Review Essay, Keeping the Balance
Thus “the purpose of Scripture is revelation, its underlying quality is that of inspiration, its function is that of authority for theology”—it exists for “mediating knowledge of God”. Consequently, the true method of theology “places itself at the end of the process of revelation as its recipient” and the “correct interpretation of Scripture is the reception of revelation”. Theology, that is, the study of God, “is the end and goal of all revelation, whether it is attempted by learned people or simple”.
Now we know where to start, how do we proceed? Given the varieties of interpretations among those claiming a high view of the Bible, it is clear that the evangelical doctrine of the Scripture is “insufficient in itself to distinguish between proper and improper interpretation”. You can prove anything from the Bible using the simplistic and naïve methods common to sects and some popular preaching.
Recognising the diversity in Scripture However, properly interpreting scripture is much more labour-intensive than the mere presentation of a Bible verse that literally expresses an assertion attached to it. Kuyper is quoted admonishing us that the Bible does not “intend to offer you the knowledge of God as bread baked and cut”! The details of its literacy and historical form, often neglected in bad theology, are the very “keys, given to us with the inspired text itself, with which we may open its truth”. The Bible, speaking to us “in divers portions” and “divers manners” (Hebrews 1:1; RV) is made up of history, poetry, ethics, prophecy and many other literary forms, all of which require a different approach and are bound by different rules of interpretation.
Recognising the unity in Scripture Cameron hastens to add, however, that there is unity in the Bible’s diversity. “If we have in Scripture real, irreducible pluriformality, as many writers would have us believe, then the task of reaching a unified theology and real knowledge of God must be frustrated. An authority that speaks with more than one voice must cease to be an authority—authority removes to the man who chooses which voice he will hear”. God, however, chose this collection of historically conditioned books from the pens of human writers as the form and medium for his self-revelation, and this God-breathed library finds its unity in His omniscient mind. Whilst we have a right and an impetus to engage in “the most detailed labours” to discover what book, chapter, verse—and even word—actually teaches, we also have “an assurance which becomes, for our study, a presupposition that because Scripture reveals one God it is an organic whole”.
Category: In Depth, Spring 2006
Followers
Fans
