, however, in the eyes of the Bible writer, and even in the eyes of
the YHWH himself, there is no positive assessment.
Such conceptualization of reality, if we consider the biblical material
as a generator of worldviews comes to us, since centuries, forcing us to reflect
on the usual understandings compared to those impreGenated by the biblical
vision. It impels us to continue asking honestly: what perception of reality
I incorporate into my life as an intellectual and religious believer? Which
approach do I conduct to Scripture, Theology and ecclesiastical praxis? How
far does my position before the text affect each one of these dimensions?
The objective of this study is framed in these demands with the desire
to move closer to the biblical writers eyes and in addition, bold yearning, to
catch a glimpse YHWH himself.

TURNING POINTS IN SUBMERGENT SOCIETIES

A posteriori, things look different. Did Plato perceive the scope of his
thoughts? Did Leonardo da Vinci intuit the implications of his works? Was
Kafka aware of the impact of his comings and goings? Possibly, a little. It
is certain that they diDant have the retrospective view, but they captured
a portion of that moment of change they were generating. And is that
variations in paradigms are noticed from the insecurity of the faint-hearted
till the openness of the bold.
Today, we live in times of changes and, curiously, we can interpret
them better by looking toward other turning points to capture from their
paradigm variations, the intuitions of ours. How much more in a submergent
society like ours. And I understand as submergent that social structure in
which values are replaced by elements alien to the sense of people, elements
which create dissonance in the development of the fullness of the human
being. As Zizek says:

312

En los tiempos que corren, las cosas no pintan bien para las grandes Causas,
en una poca en la que, aunque la escena ideolgica est fragmentada en
una panoplia de posiciones que luchan por la hegemona, hay un concepto
subyacente: la poca de las grandes explicaciones ha terminado, necesitamos
un pensamiento dbil, opuesto a todo fundacionalismo, un pensamiento
atento a la estructura rizomtica de la realidad; tampoco en el mbito de la
poltica debemos aspirar ya a sistemas que lo expliquen todo y a proyectos de
emancipacin mundial; la imposicin violenta de grandes soluciones debe dar

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paso a formas de intervencin y resistencias especficas2

LUTHER AND THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

There is no inaccuracy whatsoever to state that the Europe of the late
fifteenth century was a submergent world. The widespread illiteracy, the
reduction of the society into castes, the monopoly of the wealth, culture and
religion transformed the countries into an amalgam of wars, mystical and
polarizing movements, a space of submission of the earthly and the unearthly.
The academic world had distanced the message of the biblical text of the
majority of the population, and was based on Greco-Roman philosophies.
The relationship of that society with the Bible clearly established the
diaGenostic of a submergent structure. The availability of copies for reading
or studying was scant. The Bible was a minority text and of difficult access.
Obscured by the Scholastic and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church,
the reading of the biblical materials was foreign to the reality of most of
the Christians. The autos sacramentales barely passed on to the people the
message of the Gospel itself.
The variety of texts was restricted to Latin, the language outside
the usual communication of the nations of Christian Western empires.
The Vulgate was globalized, although with variants and inclusions of the
Vetus Latina, in the various territories and, in turn, became a sacred and
incomprehensible language.
The configuration of the canon, away from the composition of the
Tanak, had expanded to the deuterocanonical books (nomenclature of Sixtus
of Siena). The inclusion of the texts of the LXX was performed by doctrinal
and political interests (e.g., the inclusion of the doctrine of purgatory
or the immortality of the soul). With this process the Hebrew worldview
hybridizes with Greek (a mixing practice which had been settling since the
time of Origen). The interpretative approach, remember Origen again, is
allegorical. The signal and the sign elude the concrete implementation of the
biblical message. The allegory, in its tangentiality, generates in the receiver
an environment of ambiguity that results in confusion3.
S. Zizek, En defensa de causas perdidas (Madrid: Akal, 2011), 7.
See J. Whitman, Interpretation and Allegory: Antiquity to the Modern Period (Leiden: Brill; Barnard, 2000); Leslie W. Barnard. "To Allegorize or not to Allegorize", Studia Theologica 36, no. 1, (1982):
1-10; G. Bostock, "Allegory and the Interpretation of the Bible in Origen", Literature and Theology 1, no. 1
(1987): 39-53; R. Hanson, Allegory and Event: A Study of the Sources and Significance of Origens Interpretation of Scripture (Richmond: John Knox, 1959); R. Newhauser y J. Alford, Literature and Religion in the Later
Middle Ages: Philological Studies in Honor of Siegfried Wenzel (BinghaMaton, NY: State University of New
2
3

