Pious fiction: Difference between revisions
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A '''pious fiction''' is a narrative that is presented as true by the author, but is considered by others to be fictional yet produced with an altruistic motivation. The term is sometimes used [[pejorative|pejoratively]] to suggest that the author of the narrative was deliberately misleading readers for selfish or deceitful reasons. The term is often used in religious contexts, sometimes referring to passages in religious texts. |
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A '''pious fiction''' is a [[pejorative]] term sometimes used to describe a narrative (generally implying one in a religious context) that presents itself as factual, but is considered by detractors to be fictional or fabricated. |
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==Examples== |
==Examples== |
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===Religion=== |
===Religion=== |
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A pious fiction is a narrative that is presented as true by the author, but is considered by others to be fictional yet produced with an altruistic motivation. The term is sometimes used pejoratively to suggest that the author of the narrative was deliberately misleading readers for selfish or deceitful reasons. The term is often used in religious contexts, sometimes referring to passages in religious texts.
Examples
Religion
Minimalist interpretations of the Hebrew Bible often consider the Bible to be a pious fiction.[1]
Many scholars consider the conquests from the Book of Joshua to be a pious fiction.[2]
The Book of Mormon is considered by some to be a pious fiction.[3]
The Book of Daniel has been described as a pious fiction, with the purpose of providing encouragement to Jews.[4]
The relationship between the modern celebration of Christmas and the historical birth of Jesus has also been described as such.[5][6][7]
Dale Eickelman writes that Muslim jurists employ a pious fiction when they assert that Islamic law is invariant, when in fact it is subject to change.[8]
Non religious
Fredrick Pike describes some morale-boosting efforts during the Great Depression as pious fictions.[9]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Stanley, Christopher, The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach, Fortress Press, 2009, p 123:
- "Minimalists begin with the fact that the Hebrew Bible did not reach its present form until well after the Babylonian exile … most the that the story was formulated by a group of elites who wanted to justify their claims to dominate … In other words, the narrative [of the Hebrew Bible] is a pious fiction that bears little relation to the actual history of Palestine during the period it purports to narrate."
- ^ Borras, Judit, Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, BRILL, 1999, p 117:
- ".. the overwhelming consensus of modern scolarship is that the conquest tradition of Joshua is a pious fiction composed by the deuteronomistic school …"
- ^ Skousen, Royal, The Book of Mormon: the earliest text, Yale University Press, 2009, p x:
- "Outsiders generally consider this book [the Book of Mormon] a nineteenth-century hoax or pious fiction …"
- ^ Carson, D. A. For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word, Good News Publishers, 2006, p 19:
- "Many critics doubt that the account of Daniel 4 is anything more than pious fiction to encourage the Jews."
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=kJIhXqNwIIUC&lpg=PA476&dq=christmas%20pious%20fiction&pg=PA476#v=onepage&q=christmas%20pious%20fiction&f=false
- ^ http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/how-december-25-became-christmas-day-65604.html
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article405481.ece
- ^ Eickelman , Dale, Muslim politics, Princeton University Press, 2004, p 26:
- "Emendations and additions to purportedly invariant and complete Islamic law (sharia) have occured throughout Islamic history…. Muslim jurists have rigorously maintained the pious fiction that there can be no change in divinely revealed law, even as they have exercised their independent judgment (ijtihad) to create a kind of de facto legislation."
- ^ Pike, Fredrick, FDR's Good Neighbor Policy: sixty years of generally gentle chaos, University of Texas Press, 1995, p 79:
- "In the Depression era, a great many Americans, north and south of the border, succumbed to the pious fiction that underlay the Krausist-Areilist-Marxist nonmaterial rewards aspect of good neighborliness… Without the occasional seasoning of pious fictions, concocted by intellectuals who in their delusions of grandeur try to introduce elements of dream live into crude reality, might not the real world be a far more vicious jungle than it is?"
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