Those are interesting (and in line with a lot of what I've heard about modern rabbinic rulings that make e.g. stoning impossible to be applied), but it's seems of a different type than saying that a passage about supernatural beliefs was really saying that you can understand the world right in line with a naturalist wordview, as Callahan is claiming.
Edit: And for readers who are unfamiliar, the "through a glass darky" is a reference to this (though see the notes and other translations).
modern rabbinic rulings
Awareness of the differences between a contemporary, novel application of an ancient ruling and a modern ruling is important for understanding how the system works.
Also, the word "modern" should probably be avoided. In my experience, Catholics often and Jews sometimes mean since ~70 AD by modern (Jews are more likely to mean ~500 AD than ~70 AD), others mean different things, such as since WWII, or within the past few decades, or since 1563.
Further confusion is added when someone has one meaning in mind and pegs it inc...
Background: Apostles' Creed, Tsuyoku Naritai
Related to: A Parable on Obsolete Ideologies
Just something I thought I might add to the annals of cases where someone tries to re-interpret an old religious text to mean something more acceptable to the modern ear, in contradiction to what most people (especially its contemporaries) think the texts mean. And this is not some random person, but Gene Callahan, who makes sure you understand he holds a doctorate in philosophy, and pretty much makes a career out of defending this and anti-reductionist views in general. Here's the post:
I suggested that this is not what most people mean when they say the Creed, but (surprise) the comment was deleted.
(Yes I know Tsuyoku Naritai is not quite the same as Callahan's interpretation, but it's the closest short LW term for the general idea.)