Awethority of scripture
The various Bible books were written to particular audiences. I read them, get a feeling for what was going on then, talk to friends at our Wednesday night Bible study, hear occasionally useful sermons, participate in a skeleton liturgy, read this list, read and write on various websites, read books, watch movies, listen to music and from all that get in some mysterious way get hints and guesses as to what my part in the story is. I lose the plot from time to time, but a feeling conviction of vocation (not unlike NTW’s answer to – Did Jesus know he was God?) grows in me and I walk through my days doing what my heart tells me, more or less. Is more or less required?
A grid or specified set of layers of meaning divides up the experience of reading a book in ways that feel artificial, and obscure obliterate the gray.
If the Bible has power in itself, I don’t need to read it differently (except perhaps more attentively closely) than I read Anna Karenina, yeah?
[posted on Wrightsaid first]
6 responses to “Awethority of scripture”
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So the Bible is a text like any other?? I’m confused. I would read AK for enjoyment, and maybe a bit for edification (as a history/old-fashioned things buff), whereas I would read the Bible for both those reasons PLUS!!! getting to know God better etc. So my purpose would shape my approach to each text, ie. I might think about context and hermeneutics more when aiming for the latter rationale. And I don’t think that approach necessarily has to be artificial.
this is what happens when people rely too much on ‘words’, everything else seems so insignificant
O what I’m trying to say is the power of scripture comes from within the words, not external. I don’t have to bring along some extra stuff to make it really work, the authority comes from within, forces itself on me like the beauty of one of the good poems.
Sounds like Barth.
And the scary thing is I haven’t read any Barth yet. But the same thing occurred to me today, and I mean to seek some out.
I got in trouble for reading Barth.