Last week I picked up my copy of The New Testament and the People of God. I bought the book and began reading it my 1st semester at Southeastern. I got as far as Part II, maybe 10 pages in and I quit. When I first read it, I had questions such as: "Bultmann who?", "What's a hermeneutic?", and it never occured to me that the Bible could be read in different ways.
Three years wiser, I'm picking it back up. It's interesting to see how much more I'm getting out of it now that I understand atleast the basics of hermeneutics, who Rudolph Bultmann was, etc. It's interesting to see what I've highlighted in the past, the notes I made, and how they differ from what I see as important today and the notes I write.
Thus far, I'm really enjoying Wright's ideas on reading the text without sacrificing one aspect of it. I really like what Wright says on pg. 24:
Sometimes I think evangelicals run the risk of Bible worship. This is most obvious in our fundamentalist breathren who advocate King James only. But a less obvious happening is that of Bible worship by those who adhere to an extremely strict inerrany beause they fail to give power and authority to Jesus. There were Christians for years (mind you, I think considerably less years than mainline sholarship says) who didn't have these texts and they got along just fine. The Bible cannot be the ultimate authority, therefore Christ must be.
Three years wiser, I'm picking it back up. It's interesting to see how much more I'm getting out of it now that I understand atleast the basics of hermeneutics, who Rudolph Bultmann was, etc. It's interesting to see what I've highlighted in the past, the notes I made, and how they differ from what I see as important today and the notes I write.
Thus far, I'm really enjoying Wright's ideas on reading the text without sacrificing one aspect of it. I really like what Wright says on pg. 24:
...all authority belongs ultimately to the creator god; and if (as traditional Christianity has gone on to say) this god is made known supremely in Jesus, then Jesus, too, holds an authority that is superior to all writing about him.
Sometimes I think evangelicals run the risk of Bible worship. This is most obvious in our fundamentalist breathren who advocate King James only. But a less obvious happening is that of Bible worship by those who adhere to an extremely strict inerrany beause they fail to give power and authority to Jesus. There were Christians for years (mind you, I think considerably less years than mainline sholarship says) who didn't have these texts and they got along just fine. The Bible cannot be the ultimate authority, therefore Christ must be.
4 comments:
"Bultmann who"???? For SHAME!!!!! (Said in the voice of Fraser Crane).
;-)
I know, I know. I repented with sackcloth and ashes when I finally read Bultmann.
Amen, Josh. The same thing happens to me when I pick up books I tried reading years ago but didn't really understand at the time.
Glad to know I'm not alone!
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