I am currently auditing a module on biblical exegesis (while I do an independent learning module on Church planting and mission on contemporary culture along side it).
When we began this academic year I realised I was quite confused about the bible - having been a good (rather fundamentalist in my youth!) evangelical I had a clear set of beliefs about what the bible is and what it is for. As time has gone by and my faith has had to (hopefully) mature through some challenging interactions and cultural experiences, I have come to see many of those beliefs as leading to 'dead-ends' that don't lead to the Kingdom of God, I've begun to doubt those premises.
So as I approached this year of doctrine and bible studies, I wanted to get down on paper what I did believe about the bible, in order to see if that changed over the course of this year. This is what I wrote:
The Bible is:
• a collection of writings about God's action in the world.
• written by humans (men), inspired in their work of composing, compiling and editing by God's Spirit interacting with them.
• God speaking to us through these human writers - through the lenses of time, context, culture and human understanding.
• not complete, in the sense that it does not say everything there is to say about everything.
• enough to reveal a coherent picture of God's nature that orientates us to God's truth.
• essential as the anchor to God's truth.
I'll say more about this over the next few weeks (well, based on my track record of blogging it'll probably be more like months!) but I'd be interested in your thoughts in the meantime...
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2 comments:
Hi Heather, this is all really interesting and I look forward to hearing about the exegesis as you go through it... I would definitely agree with you on all your points, I'd probably add a few more but can't think straight right now. My puny one year of Bible college certainly totally changed the way I understood/read the Bible. And reading it all right the way through last year (first time I'd done that) with the help of Fee & Stuart changed things again - I should probably try to think about exactly how at some point, would probably be a helpful reflection to make. I suppose that itself makes me think that I would add to your list that I probably don't believe we can ever access the ultimate, unchangeable 'truth' of the Bible, but hopefully we can keep circling towards it - and that journey of seeking more understanding is part of what God wants for us - as it involves an ongoing friendship with him...
Not sure any of that makes sense, I'm not really thinking straight today!
Really a superb entry, definitely useful stuff. Never ever considered I'd find the facts I need right here. Would be waiting for more stuff from yourside.
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