Contextualizing absolute-sounding scriptural statements doesn’t minimize those statements not conte

Contextualizing absolute sounding scriptural statements doesn't minimize them not contextualizing them not contextualizing those statements minimizes them whenever we study scripture such as the Bhagavad Gita we may come across some statements that don't make sense very easily how do we respond to such statements as an example let's consider a statement from Bhagavad Gita 13th chapter this is knowledge and apart from this whatever else is there is ignorance so how do we understand this the list what is included in the list is a list of certain virtues 20 virtues is everything else apart from this we consider ignorance completely in all times all places so if we look at the Gita's context itself does the Gita dismiss all other forms of knowledge not necessarily it actually gives us from its context a solid indication after the Gita is spoken a war is fought for establishing Dharma and in that war Arjuna uses his knowledge of archery as a critical necessity for winning the war so that knowledge is not necessarily dismissed or rejected so what exactly is going on over here archery is not included in the list of knowledge that Krishna has given to Arjuna so to understand we need to see that firstly the point here is the Gita is spoken to help Arjuna make a reasoned responsible decision about the right thing to do and for such decision making knowledge of specific skills is not so vital as a character that is rich with virtues these virtues can guide responsible decision making and thus the Gita talks about knowledge in terms of virtues when we contextualize the Gita like this are we minimizing it sometimes we might be but not necessarily always sometimes by not contextualizing the Gita also we might minimize it consider for example if we make this particular statement as absolute we would have to we would have to accept something that is contrary to experience and reason and that kind of faith even if we profess to have it we will end up practically downplaying the statement by not thinking about it and if we demand that thoughtful people thoughtful readers of the Gita also have such faith then they will basically just get alienated they will deem the they may well deem the entire Gita as irrational for helping us understand the Gita properly we can draw from its rich commentarial tradition that has ensured its enduring relevance thank you.