New Series: Reading the Text(s) of Scripture

David Opderbeck of Through A Glass Darkly and I have run out of steam on the “postmodern apologetics” series, so
we’re starting a new one on “Reading the Text(s) of Scripture.” David
and I both were educated in (me: Philadelphia Biblical University; he: Gordon College),
and worship and fellowship in, the evangelical world, so we’re both
aware of the hornet’s nest any discussion of the doctrine of scripture
can stir up. We’re hoping, though, that this will not be taken as
another set of broadsides in the “battle for the Bible,” or as picking
fights, but rather that it will represent the reflections of two
textual scholars from outside the theological guild (he: literature and
literary theory; me: case law, statutes and constitutions), with a
missional sensibility, on the nature of the Biblical texts.

We’ll approach this as follows: we’ll first offer a quote from a
systematic theology text / book / article on the doctrine of scripture
and/or Biblical hermeneutics, or a passage directly from scripture
about scripture, and then we’ll offer our personal reflections on the
quote.

David has come up with a mediating tone for our series: we are both very imperfect, but
serious, Christians, and so we both take the Bible to be “scripture.”
Whatever precise statements, definitions, qualifications, and such we
each might feel comfortable with concerning the doctrine of scripture
and hermeneutics, at the end of the day we both seek to submit to and
be transformed by God as He speaks through scripture. If there are any
elements of “deconstruction” of any of the definitions we discuss — and we’re not prejudging that there necessarily will be — that is only for
the purpose, we hope, of understanding more fully, expressing more
articulately, and representing more faithfully and truthfully the power
and majesty of the scriptures.

Coming up next…. the first quote.