BIBLE IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD
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Andrew
The latest volume of Stimulus (a Kiwi theological journal) has some great articles in it to do with engaging the Bible in the postmodern world. If you don't know what the word postmodern means, don't stress, nor do most people and frankly I get bored hearing it!
Paul has given a link to a very good essay by Chris Marshall in this issue. You can access a PDF file here. If you're at Napier Baptist and would like to borrow my copy, then let me know...
Marshall gives a harsh but fair survey of the lay of the land - especially within evangelical, "Bible believing" churches (like Napier Baptist).
"What then is this "crisis" of biblical proportions (!) to which people refer? Put simply, it it the way in which the Christian community is becoming increasingly estranged from its sacred text, the Bible, increasingly deaf to its witness, bewildered by its contents, unsure of how best to read it or apply it responsibly to life and unable to explain just why the Bible ought to be esteemed so highly. This is true even of the most conservative evangelical and Pentecostal churches, who make the loudest claims about the divine dignity, authority, even inerrancy, of the Bible, yet who, in some respects, are the most adept at distorting the text. They describe the Bible in grandiose terms, but the depth and breadth of their engagement with Scripture remains superficial at best, and downright manipulative at worst. There may even be a direct correlation between how emphatically people insist on the inspiration and infallability of the Bible, and how little they wrestle with its meaning and complexity.
Yet it is not enough to make big claims about the Bible's uniqueness and authority. The authority that any text possesses us is not measured by what we say about the text, but by what we do with the text, by the way we permit the text to function in our life and thought. If it is true (as I believe it is) that Scripture possesses supreme authority in faith and life, then what ought to be evident in congregations is serious, sustained and intelligent attention to the actual meaning of scripture. After all, the church universal has always confessed that when the faithful listen attentively and humbly to Scripture, they can hear the very voice of God addressing them, instructing them, conforming them, and transforming them - which, when you stop to think about it, is an awesome thing to contemplate!"
I love it when people way smarter than me say things clearly and succinctly that take me more than 4 weeks to bumble out. This is at the heart of why I have spent 4 weeks on How to Read the Bible on its Own Terms and why I'm keen for us at Napier Baptist to seek, as best we can, to be a Community of the Word who try to read it with serious, sustained and intelligent attention.
Paul has given a link to a very good essay by Chris Marshall in this issue. You can access a PDF file here. If you're at Napier Baptist and would like to borrow my copy, then let me know...
Marshall gives a harsh but fair survey of the lay of the land - especially within evangelical, "Bible believing" churches (like Napier Baptist).
"What then is this "crisis" of biblical proportions (!) to which people refer? Put simply, it it the way in which the Christian community is becoming increasingly estranged from its sacred text, the Bible, increasingly deaf to its witness, bewildered by its contents, unsure of how best to read it or apply it responsibly to life and unable to explain just why the Bible ought to be esteemed so highly. This is true even of the most conservative evangelical and Pentecostal churches, who make the loudest claims about the divine dignity, authority, even inerrancy, of the Bible, yet who, in some respects, are the most adept at distorting the text. They describe the Bible in grandiose terms, but the depth and breadth of their engagement with Scripture remains superficial at best, and downright manipulative at worst. There may even be a direct correlation between how emphatically people insist on the inspiration and infallability of the Bible, and how little they wrestle with its meaning and complexity.
Yet it is not enough to make big claims about the Bible's uniqueness and authority. The authority that any text possesses us is not measured by what we say about the text, but by what we do with the text, by the way we permit the text to function in our life and thought. If it is true (as I believe it is) that Scripture possesses supreme authority in faith and life, then what ought to be evident in congregations is serious, sustained and intelligent attention to the actual meaning of scripture. After all, the church universal has always confessed that when the faithful listen attentively and humbly to Scripture, they can hear the very voice of God addressing them, instructing them, conforming them, and transforming them - which, when you stop to think about it, is an awesome thing to contemplate!"
I love it when people way smarter than me say things clearly and succinctly that take me more than 4 weeks to bumble out. This is at the heart of why I have spent 4 weeks on How to Read the Bible on its Own Terms and why I'm keen for us at Napier Baptist to seek, as best we can, to be a Community of the Word who try to read it with serious, sustained and intelligent attention.
5:16 PM
Don't be so hard on yourself Andy, I think you're real smart.
7:20 PM
I agree that Marshall's essay is pretty awesome - but it's also rather sobering and somewhat depressing reading too - especially in that I can so easily identify myself in Marshall's text as an example of the problem! I found that rather alarming! As you have stated before...reading the Bible is sometimes is very hard, takes discipline and will not always be understood. At the very least Andrew, you provided some tools for the Napier Baptist Church Community to engage scripture in a practical way. It remains to be seen if the challenge is taken up by any or all of us.
12:32 PM
Cheers Bandy, I'd like to be "real smart"! Ian, I totally agree. What disturbed me most about Marshall's essay wasn't the statistics but knowing I'm one of his statistics! People like me are the problem. So what do we do about it? I guess also as a pastor knowing that the people that make up Marshall's statistics aren't simply statistics but real people who're good Christians, trying to honour Jesus and read the Bible but struggling badly. They're not nameless faces but people like me who we sit next to in church who're genuinely struggling and I guess the point of our series on reading the Bible was can we struggle together...?