Scripture: A Very Theological Proposal

Scripture is a text drawn into the activity of the triune God of Israel, its ultimate destination is the worshiping church, it has a ministry in shaping Christian thinking and acting, and it cannot be isolated both from attention to Christ and the church in whose life it is embedded. Scripture is not first a source for historical inquiry, or a text that tickles our literary sensitivities: Holy Scripture has a commissioned role in the saving purposes of God. ??This text recovers scriptural reading as a discipline that can be undertaken only when theologically equipped. Theological enquiry into Scripture is required to locate Scripture within the action of the gospel and within the life and worship of the church: a task undertaken by negotiating our way through P.T. Forsyth, Stanley Hauerwas, and other recent doctrines of Scripture.* Chapter 1 therefore relate Scripture both to the action of God and ecclesiology. * Chapter 2 explores the relationship between Scripture and ethics, arguing that starting from within the politics of the church appropriately re-locates the 'problem' of relating the Bible to ethics as proposed by biblical scholarship. * Chapter 3 evinces how keeping company with a host of theologians can help us read John's gospel. * Chapter 4 articulates a decidedly theological account of preaching, attentive to Christ, Scripture, and the church. * Chapter 5 explores what kind of university would be a hospitable host for the theological.

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Publisher Description

To identify the biblical texts as 'Scripture' is to make a series of specific claims about this text: that it is drawn into the activity of the triune God of Israel; that its ultimate destination is the worshipping church; and that it has a ministry in shaping Christian thinking and acting. Scripture: A Very Theological Proposaladvances that the resources for reading Scripture, understanding its claims, and acting upon them will be found by looking to the church's life and doctrines. Reading Scripture with a host of theologians, Paddison proposes a hermeneutic appropriate to reading Scripture both as divine address and the book of the church. The book positions itself by resisting accounts in which Scripture's relationship to God and its life within the church are understood competitively, as if the more we attend to one the less we are attending to the other. Chapters further explore a doctrine of Scripture and the relationship of ethics, doctrine, and preaching to Scripture. A final chapter asks, can, or should, Scripture be read in the university?