Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 1
In the Scotland portrait gallery story, the speaker describes plaque-after-plaque putting a “big X” over historic figures, and then a sign calling celebrities “the real heroes of Scotland”; how does that illustrate “chronological snobbery,” and where do you see that same reflex showing up in the way Christians evaluate earlier believers?
Another way to ask: How does crossing out old heroes and praising celebrities show “chronological snobbery”? Where do Christians today look down on earlier believers just because they lived long ago?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The story illustrates “chronological snobbery” by showing people judging past figures by today’s moral fashion, dismissing them as villains while celebrating modern “heroes.” The speaker says Christians often do the same when they brush aside early Christian writers as ignorant or irrelevant simply because they lived long ago.
- The plaques “just…slamming” historic Scots with a “big X,” even when they were “simply living by the ethics of their time.”
- He identifies this as “presentism”: judging “everybody else who has lived through history based on the ethics of the present day.”
- The gallery then elevates celebrities as “the real heroes of Scotland,” implying modern values define heroism.
- He connects this to Bible interpretation: people say of second-century Christians, “I just dismiss them. Who cares? I mean, they lived a long time ago.”
- He argues it’s inconsistent to depend on early Christians for the New Testament canon while ignoring them for understanding it: “we depend on them for our canon, and then we ignore them.”