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The biblical text is considered as Sacred Scripture and the adjective

has a significant implication in the concept of relevance. It is a magical
material that has implicit negativity. It is, therefore sacred in Antunezs
definition referring to Andr Frossard:
En primer lugar hay que hacer una distincin entre lo sagrado y lo santo. Lo
sagrado ha sido creado por el instinto humano para contener la violencia. Lo
sagrado debe inspirar cierto terror, conteniendo y manteniendo a distancia. Hay
ciertas cosas que no se deben tocar, sin decir el porqu. Si a uno le dieran una
explicacin, comenzara una discusin filosfica y lo sagrado desaparecera.4

The axis of action is developed in the world of symbology, of the

signs, of the relic, of the mystery. The totemization and sacramentalization
of the instruments leads the believer to a theocentric world that is alien to
his or her way of life. The object (be it work, merit or indulgence) acquires a
greater significance than the person who is alienated from sense.
The authority of the Bible is shared with the Magisterium of the
Church and this blurs its principal role as guide of values. The fact that
the pontifical magisterium filled itself with infallibility and together with
the schism of occident added mutability by political or, simply, economic
interests.
Generalized translation into Latin in space and time liturgizes the
Bible limiting it to the moments of rites or admonitions. The impact of set
phrases without a full understanding of their meaning reaches us today.
Expressions like vade retro, inri, Ecce Homo, vanitas vanitatum still
adorn some of our conversations.
Both the lack of availability and the lack of variety of the Scripture,
the expanding of the canon due to political interests, the allegory that
shapes a symbolic thought, shared authority with the value of Ecclesiastical
Magisterium or a liturgized translation generate in the Middle Ages
person three clearly submergent values: loyalty, hierarchy and honor.5
The fidelity which was associated with castes of the feudal structure in
which the multitude of subjects complied with the wishes of their masters.
Irregularities that would have their realization in practices such as the ius

314

York, 1995). D. Aers, Medieval Literature: Criticism, Ideology and History (New York: St Martins, 1986); Ch.
Kannengiesser, y W. Petersen, Origen of Alexandria: his world and his legacy (Notre Dame, Ind: University
of Notre Dame, 1988); R. Schwartz, The Book and the Text: The Bible and Literary Theory (Oxford: Basil
Blackwell, 1990).
4
J. Antnez, Crnica de las ideas. En busca del rumbo perdido (Madrid: Encuentro, 2001), 196.
5
J. Le Goff, Una larga Edad Media (Barcelona: Paids Ibrica, 2008).

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DESCRIPTOR TO PRESCRIBER:
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primae noctis or droit de seigneur. The hierarchy that divides the world
in bellatores (military aristocracy that rules their domains), oratores (all those
who dedicate themselves to prayer and that have a remarkable religious
influence) and laboratores (usually farmers who maintain society with their
work). Le Goff argues6 that this ternary structure will be the ideal environment
for the appearance of the theology of purgatory. Honor was associated with
nobility and constantly reminded the sinful condition of common people. As
Carrasco indicated:
As, el punto de arranque radicaba en los motivos de la desigualdad jerrquica
en la estructura social, y se plante desde pticas diversas. Una de ellas situaba
la base de partida en una concepcin segn la cual, siendo todos nobles por
voluntad divina Dios fizo omes e no fizo linajes. A todos fizo nobles en su
nacimiento- la prdida de dicha condicin haba sido responsabilidad de los
errores o pecados de los individuos; despus, a lo largo del proceso histrico, en
razn de su comportamiento a todos se dio eleccin de costumbres quando
viven-, slo algunos haban sabido recuperar dicha condicin, y mantenerla,
transmitindola por la sangre.7

