Daniel UGWO

The frequent misconception of many preachers on television, radio and social media, preaching the Christian faith without possessing formal theological training baffles the Parish Priest, SS Peter & Paul Pro-Cathedral, Lagere, Ile-Ife, Rev. Fr. Dr. Peter Adeyemi as he frowns at their frequent misleading interpretations of the Bible.

According to him, “many of the preachers, mostly of the Pentecostal movement simply interpret the Bible according to their own narrow perception of life.” Stressing further their adoption of the fundamentalist approach, the Catholic Pastor educated that in Christian tradition, fundamentalism is a form of protestant Christianity which lay special emphasis on the authority of an inerrant Bible – whose belief is that, the Bible is the answer to all human questions and that it contains no error. He termed such view as ‘Sola Scriptura’ which translate to scripture alone without any recourse to sacred Tradition.

Literal interpretation of the Bible is another dangerous dimension practised by fundamentalist according to Fr Adeyemi. He noted that ‘reason’ and ‘faith’ to them, are separate entities. This he referred to as ‘blind faith without the light of reason’ fast becoming the norm. The Priest referred to the 1994 document of Pontifical Biblical Commission which identified that; by reading the Bible without any questioning or any kind of research, the fundamentalists don’t take into account, historical character of Biblical revelation, an approach which seeks to escape any closeness of the divine and the human. This, he continued, does not admit that the word of God has been expressed in human language under divine inspiration by authors who may possess limited capacity and resources. Their perspective according to him does not only ignore or deny problems presented by the Biblical texts in the original language, it fails to take into consideration the development stages of the gospel while confusing the final stages of the gospels with the initial words or deeds of Jesus.

One of the other dangerous approaches of fundamentalism according to Fr. Adeyemi from his reference point of view is its attractiveness to people who look into the Bible for ready-answer to the problems of life. He worries that fundamentalism invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide, such that people can be deceived through interpretations that are pious but illusory.

Fr. Adeyemi however encouraged Christians to be careful when watching or listening to any preacher, either in the media or by physical encounter, so as not to be confused by the preacher’s fundamentalist understanding of the Bible.