The biblical text makes valiant attempts to express
the greatness of God, but words are unable to capture God’s magnificent complexity.
Friday, April 28, 2017
Friday Musings - April 28
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Thursday Thoughts - April 27
I’m reading for review a recent work on biblical
authority by a contemporary author who tries to make a case for this. The clarity
of the biblical text, it is argued, is based on the truth that it is God’s own
communicative action (what God has authored), which gives us light, not a
magisterium or a subjective opinion. What is clear is delivered by the Spirit
speaking in the text. For me, this raises a number of issues, but I’ll flag
just two. I’d wager that it can be extremely difficult to discern Spirit speech.
Any difference between the Spirit speaking text and subjective opinions – be
they by the magisterium or the individual – is not entirely transparent. Further,
when a group of interpreters or even two interpreters come to different
conclusions about the meaning of the same text, making the claim that ‘the
Spirit is speaking’ can become a foil for ‘my (our) interpretation is the “right”
one.’ I mentioned recently that the authority of the biblical text and Divine
action are two monumental questions that Christians need to do more work on. In
my opinion, books like the one I’m reviewing with its general appeals to the apologetic
line that the biblical text is God’s communication and the Spirit speaking
clarifies this transmission will not get us very far or contribute much to the
discussion on authority. A better direction at the outset would be to recognize
that the biblical text is tangled up with a number of different people and phenomena.
We should do the best we can with the diversity that’s there, rather than
assuming that it’s all somehow authored by God.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Living spiritual Rhythms - April 26
Metaphor,
symbol, and story may be first order forms of discourse that need to be taken
seriously when we seek to understand God, ourselves, and the world. Poetry, for
example, may be a fuller expression of truth than mathematical formulations and
imagination a more reliable guide to the real over the unreal.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Reflection for the Week - April 24
When you question traditional understandings of
Genesis 1-3 as we have, it raises serious issues for some. Science
indeed has presented us with a powerful evolutionary picture of beginnings that
challenges us to rethink our theology. In doing so, many
Christians have accused us of being heretics, or perhaps worse. But please read
From Evolution to Eden to find out
why.
Also ebook!
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