1. Posted on 14 February, 2013

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    John Collins, author of The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, tells Terry Gross about how his scholarship gives him the long-view of religion: One of the things — especially if you study The Old Testament — one of the things that it gives you is freedom to criticize your religious tradition. … One of the classes I’m teaching at the moment, we’re going through the prophets and the prophets criticize the temple and the king and the use of tradition and just about everything else in sight, and they do so with the vehemence that the Vatican has never dreamed of. There isn’t a prophet in The Old Testament who wouldn’t be excommunicated if he were a member of the contemporary Catholic church for the sheer vehemence of their criticism of the tradition. Image of Qumran Cave 4 where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Randall Niles via Flickr.

    John Collins, author of The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography, tells Terry Gross about how his scholarship gives him the long-view of religion:

    One of the things — especially if you study The Old Testament — one of the things that it gives you is freedom to criticize your religious tradition. … One of the classes I’m teaching at the moment, we’re going through the prophets and the prophets criticize the temple and the king and the use of tradition and just about everything else in sight, and they do so with the vehemence that the Vatican has never dreamed of. There isn’t a prophet in The Old Testament who wouldn’t be excommunicated if he were a member of the contemporary Catholic church for the sheer vehemence of their criticism of the tradition.

    Image of Qumran Cave 4 where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by Randall Niles via Flickr.

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