The inappropriate use of Scripture and Theology led in the praxis,

to a submergent world that was getting away from the biblical principles of
equality, opportunity and grace for all creatures. In this environment, Martin
Luther arises and generates a turning point in history because of his vision
of the biblical text. The approach he makes to Scripture alters Theology
completely and, hence, its expression in everyday life. We are facing a return
to the transcendent values that increase a person as such. As Juan Beldda
observes:
Su deseo de profundizar en el conocimiento de la Biblia se funda en que a Palabra
de Dios se le aparece como encadenada (oscurecida) por la Teologa Escolstica y
por la Autoridad Eclesistica. De ah que sus estudios escritursticos le lleven no
slo a una labor de investigacin de los textos bblicos, sino al cambio de toda la
Teologa y aun de la Iglesia misma.
Para empezar, Lutero reduce las fuentes de la Teologa a la Sola Scriptura,
rechazando la Tradicin divino-apostlica. Igualmente rechaza el Magisterio
eclesistico como fuente interpretativa de la Revelacin, quedndose slo con el
juicio personal: Libre examen, para determinar el sentido de la Palabra de Dios.

315
J. Le Goff, El nacimiento del purgatorio (Madrid: Taurus, 1985).
A. Carrasco, and M. Rbade, Pecar en la Edad Media (Madrid: Slex, 2008), 155.

6
7

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Vctor M. Armenteros
Todo ello supone una actitud reduccionista del mtodo teolgico tradicional.8

In a brief comparison (see Table I) we can see how important is

his contribution and how this considerably changes the management of
paradigms. The availability of the Scripture increases substantially. The
invention and use of the printing press, together with the translation of the
Bible in the vernacular languages presents an outlook of accessibility quite
different to the previous period. Luthers proposal that there should be
reading without intermediaries removes the religion from its gregarious
format and places it in the space of the individual. The variety of translations
of the Bible becomes a true communicational approach and progressive
breakdown in the ternary medieval structure. In the words of Rentera:
El mayor aporte de la Reforma no es la separacin entre los poderes poltico
y religioso sino la libertad de conciencia. Lutero es el iniciador de la Reforma,
pero lo que realmente inicia con Lutero es una guerra de libros, que tiene
como finalidad la conquista de la libertad de conciencia: la emancipacin del
hombre de sus tutores medievales. En 1517 Martn Lutero clava sus tesis en
las puertas de la Catedral de Wittenberg, tales tesis estaban impresas en una
traduccin alemana y en el trmino de 15 das haban sido vistas en todo el pas.
En los aos siguientes se publicarn ms de 400 ediciones de sus traducciones
bblicas. Lutero fue excomulgado en 1520 por el Papa Len X, sus libros fueron
prohibidos, pero nadie poda detener ya esta contienda. Tal fue el pnico que
desencaden en los prncipes catlicos que Francisco I, rey de Francia, prohibi
en 1535 la impresin de cualquier libro en su reino. Bajo pena de la horca! La
guerra entre catlicos y protestantes se desplazaba al campo de las letras, era
una batalla por la conquista de la conciencia de los hombres y al mismo tiempo
de la conquista de la libertad de conciencia.9

The value that he gives to the original Canon (Hebrew canon) and
its association with the principle of Sola Scriptura is similar to other turning
points generated at their time by Jerome of Stridon or by the Karaites. It
is a return to the reading of Scripture in its plain meaning without the
interference of auctoritas. The practice of hermeneutics in Luther empowers
two essential components for a better understanding of Scripture: the
historical-grammatical method and individuality. The personal approach to

