Friday, June 24, 2011

Tom Wright on the Bible Part 2

Here are a few more quotes from N.T. Wright's recent book on the Bible.

The trouble with all this is of course the lack of control. Once you can make scripture stand on its hind legs and dance a jig, it becomes a tame pet rather than a roaring lion. It is no longer "authoritative" in any strict sense; that is it may be cited as though in "proof" of some point or other, but it is not leading the way, energizing the church with the fresh breath of God himself. The question must always be asked, whether scripture is being used to serve an existing theology or vice versa. (p71)

To affirm "the authority of scripture" is precisely not to say, "we know what scripture means and don't need to raise any more questions." It is always a way of saying that the church in each generation must make fresh and rejuvenated efforts to understand scripture more fully and live by it more thoroughly, even if that means cutting across cherished traditions. (p.92)

It is with the Bible in its hand, its head, and its heart--not merely with the newspaper and the latest political fashion or scheme that the church can go to work in the world, confident that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. (p.116)

We dare not try to tame the Bible. It is our foundation charter; we are not at liberty to play fast and loose with it. (p.132)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Tom Wright on The Bible part 1

Below is a list of some of my favorite quotes from Wright's book Scripture and The Authority of God.

"Taken as a whole, the church clearly can't live without the Bible, but it doesn't seem to have much idea of how to live with it" (preface).

"Integrity consists not of having no presuppositions but of being aware of what one's presuppositions are and of the obligation to listen to and interact with those who have different ones" (13).

"Scripture itself points--authoritatively, if it does indeed possess authority!--away from itself and to the fact that the final and true authority belongs to God himself, now delegated to Jesus Christ" (22).

"The biblical writers live with the tension of believing both that in one sense God has always been sovereign over the world and that in another sense this sovereignty, this saving rule, is something which must break afresh into the world of corruption, decay, and death, and the human rebellion, idolatry, and sin which are so closely linked with it" (27).

"A fully Christian view of the Bible includes the idea of God's self-revelation but, by setting it in a larger context, transforms it. Precisely because the God who reveals himself is the world's lover and judge, rather than its absentee landlord, that self-revelation is always to be understood within the category of God's mission to the world, God's saving sovereignty let loose through Jesus and the Spirit and aimed at the healing and renewal of all creation" (29).

Bill Cosby- Dentists