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Authority and Religious Texts

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Ethical Exploration in a Multifaith Society

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Abstract

Whilst religious scripture is not the only source of ethical authority for faith communities it is one of the most significant for all religious traditions. However, the interpretation, role and force of scripture varies not only between but within traditions. For example, Scriptural sources of revelation are foundational to Judaism, Christianity and Islam but although important, carry a different weight within other faith traditions. Yet even within Christianity, Judaism and Islam there is a range of interpretive principles, with significant implications for ethical understandings and principles. This chapter analyses the role of scripture in more detail, with particular reference to modes of interpretation, religious reasoning and the relationships of scripture to other sources of ethical authority, religious and otherwise. The various ways in which scripture and religious law might be understood are illustrated by reference to ethical issues in contemporary debate, namely gender and sexuality and the use of force. Some consideration is also given to the extent to which religious scripture may have relevance, or parallels in secular thought, for those who are not believers, for example the sanctity of life and the golden rule.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.thehindu.com/2000/04/03/stories/01030005.htm.

  2. 2.

    Lipner J. Hindus. Routledge, 2010, pp. 27–87.

  3. 3.

    Lipner J. Hindus. Routledge, 2010, pp. 47–62

  4. 4.

    Lipner J., op. cit., pp. 47–87; Olivelle P. Dharmasastra: A Textual History. In Lubin T et al. Hinduism and Law: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 17–57 (Olivelle 2010).

  5. 5.

    Lipner J., op. cit., pp. 148–172.

  6. 6.

    Smith WC. The Meaning and End of Religion. SPCK, 1978 (Smith 1978), cited by Lipner J., op. cit., at p. 7 & p. 379.

  7. 7.

    Or Tripitaka in Sanskrit.

  8. 8.

    Suttras in Sanskrit.

  9. 9.

    http://sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe13/sbe1302.htm. Accessed 11 June 2016.

  10. 10.

    Second Buddhist Council; see e.g. Buddhism, p. 78 et seq in A History of Indian Philosophy. Ed. Surendranath Dusgupta Motillal Barnasidas Cambridge, 1922 at p. 112 (Dasgupta 1922).

  11. 11.

    Biography of Ven Hsuan Hua. Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1981 (Ven Hsuan Hua 1981).

  12. 12.

    Powers J. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Snow Lion Publications, 2007, pp. 144–156 (Powers 2007).

  13. 13.

    Barton J & Bowden J. The Original Story: God, Israel and the World. Grand Rapids Michigan and Cambridge, UK: Eerdmans, 2005 (Barton and Bowden 2005).

  14. 14.

    Hecht NS, Jackson BS & others (Eds.). An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law. Oxford University Press, 1996 (Hecht et al. 1996).

  15. 15.

    Abdel Haleem MAS. Qu’ran and Hadith. In The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge University Press, 2008 at pp. 19–32 (Haleem 2008); Ramadan T. Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation. Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 11–80 (Ramadan 2009).

  16. 16.

    Singh Mann G. Canon Formation in the Sikh Tradition, pp. 10–25. In Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity, Eds. Mandair As & Shackle C. London: Curzon Press2001 & London: Routledge, 2013 (Sing Mann 2001).

  17. 17.

    Lipner J., op. cit., p. 63 and n. 16, p. 385.

  18. 18.

    Mann Gurinder Singh. The Making of Sikh Scripture. United States: Oxford University Press, 2001 (Mann 2001).

  19. 19.

    Cantwell Smith W. What Is Scripture?: A Comparative Approach. Fortress Press, 1993, p. 181 (Cantwell 1993).

  20. 20.

    Genesis 19 – Sodom & Gomorrah; Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13; Romans 1:26–27; 1 Cor 6:9–10; 1 Tim 1:10.

  21. 21.

    Leviticus 18:23 – homosexuality is ‘to evah’, an abomination and Surah 7:80–84.

  22. 22.

    Compare e.g. Ephesians 5:25–31 with Galatians 3:28; 1 Tim 2:12 with Romans 16:1.

  23. 23.

    Surah 2:228 and 33:35 can be read as promoting gender equality in some translations whereas 2:282 and 4:11 suggest otherwise as regards testimony and inheritance;

  24. 24.

    Examples include Martin DB. Sex and the Single Savior. Westminster: John Knox Press, 2006 (Martin 2006); Vines M. God and the Gay Christian. Random House, 2014 (Vines 2014); Thatcher A. God, Sex and Gender. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 (Thatcher 2011).

  25. 25.

    Holloway R. Godless Morality., op. cit.

  26. 26.

    http://www.thinkhumanism.com/the-golden-rule.html; http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc1.htm.

  27. 27.

    gain and desire; see Lipner J., op. cit., pp. 148–149.

  28. 28.

    In ‘the Ant’.

  29. 29.

    Surah 7:143–144 & S.11 and 71.

  30. 30.

    1 Kings 10; Genesis 7.

  31. 31.

    Fasching Darrell J, Dechant Dell & Lantigua David M. Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach to Global Ethics – Wiley Blackwell, 2nd edition. 2011 at pp. 20–29.

  32. 32.

    Fasching et al., op. cit., pp. 26–27.

  33. 33.

    Al Gazali. The faith and practice of Al Ghazali – Trans. Montgomery Watt W. Oneworld Publications, 2000.

  34. 34.

    Hardy Paul-A. Epistemology and Divine Discourse In The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology, Ed. Winter T. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 288–307 (Hardy 2008).

  35. 35.

    Hardy Paul-A, op. cit., p. 295.

  36. 36.

    Christian Høgel. An early anonymous Greek translation of the Qur’an. The fragments from Niketas Byzantios’ Refutatio and the anonymous Abjuratio. Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 7 (2010), pp. 65–119 (Høgel 2010).

  37. 37.

    Fatani Afnan. Translation and the Qur’an. In The Qur’an: An Encyclopaedia, Ed. Leaman Oliver. Great Britain: Routledge, 2006, pp. 657–669 (Fatani 2006).

  38. 38.

    By Alexander Ross, chaplain to Charles I.

  39. 39.

    The various translations by non-Muslims are assessed by Khaleel Mohammed. Assessing English Translations of the Qur’an Middle East Quarterly. Spring, 2005, pp. 58–71 (Mohammed 2005).

  40. 40.

    Mohammed K., op. cit.

  41. 41.

    NRSV.

  42. 42.

    https://www.cokesbury.com/FreeDownloads/BibleTransGuide.pdf.

  43. 43.

    Lipner J., op. cit., pp. 58–67.

  44. 44.

    Lipner J. op. cit., pp. 62–65 & 78–80.

  45. 45.

    NRSV.

  46. 46.

    Wink W. Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way. Augsburg Fortress, 2003 (Wink 2003).

  47. 47.

    Layman D. The Qu’ran and historical criticism, citing Sayedd Hossein Nasr. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2010/09/quran-historical-criticism.

  48. 48.

    Genesis 22.

  49. 49.

    Genesis 16.

  50. 50.

    Ramadan T. Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 14–17 (Ramadan 2009).

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    Catherine Shelley

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Shelley, C. (2017). Authority and Religious Texts. In: Ethical Exploration in a Multifaith Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46711-5_6

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