316

J. Belda, Historia de la Teologa (Madrid: Palabra, 2010), 152.

J. Len y Ramrez and S. Mora, Ciudadana, democracia y polticas pblicas (Mxico, D.F.: UNAM,
2006), 102.
8
9

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the Bible strengthens the religious and ecclesiastical identity. The historicalgrammatical hermeneutic (heir to Jewish and Antiochene traditions) is
strengthened by the studies of the humanists, especially Erasmus, that
contribute method to the analysis of the materials in Hebrew, Aramaic,
and specifically in Greek. The Word becomes, once again, verb, engine
generator of sense and actions.
The Bible changes adjectives; from being sacred it turned to be
holy. We are not dealing with a magic object, a totem pole per se, but
an element of sanctification, an instrument per relatio. That perception of
the biblical material strengthens comprehension by giving to the word
faith a dimension far more concrete not only in the salvation level but in
the understanding of everyday religious life. Faith is also the worldview
of the reformed person and his same culture. Bible verses are part of the
indoctrination and the teachings of professions, community events and the
regulation of the domestic, from the farthest depths of theology to the most
common praxis. Needless to say, therefore, that the authority given to the
Bible is normative. It is a Word that should generate transformation and
action.
There is, however, a factor that blurs the proposals of Luther, it is a
preeminence of the New Testament over the materials of the OT. His concept
of inspiration, induced by the emphasis on justification by faith, moves him
away from an understanding of Tota Scriptura.
One of the supports of this inflection is due to the translations of the
biblical texts. Delisle and Voodsworth state:
La calidad lingstica de la Biblia de Lutero obedece a la aplicacin de un cierto
nmero de principios de traduccin. Primero que todo, Lutero predicaba el
retorno de las lenguas originales de la Biblia, el hebreo para el AT y el griego
para el NT, sin por ello desechar por completo la Vulgata Tambin le daba
mucha importancia al medio cultural de los destinatarios de una traduccin.
Al traducir Las Sagradas Escrituras se esforzaba por darles un giro tpicamente
alemn, modificando el texto para adaptarlo a la mentalidad y el espritu de
la gente de su tiempo Lutero afirm tambin haber empleado un lenguaje
simple para que sus traducciones fueran fciles de entender. Trat de alcanzar
un justo equilibrio entre el registro formal y el familiar, entre la lengua litrgica
y la cotidiana. En su epstola (Sendbrief) afirm que se debera hablar alemn
como las personas en la plaza del mercado Pero su aporte ms importante
se sita en el plano estilstico. Claridad, facilidad de comprensin, simplicidad y
vigor son las grandes cualidades del estilo de sus traducciones, cualidades que

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Vctor M. Armenteros
an en nuestro das sirven de modelos de escritura. El mismo Lutero dijo de su
estilo que tocando cada uno de los cinco sentidos, penetra en el corazn y lo
hace vibrar (das also dringe und klinge ynns Hertz, durch alle Sinne).10

We owe it to these factors a period of sense in humanity, a time of

strengthening the values because the Scripture was located on a platform of
influence.
Table 1
Scripture

Late Middle Ages

Reform

Availability

Low (the Bible is a

minority text and of difficult
access)

Growing (the invention of the printing

press and the translation into the
vernacular languages makes it more
accessible)

Variety

A single text in latin

An official translation into the

vernacular language

Configuration

Canon expanded (canonical and

deuterocanonical)

Sola Scriptura (Hebrew canon)

Interpretative
approach

Allegorical hermeneutic

Historical grammatical hermeneutic

Relevance

Sacred Bible (magic text)

Holy Bible (inspired text)

Axis of action

Symbology

Faith

Authority

Shared (with the Magisterium)

Normative

Understanding
the division
Translation

of Old and New Testament

Liturgized latin translation

Old Testament decreased and

amplified New Testament
Literal translations

Source: Own source

FROM EARLY TO LATE MODERN AGES

Touraines vision11 of the social evolution of recent centuries is
remarkably clear. He argues that with the Illustration comes what he called
the Early Modern Age. He identifies it as a period that revolves around
a principle of order and development of the scientific mind. The Industrial
Revolution proposes new nuances to modernity (called Middle Modern
Age ) which are identified with the association of industrialization and the
configuration of the concept of nation. Today, we live in the Late Modern
Age. As he puts it, it gives a position of the subject that is at the same time

318

10
J. Delisle, and J. Voodsworth, Los traductores en la historia (Antioqua: Universidad de Antioqua, 2005), 39-42.
11
A. Touraine, Pourrons-nous vivre ensemble? Egaux et diffrents (Paris: Fayard, 1997), 159-92.

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central and weak between the two opposing universes of the markets and
communities.12 Mallimaci describes from a similar horizon this period we
are experiencing:
Al comienzo del s. XXI, fruto de la globalizacin financiera, el derrumbe del
bloque socialista, la disminucin de los estados nacionales (mundializacin) y
el avance de la mercantilizacin en el planeta, hay autores que hablan de una
aceleracin de la modernidad capitalista. Hipermodernidad o modernidad
avanzada o individualidad en una sociedad de riesgo personal y mundial, con
categoras zombies, que han muerto y siguen vivas donde hay una nueva
concepcin del tiempo, el riesgo y las oportunidades junto a modernidades
mltiples y plurales y propuestas de otra modernizacin como la planteada por
el Forum Social Mundial son diferentes conceptos que tratan de dar cuenta de
una pluralidad en lo que hoy vivimos.
La amenaza y cercana al desempleo, a la pobreza, al riesgo y a la incertidumbre
en el futuro produce una angustia generalizada a nivel planetario. Si ayer
esto llevaba a crear organizaciones, hoy la individualidad acelerada produce la
disolucin de los vnculos entre las elecciones individuales y los proyectos y
acciones colectivas.13

How did we come to another stage of submergent worn down values?

In response, I propose, again, a reading of society from its relationship with
the Bible. We will compare the identifying elements of the Early Modern Age
(EMA) with those of the Late Modern Age (LMA) to detect the evolution that
has been done in these centuries (see Table 2).
The EMA generalizes the access of the biblical texts developing
a strong interest in the study of the manuscripts, their relationships and
variants (Textual Critique). This dynamic increases exponentially, generating
in the LMA an excess of materials and a remarkable infoxication.
Esta es una de las paradojas culturales ms representativas de nuestra poca:
disponemos de los recursos y medios para la accesibilidad a la informacin, pero
la limitada capacidad del proceso de la mente humana provoca que el umbral
12
See the chapter Haute, moyenne et basse modernits in A. Touraine, Pourrons-nous vivre
ensemble? Egaux et diffrents (Paris: Fayard, 1997), 159-92. A. Touraine, La sociedad post-industrial
(Barcelona: Ariel, 1969); A. Touraine, La fin des socits (Paris: d. du Seuil, 2013); A. Touraine, and
A. Bixio, Crtica de la modernidad (Mxico: Fondo de Cultura Econmica, 2000); A. Touraine, F.
Khosrokhavar and V. Gmez, A la bsqueda de s mismo: dilogo sobre el sujeto (Barcelona: Paids,
2002); A. Touraine and T. Mercado, Las sociedades dependientes (Mxico: S. Veintiuno Editores, 1978);
A. Touraine, Sociologa de la accin (Barcelona: Ariel, 1969).
13
F. Mallimaci, Modernidad, religin y memoria (Buenos Aires: Colihue, 2008), 80.

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Vctor M. Armenteros
de comprensibilidad de los acontecimientos se vea sobrepasado por la excesiva
cantidad de informacin que recibimos. Por ello, distintos autores afirman que
la sociedad de la informacin no significa necesariamente una sociedad de
mayor conocimiento. Una cosa son los datos y otra bien distinta la capacidad de
interpretarlos, darles sentido y significado til para ciertos propsitos.14

The EMA enhanced national versions compared to the LMA that

multiplies, obviously by editorial interests, the most varied versions.
The effect of not identifying a version with a denomination or a cultural
identification that might, at first sight, seem positive (it ends that description
of catholic or protestant Bible) ends up affecting common language (on
many occasions liturgized) from the communities of believers. In addition,
such a quantity of versions causes in the most radical sectors a return to
ancient texts which were archaic or difficult to understand.
Although the defragmentation of the canon was worrying in the EMA
because it created some discredit of the biblical texts, the uncanonization of the
LMA is much more alarming. The inclusion in the bureau of interpretations
of non canonical, pseudepigraphic or esoteric texts causes, without a doubt,
an appalling superficiality in the hermeneutic approach. There is no canon
because there are no limits.
The historical-critical hermeneutic method of the EMA had given
method to the biblical sciences but established positivists axioms that are
being called into question from the methodological (Popper, Lakatos, Kuhn,
Feyerabend) to the linguistic (James Barr). It seemed that the canonical
hermeneutics (Brevard Childs) was going to provide some means of
escape but it was fleeting and the LMA was plunged into the labyrinth
of synchronous approaches. We are, at this time, before a descriptive and
emotional hermeneutic that moves between the Discourse Analysis and
narratology. The story of the Bible seems to be abandoning its nature of
history and deepen in the format of story.
In the EMA, the Bible is not an inspired text, it is barely considered as
literature, as much the product of great geniuses of spirituality. In the LMA
it is simply an inspiring text; it adapts to different realities in an exercise of
contextualization. The receivers redefine the process of transformation, and
sometimes generating unavoidable dissonances.

320
Fundacin Telefnica, Alfabetizacin digital y competencias informacionales (Madrid: Ariel,

14

2012), 22.

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The axis of action of the EMA was history. The explanation of

the evolution of thought was found in the diachrony and its artifacts
(archaeology, Literary Criticism, textual criticism, Comparative Religion,
etc.). Such a process placed the reader in the climax of knowledge. The LMA,
in its radical relativizing activity, set the axis in subjectivity and emotion.
The content does not affect so much as the container; the personal spiritual
experience replaces the search for truth. The artifacts from this period are
the opinion and taste. The Metastory is abandoned and only remains the
individualizing and atomizing Microstory.
For the EMA the Bible was not authority, for the LMA the Bible
represents a worn and faded authority. Worn because it responds to the
image of the churches with their scandals and frauds. Faded because it is
coated with the sienna of the old and it is considered outdated. It is a family
photograph that awakens astonishment by the customs of other times.
The EMA conceived the biblical texts from two distinct platforms: the
Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible. One of the factors may lie in the fact
that many theologians of this period agreed with anti-semitic assumptions.
The LMA prefers a more neutral and tolerant taxonomic expression: First
and Second Testaments.
Although the EMA took into account the literary genre for translation
processes, the result was often quite literal, demystifying and academizing.
The LMA flows in the premises of the dynamic translation. But, what are the
limits of such dynamism? Lopez Garcia helps us to reflect on this subject:
En realidad, el principio de la equivalencia dinmica es un ltimo recurso, al que
hay que acudir cuando ha fallado todo otro intento de traducir el trmino que
figura en el texto de la LD [Lengua Destino]. Es un principio que, mal aplicado,
puede conducir a resultados anlogos a los del literalismo. La equivalencia
dinmica deja en manos del traductor una responsabilidad que a la larga
lo conducir a situaciones sin salida o a una labor en la que ese principio de
equivalencia dominar todos los aspectos de la traduccin. Si lo nico que se
puede pedir a un traductor es que sea consecuente con sus principios, qu clase
de traduccin de la Biblia se obtendr si hay que hallar un equivalente dinmico
para las instituciones sociales, formas de vida, trminos del dominio afectivo,
flora y fauna, campo simblico, etc.?... La traduccin funcional aplicada sin unos
criterios de correccin puede conducirnos a excesos tan indeseados como los de
la traduccin palabra por palabra.15
15
D. Lpez Garca, Sobre la imposibilidad de la traduccin (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 1991), 92, 93.

