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Vexed questions for biblical interpretation
Interpretation in the Present Time Authors: Christopher Rowland & Jonathan Roberts Publisher: SPCK Price: £10.99 ISBN: 9780281058020
The title of this book could mislead. Rather than being concerned with sinners it appears to be aimed at religious people who look to a closed biblical tradition, with its meaning set in stone, as their authority for condemning others.
Distinguishing between those Christians who look to past traditions as supremely authoritative for biblical interpretation, and those who find God’s authoritative presence in their own present experience too, the authors argue that Jesus, who ate with sinners, models the second approach for us. This leads them to offer a method of biblical interpretation “seeking to put into words what a biblical writer like Paul would be saying if he were here now”. They do this from the perspective of liberation theology, which sees God portrayed in the Bible not as impartial, favouring neither the powerful nor the powerless, but as biased in favour of those who have little power.
With these tools, though without offering any solutions, Rowland and Roberts consider some vexed questions in the contemporary church where methods of biblical interpretation clash. The acceptability of same-sex relationships and the remarriage of divorcees are used as case studies, and the work of four “Christian radicals” – Denck and Winstanley, Blake and Stringfellow – whose biblical interpretations are not mainstream are described as alternative possibilities.
Although the authors recommend close attention to context, there is an unacknowledged assumption that it will be Anglican: for example, remarriage of divorcees is not an issue in the same way for nonconformist churches. I was also disappointed to find no women radicals studied, and feminist theology relegated to a page or two before the section on marriage and divorce. However, this is hair-splitting in a book which I would heartily recommend to all who do not want to be told “what the Bible says” before they have begun to read it in conversation with their lives. And maybe the title is right after all. For the authors argue powerfully that God as revealed in the Bible is for, rather than against, sinners - surely good news for us all.
Sarah Hall ministers at St Andrew’s URC in Broomhall, Sheffield |
Title:
The Bible for Sinners: