What Happened Last?

April 2005

The Bible - What do we make of it?

This was never going to be a comfortable seminar for me personally. The Bible has been the central text of my entire adult life and has had a huge influence in making me into the person I am. It is not easy, then, to ask difficult questions about what kind of book it really is, and how we are to understand the diverse and sometimes confusing messages it contains. As a lot of unhelpful bath water of inherited superstition swirls away down the plughole of honest analysis there comes a moment of fear. Just where is the baby?

John Wiffen began the evening with a short history of his own changing understanding of the Bible. For him it was a journey from taking on external truth from other people towards exploring and experiencing truth as that which comes from within. It is the difference between knowing about and knowing. The Bible can be understood from a whole spectrum of positions. At one end people could think that God was virtually holding the pen as human hands wrote, making the truth of the words completely pure and miraculously free of errors. At the other extreme the perception is that the Bible is merely a work of human literature to be read with interest alongside other books but possessing no special status. In between these extremes, however, lie many shades of perspective. It is finding a place of integrity somewhere on that spectrum that is the real goal of biblical understanding.

Paul Wilson then added some thoughts on the history of views of the Bible. He suggested some of the hard-line views on Biblical inerrancy were comparatively recent in their origins, dating from the early part of last century and the publication of “The Fundamentals” in America. He took the audience through some exercises in thinking about what the Bible says about itself. Paul confessed to holding a high view of the Bible and wanting to stand under its authority. For Paul this was not incompatible with a recognition of errors and failings on the part of the writers. It matters, he contended, that we see that the many and varied writings we have in one bound book, had widely differing cultural origins and were written for many different purposes.

As the evening drew to its scheduled close many of the audience expressed a desire to stay on and continue the debate that had been stirred up. So the event moved into unscheduled overtime and a lively and honest exchange of views followed. Whilst it was clear that views differed widely there was impressive candour and some vulnerability in the ways points were made. It really did feel like Galilee in action. A safe and positive place to ask questions. The audience deserved praise for that.

And how did it leave me? In all honesty, not comfortable. I need to find my own place to stand on these issues. I am not giving up on my life time guide, the Bible, just yet. But I am the better for facing the questions.

Chris.