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Table 2
Scripture

Early Modern Age

Late Modern Age

(Liquid modernity or postmodernity)

Availability

Widespread access

Excess (infoxication)

Variety

National versions

Multiple versions

Configuration

Fragmented canon

Uncanonization (inclusion of non

canonical, pseudepigraphical and
esoteric texts)

Interpretative
approach

Historical-critical hermeneutic Synchronous hermeneutics (descriptive

and emotional)

Relevance

Bible (text not inspired)

New Bible (inspiring text)

Axis of action

History

Emotion

Authority

No authority

Worn authority

Understanding of the
division

Jewish Bible and Christian

Bible

First Testament and second Testament

Translation

Translation from the literary

genre

Dynamic translation

Source: Own source

The situation in the LMA is not so different from the lived in the Late
Middle Age. This submergent world has installed itself in the relativity, in
aesthetics with their symbols, in the ambiguity and confusion. As a result,
the person becomes a homo consumericus. As Lipovetsky suggests,16 there are
certain traits in the man of today that are approaching the turbo-consumer:
provisional participation, free community incorporation, behaviors on
demand, the primacy of the greater subjective welfare and the emotional
experience. Religiousness is dissolved in consumerism due to the lack of
models or because those we have appear to us like a supermarket of sense
where you can take or leave whatever you want.
How to position ourselves as believers and intellectuals? How to
provide a turning point that proposes models of fullness to people rather
than consumer offers? Maybe we should do an exercise of coherence and
transcendence.

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16
G. Lipovetsky, La felicidad paradjica: ensayo sobre la sociedad de hiperconsumo (Barcelona:
Anagrama, 2013).

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DESCRIPTOR TO PRESCRIBER:
SCRIPTURE, THEOLOGY AND PRAXIS IN A SUBMERGENT WOR

THE PRESCRIBER OF METASTORY AND HYPERTEXT

The Christian intellectual cannot allow the Bible to stop being
the essential framework for the Metastory. Away from fundamentalist or
reductive premises, he has the task to bring coherence to the human being
through the worldview proposed by the biblical text. His figure is not as a
simple descriptor but has the challenge to prescribe.
The role of the academic believers has been self-limiting to spaces that
surf in the biblical message, standing in the security zones of the description:
1. Method. Postmodernity considers objectivity as impossible and
focuses the meaning of any text in the reader. Influenced by these
concepts, Christian descriptors circulate on the ambiguity of the
multiple views. The thus says YHWH has been turned to I believe
that.
2. Subjectivity. To place the axis of any sense in subjectivity is to create
a fragmentation of the Whole that nullifies that same sense. God and
the Truth are changed for countless disoriented little gods with local
truths. The descriptor becomes a simple notary of the multiplicity of
views.
3. Story. The narration does not cease to be story and the descriptor
a storyteller that wanders between fiction and myth in front of a
community of believers that suspect, consciously or unconsciously,
of the reality of the text. The Bible is a record of more or less made up
compositions that are barely over the skill of a literary outline.
4. Tolerance. The desire to please is confused with the practice of
tolerance. The descriptor simply describes because this does not
exceed the space of privacy. The fear of intruding binds the descriptor
who tends to confuse to look good with doing it right.
5. Visualization. The natural expression of the descriptor is the
verbalization of the visualization. The Bible that pleases is a Bible
displayed, narrated and illustrated. There is a certain mysticism in
the contemplation of the images, scenes or drawings of the biblical
narratives that are presented in hiatus with the everyday reality.
6. Recognition. The objective of the descriptor, particularly in the
academic products, does not exceed the recognition of the literary
forms, the theological structures, the list of semantic fields, the
multiple opinions of the authorities. After the collage of arguments
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or thinking a relationship with the everyday life is hardly perceived.

