twenty-three

Yesterday I finished a fascinating book, The Last Word by N.T. Wright, which covers the immense topic of Biblical authority. While I hardly know where to begin, I thought it might be worthwhile to approach some of what the book says and hopefully convince anyone who is interested to check it out.

The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
is really the first book I’ve read that directly addresses questions
like "what do we mean when we say the Bible is authoritative?" or "how
can we read this ancient text with the postmodern world in mind and
still take it seriously." I have begun to wrestle with these
types of questions and Wright does a great job of addressing them and
more, while maintaining an amazing amount of respect for the Bible and
the power of God to work through it.

Wright approaches the phrase "scriptural authority" as a shorthand
definition for "the authority of the triune God, excercised somehow through
scripture," in hopes of illustrating the intimate interaction of God
and the reader/interpreter of scripture and God’s work through a
prayerful reading. While I wish I could go into all the aspects of the
arguement, I’ll summarize (probably with quite a bit of error) what
this meant as I read the book. Basically, scripture remains
authoritative to us because of God’s interaction with us through our
reading and living according to scripture within our context. There is much to be said beyond this as further definition, but it strikes me as incredibly significant because this understanding of scriptural authority envisions God continually working through us, in our cultures, through the centuries, in fresh ways, alive ways. God uses the text to teach us where we are, to provide Christianity with a relevant base to stand on while the world around us is full of change.

There are some very interesting claims made throughout this text, some easy to understand and others that I will chew on for a long time. He talks a fair bit about the history of our reading of scripture, which I love, and helps put our current readings in context of where our culture has progressed to (post-modern world stuff) as well as how our ancestors have approached the Bible in light of their views of knowledge (a lot of discussion on the Enlightenment and reason). I think I relate to Wright’s style in that he offers an informed historical approach, with a deep knowledge of the makeup of the 1st century New Testament world, as well as the progression of biblical interpretation from the formation of the canon up to today.

The question of biblical authority may not always rise to the surface, but we each have to grapple with it in some way if we are to take our faith and understanding of the Bible seriously. Do we believe that the entire scriptures are applicable today or do we take it piecemeal for what we want to hear? How have we decided to approach difficult texts and how have our readings of scripture been misconstrued to fit more comfortably in our culture? I think the clearest thing I walk away with after reading on this topic is that God will use the Bible in many ways to teach the church and we must be willing to take a fresh look at our readings of scripture and reevaluate our methods of listening to that teaching. A big part of this, for me, is to understand the historical context of the entire story, so that I understand why a book was written, who it was written to, what the purpose, message, and design of the work were to those people. By understanding these things, I’m better prepared to listen to God teaching me through the text today.

I see it kind of like understanding the plot of an opera. If you don’t know Italian, but you understand the story that’s going on (it’s often translated in the playbill), you can be more attentive to the structure of the music and let the aural aspects help you experience the story. The accentuation of certain consonants or the tone of the music can speak the story to the attentive ear. Similarly, with a better understanding of the historical context of, say Colossians, I may be able to pay more attention to God’s teachings on living under imperial rule. (Does that make sense? That illustration may be a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense to me.)

What I’m trying to say with this is that this book has given me a deeper respect for the Bible as a divinely-crafted piece of literature, complete with history, discourse, philosophy, and through it all, divinely-directed messages for individuals and communities of the past, present, and future. I recommend reading The Last Word if you’ve asked this questions about scriptural authority or if you’re interested in reading about our understanding of the Bible as it relates to history and knowledge. And let me know if you do read it, because I’d love to talk about it with somebody. ;-D

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