Reflection for the Week - October 9

When it comes to the question of biblical authority, it’s fine to say that ‘Scripture interprets Scripture’, or the ‘voice’ of God is revealed in Scripture, or the Bible is the ‘final’ authority for theological assessment. Surely, these are valuable ways of speaking if one assumes that the Bible is authoritative. But none of these ‘speech acts’ in itself is an argument for establishing that authority. In effect, it seems likely, in my view, that the biblical text cannot be deemed ‘authoritative’ on its own. That is, the Bible has to be interpreted and then placed into a dialogue with other informers, notably the natural world, in order to assess its reliability or vulnerability with respect to its claims.