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If there is consistency in the speech of the Christian intellectual, if you

have the guts to continue supporting that the Scripture is the Word of God,
we cannot confine ourselves to the role of descriptors. It is a simple exercise
of coherence.
The Bible is the Hypertext par excellence. There is no other book that
can establish links like this. Some would dare to claim that it is the hypotext
of western culture but it reaches far beyond. It exceeds the signifier-signified,
letter-idea, sender-receiver bidimensionality to achieve the sense of the
person with the time (explains the yesterday, means the today and clarifies
the future), with the space (complete the here and brings closer the beyond)
with the being (positions the self, discovers the other, reveals Him). The Bible
is the Hypertext because it generates transcendence.
If that is the nature of the Bible, if we live in a submergent world, we
have no other option but to be prescribers. We have, therefore, to revise our
functions:
1. The Way vs. the method. The Bible presents with clarity that the
method for a prescription process does not respond to what but to
who. Jesus is the way, Jesus is the method. It does not consist of a
protocol or a list of actions, but in understanding that transcendence
emerges and becomes one person. That person, in addition, is the
Christ, which implies a participation of the divine in the process of
influence and improvement.
2. The Truth vs. subjectivity. If something distinguishes neotestamentary
christianity of tannaitic Judaism is its linearity. The biblical text can
be linear because there is certainty that the truth is not an exercise of
approximation but the confirmation by means of faith that right and
wrong exist. The Christian intellectual, as prescriber, seeks the Truth not
to possess or instrumentalise it but to live it and help others to live it too.
3. Life vs. the narration. Bible is not a compilation of stories but a
collection of experiences. The text is expressed literarily but it reflects
the life. There is no dispute about the historicity or the narrative but
life is empowered. The prescriber detects the greatness of the human
experience before the divine and proposes it as an example of life.
The lived Bible is an agent of vitalization.
4. Respect vs. tolerance. The foundation of every biblical principle is love.
Respect arises from that foundation and, as such, it is active. Respect
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DESCRIPTOR TO PRESCRIBER:
SCRIPTURE, THEOLOGY AND PRAXIS IN A SUBMERGENT WOR

empathizes to such an extent that it longs for and seeks to improve

the other. To do good and share the good news is essential in the task
of the prescriber. The intrusion is abandoned by the complicity, the
imposition by the offer, dogmatism by the relationship.
5. Vivification vs. visualization. We have to get away from the stage,
even from the stands of the religious theater to go to the streets of
existence. The Bible cannot be left in the images, carvings or autos
sacramentales of post-modernity. It must be more than an imaginary,
it must incorporate each corner of life. It is urgent to leave this
ecclesiastical and theological Platonism, both in sermons and articles,
and enliven the biblical text.
6. Transformation vs. recognition. It is not enough to recognize the life in
the Bible, it is necessary to mend lives with the Bible. Transformation is
one of the most transcendent objectives of the Scripture. This should be
the priority in the practice of Theology and praxis. God intervenes in
history so that the Metastory becomes our story, so we do not convert
before the Storyteller of storytellers and Prescriber of prescribers.
No one will say the task is easy, but was it once? I imagine Luther
contemplating our submergent world and proposing with intensity a
turning point. He would possibly suggest some changes in our relationship
with Scripture (see Table 3). First, the availability of the Bible present among
the believers and, also, away from the interests of the market. Versions of
the text that would establish, in addition to contextualization, relationships
with the truth of the content and with the needs of recipients. A return to
the original canon because there is a lack of a model and an original one. A
historical-linguistic hermeneutic that should be prescriptive and sentimental
(emotion flowing through reason). The Holy Bible conceived as an inspired
and inspiring text, that space where the revelation meets with light and life.
A return to faith as axis of action, as the spiritual and material engine. A
biblical text that would impact in life as a guide for growth, as authority
that arises from a leadership that transforms. An understanding of the
Bible as the fullness of communication where Sola Scriptura is connected to
Tota Scriptura. A material that is translated in a comprehensive and uniting
manner where an effort should be made to transmission of containers and
content alike.
Changes, I am sure, that would bring us closer to new realities, to a
look of this world closer to YHWH.
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Table 3
Scripture

Hypertext in a coherent and transcendent Christianity

Availability

Present and freed from the market

Variety

Related versions

Configuration

Original canon

Interpretative approach

Historical-linguistic hermeneutic (prescriptive and

sentimental)

Relevance

Holy Bible (inspired and inspiring text)

Axis of action

Faith

Authority

Authority of life

Understanding of the division

Bible

Translation

Comprehensive and uniting translation

Source: Own source

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