Dr. David Nirenberg used examples from different scripture to explain that if every person converted to the same religion there would still be violence and intolerance in the world.
Nirenberg, The Debra R. and Edgar D. Jannotta Professor of Medieval History and Social Thought at the University of Chicago, spoke to approximately 80 people on “Scriptural Community, Scriptural Conflict: Judaism, Christianity, Islam” as part of the Department of Religious Students Tenth Nate and Anne Levine Endowed Lecture in Jewish Studies Tuesday evening.
He used different theological stories and references to portray the similarities in traditional scripture. According to Nirenberg, one scripture has the ability to unite and divide people into an eternal struggle.
Nirenberg used the Bible as an example by saying that one verse can be translated different ways and punctuation changes can alter its meaning.
“Translation is not a problem. It’s a principle,” he said. “There are different ways to interpret words in different communities.”
To Nirenberg, a medieval historian, history is one of many tools used to reveal new truths for new times from scripture, although “we are not forced to chose between historicism and faith.”
“Scripture continues to generate new religions and new understandings,” he said.
If everyone converted to Christianity, there would still be different sects, understandings and beliefs because of this changing interpretation. People read scripture and try to relate it to the present. Thus, its meaning is constantly changing.
“There will always be false teachers, but who are false and who are true?” he asked.
Nirenberg explained that traditional scripture has negative and positives, which make it contradictory and confusing. The negative being that no traditional scripture has the answer. Yet, at the same time, every scripture has the answer.
Scriptures take to each other through the process of translation, Nirenberg said. Truths are borrowed from each scripture, thus there are many similarities among religions.
According to Nirenberg, one must learn to read scripture in a way to come to an understanding, rather than searching for a truth.
Nancy Sigel, who frequents the Levine Lectures, thought Nirenberg’s lecture was enlightening.
“We would probably be more tolerant if we realized they (these religions) are similar,” she said.
