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ABARIM
Publications
Center for Rational Theology - Belgrade, Serbia

Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Rational-Theology-Belgrade.html

Center for Rational Theology — Belgrade, Serbia

Centar za Racionalnu Teologiju — Beograd, Srbija

🔼Nice to meet you!

Abarim Publications is part of a global effort to rebuild abandoned ruins, dig up buried foundations and restore ancient roads. To that end we are opening a base in Belgrade, Serbia, under the ringing name Centar za Racionalnu Teologiju (Center for Rational Theology; in which the word "rational" comes from "ratio", which describes the relativity of measurements, and "theology" refers to the study of everything).

Why the restoration of old roads would be beneficial to the people of Serbia, and why we here at Abarim Publications have decided to be in Serbia instead of somewhere else, we will explain in our signature concise but exiting fashion further below.

For now let's say that our primary objective is to get people to read their Bibles, and to freely discuss the Bible once a week in small groups of 4 to 10 people. We're not there to lead or teach, and especially not any novel doctrine — there is quite enough leadership and doctrine in Serbia — but only to instill the joy of using the Bible as a probe into other people's minds.

We're like Bob Ross, if you will. Bob Ross never sold a single painting and only tried to get people to start expressing themselves in paint, for the sheer joy of it. And there's no real way to do it wrong, except when you expect to be like Rembrandt on your first session. Or when you expect someone else to be like Rembrandt. Or when you expect you will ever in your life meet someone like Rembrandt.

Bob Ross' company sold canvasses, brushes and paint sets, and old Bob only taught a few rudimentary techniques on his weekly TV show. And that's what we aim to do (sans the TV show).

  • Lesson one: If you are a beginner, please don't try to read the grown-ups' Bible because you will certainly drop out within a month. If you are a beginner, first pick up a children's Bible with lots of pictures. You first need to get familiar with the main names and the main story line of the entire Bible before you can get into any of the deeper functionalities. The Bible is a story told in images, in a kind of Über-language that ties all other stories of the world together and which gives access to an Über-conversation that's been going on for many centuries, "taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered" in the words of Rilke, the poet.
  • Lesson Two: Simply get together once a week with 4 to 10 friends. Bring cookies, make coffee, turn off your phones. Sit down in a circle and in comfortable chairs. Then read one single chapter (start with Matthew if you're a new group), by going around the circle reading one or two verses out loud (this helps break the ice). Then talk about the chapter: what's going on in this chapter? Who are these people? What's driving them? Are there any details that seem superfluous to you? And are there any that the author left out and you would have included? Why did the author leave them out? What's the bigger picture in which this story might fit? What might happen next? And talk about your feelings. Are there aspects of your own life that this chapter makes you think of? What would you do if you were one of the characters of this chapter? Which character is most like you?
    And when you've been doing this for a few years: Which narrative structures support the action in this chapter? What other parts of the Bible use these same structures? How do the omissions line up? What's the link between this chapter and those other parts of the Bible? How does this chapter relate to other great foundational texts: Homer, the Quran, the Vedas, or even The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or any other movie you've seen or book you've read?
  • Lesson Three: Despite rumors to the contrary, there's no single proper explanation to the Bible, and it's certainly no code that must be cracked with some secret key of sorts. Not at all. The Bible is like a land that you can traverse, if traversing lands is your thing. Or dig a mine into, if you like shiny things. Or fly over, if you were born with wings or are technical enough to fabricate some. You can do whatever you want to do. There are many ways to misread what the Bible actually says, but when you know what the Bible actually says, there is still no single meaning to it. The Bible is like a mirror (1 Corinthians 13:12) but instead of seeing your own reflection, you'll see the entirety of human reality from your present point of view reflected in it. And that's in many ways similar but always slightly different for everyone who looks.
  • Lesson Four: Always be very careful to separate art from science. Both are fundamentally important to us humans but the difference between the two is that artistic expressions are always unique and original, whereas scientific expressions are always confirmed (by an unrelated and original witness who hasn't been communicated with in any way). Art is the source of all the fun in the world, but science is the source of all substance. Keeping the two separate is essential to a properly functioning world. When assessing the quality of art (that's any new thing), always verify the level of its originality (to make sure it wasn't purloined or copied by a thief or imposter). When assessing the quality of science, always verify that there are at least two unrelated confirmations (to make sure that it isn't simply a piece of art copied by enthusiasts). Freely laugh with art; freely build on science. Never build on art; never laugh at science (Matthew 7:24-27).
  • Lesson Five: Learning how to maneuver the archetypes of the Bible is like learning how to play chess. There are certainly some rules involved, and much history to explore, but if you study all that on your own, you might indeed become the world's greatest chess master, but probably not. The Bible, like any body of literature, any language, even the whole of science, is like being human: a collective affair, and if there is any secret to the Bible, it's that you can't understand it with only your own single mind. You need a Very Large Array antenna for that, as Ellie Arroway discovered first and Beth Harmon later.
    If you want to be a chess master, you have to play with others, especially those who keep beating you. And you have to let others play you, especially those who you keep beating. What counts is the game and not the master, because masters come and go but the game stays the same — and the game will always be open for everybody, from absolute beginners to dazzling masters and anything in between.
    If you can't find anyone to play with, with whom to freely discuss the Bible, then visit any one of the hundreds of functioning churches and monasteries in Serbia. These places are full of monks and priests who like nothing better than to go through the paces with you. They currently work mostly as quiet custodians in the dark basement of our sedated world, but in fact are covert chess masters.