I’m surrounded by a certain type of Christian that I’ve taken to calling an “Ayn Rand Christian”. The MO is: “New Testament for me, Old Testament for thee”.
IMHO when someone needs something concrete from you, and quotes one verse from the 33, but when you’re in trouble they’re happy to “pray for you” if you’re lucky, if not break out the weak faith routine you alluded to, what you’re really dealing with is the same people who give Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead place of privilege on their bookshelves.
I’m not a person of particularly strong religion or even spirituality, but I’m on team: the 33, while flawed, are my preferred mode of interaction over the 66.
There are better sources than me for the broader history.
In roughly 420AD there was something called the “Counsel of Nicea” where representatives from different Christian sects hammered out a consensus on what counts as the “Bible”, and they reified a distinction that had predated the debate into canon: 66 books of the “Old Testament” beginning with “Genesis”, and 33 books of the “New Testament” beginning with “Matthew”, or, “The Gospel According to Matthew”, and ending with “The Book of Revelations”.
I was never a good scholar of the “Old Testament”. It’s part of the family tree that’s often called “Abrahamic”. Islam’s holy text is in this family tree in some sense.
The “New Testament” is 4 allegedly first-hand accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, a set of writings called the “Pauline Epistles”, and some other stuff (“Acts of the Apostles”, etc).
The “Old Testament” is especially complicated and random-seeming, but is broadly concerned with laws and punishments. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “an eye for an eye”, that’s very “Old Testament”.
The “New Testament” is also complicated and random-seeming, but broadly concerned withers of grace, forgiveness, compassion, and redemption.
Those are both wild oversimplifications, but I think give a flavor.
I'd agree, your post does a good job summarizing the common perception people have of biblical exoterica. There are much worse jumping off points.
My understanding is that the Council of Nicea took place in 325 AD, and had a lot more to do with church teaching and management than with establishing the canon of scripture - though secondary sources suggest canon may have been discussed there as well.
The number of the books seems to be off, I am not aware of any canon that is 33/66... It's understandable to mis-remember the number, and round it to one thirds, two thirds given that by page length, the old testament dwarfs the new.
Canon list: New/Old
Protestant: 27/39 for 66 total
Catholic: 27/46 for 73 total
Eastern Orthodox: 27/49 for 76 total
To what you said in your first post, I can commiserate with the social phenomena you're talking about... If anything, it should be "Old Testament for me New Testament for thee", to remember that our own actions carry consequences for us, and burdens of responsibility, and to be forgiving, and loving, and self sacrificing towards others. Do I do that? Not nearly enough. Can I change? I hope so.
I replied to the sibling in some detail. It’s not my ambition to tell anyone what to believe about God: I’m quite unsure myself.
But my little primer-as-Internet comment is based on not only reading but memorizing these documents at a young age, it’s likely a reasonable place to formulate some Google search terms.
In Melbourne, where I am (~10% church attendance rates, most left-wing/liberal city in Australia), I see the same thing from liberal atheists.
As soon as these arbiters of morality see a friend or colleague in need, they have nothing but platitudes about mental health or mindfulness followed by a rapidly-constructed mental wall.
It wasn't until two coworkers from Brisbane experienced this, one of whom was very open about how her experience her differed to tough times back home, that I realised how fucked up it all is.
Well I guess I should apologize on behalf of Liberals, Atheists, and Christians at least: I’ve been some version of all of those things if we go back enough decades.
Few of even my critics would call me a fair-weather friend. And I’ve grown ever-more impatient with fair-weather friends. There’s another word for that, but everyone knows it and so I do to spend it.
Real Christianity, in my opinion, is a lot like FDR-liberalism: compassion, love, and second chances.
I don’t know what that philosophy is even called these days. I want to join that movement.
There's a lot of cherry picking and hypocrisy in organized religion, even with Jesus himself making a tl;dr of the bible by going "love thy neighbour".
IMHO when someone needs something concrete from you, and quotes one verse from the 33, but when you’re in trouble they’re happy to “pray for you” if you’re lucky, if not break out the weak faith routine you alluded to, what you’re really dealing with is the same people who give Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead place of privilege on their bookshelves.
I’m not a person of particularly strong religion or even spirituality, but I’m on team: the 33, while flawed, are my preferred mode of interaction over the 66.