Stories for Humanists
Folk Tales and Legends for Liberals and Progressives
There is a wide range of belief that falls under the general category of “humanist”—from the secular humanists to varieties of religious humanists, and back through the ages to the Renaissance, where humanistic studies engaged in a delicate dance with the Pope and his court. Christian Humanism falls somewhere along the spectrum between secular humanism and religious humanism.
The purely secular humanist claims no interest in religious matters. The religious humanist tends to see spiritual value as a legitimate object of interest and may be fascinated by mysticism, or modern forms of deism, or look at the universe with a sense of awe and wonder that borders on worship. Christian Humanism, at least as I come at it, has more in common with the secular humanist than the religious humanist, approaching reality in a very pragmatic way, dismissing any notion of deity, grounding ethics in an arbitrary choice to use the teachings of the man Jesus as a starting point for ethical consideration, and basing what little truth we have in the scientific method.
So it may seem strange to some readers that I promote a familiarity with biblical literature as a useful—even necessary—part of one’s historical and cultural education. Anyone familiar with our western cultural traditions instantly realizes that importance. For many humanists, including this writer, the bible is important not because it is a collection of sacred stories that should be taken as literally true, but rather because the biblical stories contained in it are important culturally to those of us who are the inheritors and beneficiaries of the Abrahamic-Judeo-Christian religious tradition that has made such a significant impact on the culture of the western world. The biblical stories are reflected in the artifacts of our culture—our literature, our art, our drama, our music, our values—and we would be aesthetically and intellectually impoverished as human beings without a working acquaintance with them.
For many years I have wanted for my children and then, with the passage of years, my grandchildren to be exposed to the biblical stories, but without the baggage of theological nonsense, mythology and legend confused with history, and pervasive anti-intellectualism that seems to characterize much of contemporary religion and religion-based institutions. I wished for my family an education in religious history and the literature of religion that was appropriately critical in the academic sense, historically accurate, intellectually honest and consistent with what we know about our world and its origins. I wanted my grandchildren to become familiar with the bible for its historical and cultural importance, but not in a Sunday School class taught by a reluctant volunteer who had no knowledge of biblical history, no acquaintance with the literary and historical issues, no education or training in the background of the bible, no awareness of the context of the stories of the Bible, and no ability to distinguish between history and legend. I could find no way to accomplish that.
A year ago a simple request by my daughter to help her find an appropriate book for my ten year old grandson, who had expressed an interest in learning about stories from the Bible, led me to search diligently to try to find a book that did a satisfactory job of presenting the stories just as they were written, without trying to gloss over inconsistencies or ignoring the context of the story and therefore missing the point, or without an underlying theme or assumption that these were not legends and folk tales but rather history of actual events of the past. I was not successful. The few collections of bible stories for children that I could find were educationally useless, historically inaccurate, and unhelpful for understanding these culturally important stories in their literary and historical context. Having found nothing useful for my grandchildren, I resolved to fill that gap. The result of that resolution is a volume of stories collected as Stories, Folk Tales and Legends from the Bible. As the book developed it became increasingly obvious that many of these stories were not for children. Some of the stories from that volume appear here, with links below. The complete paperback volume can be purchased from the publisher <here>. Those who have a Kindle (Amazon e-book reader) can download it <here> (free for those with Prime accounts).
I expect the book will find a place in the homes of Progressives and Humanists, both adults and teens alike, and in various societies’ youth programs. It will make for some interesting discussions. Be warned: biblical stories are not for young children. There is a lot of “X-rated” material in the Bible (rape, incest, murder, adultery, homosexuality, etc.) and I have not glossed over it to make it acceptable to young readers.
The purely secular humanist claims no interest in religious matters. The religious humanist tends to see spiritual value as a legitimate object of interest and may be fascinated by mysticism, or modern forms of deism, or look at the universe with a sense of awe and wonder that borders on worship. Christian Humanism, at least as I come at it, has more in common with the secular humanist than the religious humanist, approaching reality in a very pragmatic way, dismissing any notion of deity, grounding ethics in an arbitrary choice to use the teachings of the man Jesus as a starting point for ethical consideration, and basing what little truth we have in the scientific method.
So it may seem strange to some readers that I promote a familiarity with biblical literature as a useful—even necessary—part of one’s historical and cultural education. Anyone familiar with our western cultural traditions instantly realizes that importance. For many humanists, including this writer, the bible is important not because it is a collection of sacred stories that should be taken as literally true, but rather because the biblical stories contained in it are important culturally to those of us who are the inheritors and beneficiaries of the Abrahamic-Judeo-Christian religious tradition that has made such a significant impact on the culture of the western world. The biblical stories are reflected in the artifacts of our culture—our literature, our art, our drama, our music, our values—and we would be aesthetically and intellectually impoverished as human beings without a working acquaintance with them.
For many years I have wanted for my children and then, with the passage of years, my grandchildren to be exposed to the biblical stories, but without the baggage of theological nonsense, mythology and legend confused with history, and pervasive anti-intellectualism that seems to characterize much of contemporary religion and religion-based institutions. I wished for my family an education in religious history and the literature of religion that was appropriately critical in the academic sense, historically accurate, intellectually honest and consistent with what we know about our world and its origins. I wanted my grandchildren to become familiar with the bible for its historical and cultural importance, but not in a Sunday School class taught by a reluctant volunteer who had no knowledge of biblical history, no acquaintance with the literary and historical issues, no education or training in the background of the bible, no awareness of the context of the stories of the Bible, and no ability to distinguish between history and legend. I could find no way to accomplish that.
A year ago a simple request by my daughter to help her find an appropriate book for my ten year old grandson, who had expressed an interest in learning about stories from the Bible, led me to search diligently to try to find a book that did a satisfactory job of presenting the stories just as they were written, without trying to gloss over inconsistencies or ignoring the context of the story and therefore missing the point, or without an underlying theme or assumption that these were not legends and folk tales but rather history of actual events of the past. I was not successful. The few collections of bible stories for children that I could find were educationally useless, historically inaccurate, and unhelpful for understanding these culturally important stories in their literary and historical context. Having found nothing useful for my grandchildren, I resolved to fill that gap. The result of that resolution is a volume of stories collected as Stories, Folk Tales and Legends from the Bible. As the book developed it became increasingly obvious that many of these stories were not for children. Some of the stories from that volume appear here, with links below. The complete paperback volume can be purchased from the publisher <here>. Those who have a Kindle (Amazon e-book reader) can download it <here> (free for those with Prime accounts).
I expect the book will find a place in the homes of Progressives and Humanists, both adults and teens alike, and in various societies’ youth programs. It will make for some interesting discussions. Be warned: biblical stories are not for young children. There is a lot of “X-rated” material in the Bible (rape, incest, murder, adultery, homosexuality, etc.) and I have not glossed over it to make it acceptable to young readers.
