Pondering Authority (12/2009)

Christians consider The Bible as authoritative.  But how does that work?

Growing up in a fundamentalist Baptist tradition, we believed every word had significance.  Systematic theology was taught, grouping together “proof texts” from various locations scattered throughout the Bible to use as evidence to back up the listed doctrines of the system.  I often wondered if at times we were missing the forest for the trees, concentrating on the details, but missing the framework.  

 

The argument for authority of Scripture seemed a bit strained at times.  We referred to Scripture’s own claim of authority.  And we referred to the pain staking process of selecting the proper books to include in the Bible.  This perplexed me, as we accepted the decisions of the early church “Fathers” in selecting the books of the Bible, yet we rejected any other authority of their decisions, and even ignored most of their teachings, lest we be too much like the “Catholics”!

 

N. T. Wright in The New Testament and the People of God presents a different paradigm on authority.  He likens the Bible to a five-act play.  He uses the example of a Shakespearean play that has been discovered with four acts complete, but only an outline and a few pages of the fifth act present.  The bulk of the play is present, the plots and subplots are established, but the ending is still a bit of a mystery, represented by a few signs visible in the fog.

 

If some expert Shakespearean actors were sought out and invited to complete the play in a way that would be consistent with the first four acts, in accordance with the outline of the fifth act, and yet faithful to all they knew about Shakespeare, how would they proceed?  To do their job well, they would have to be directed by that which they already have available.  The first four acts and the parts of the fifth act are their authority to refer to as they complete the play.

 

This, N. T. Wright suggests, is what the authority of Scripture is all about!  We have the first four acts clearly before us; Creation, Fall, Israel and Jesus.  We have bits of the next act, which we can call “Church”.  We are the actors who have to complete the play under the authority of that which we have already available, so that we do a job consistent with and faithful to that which is intended.

 

This approach to Scripture requires an understanding of the story of Scripture; the forest, not just the trees, the big picture, not disjointed pieces.  The over arching story, or metanarrative, is then our authority.

 

Something to ponder!

 

Dave Drozek

December 2009