Tuesday, July 19, 2005

A moment of pause...

I've hit a moment of pause in my research. Not because I havnt been studying (although I have been very busy), but because I am unsure where to go from this point. Up to now my paper has been focused upon developing a hermeneutic of story for appropriating scriptures commands.

However, developing a hermeneutic to deal with scriptures commands builds on the assumption that they are all authoritative in some sense, something that I now wish to move away from. Although my hermeneutic arrose because of the apparent need the assumption created, it ends up undermining the assumption itself by exposing the nature of the scriptures and scriptural faith. And so although it has eliminated the need for developing the hermeneutic, I found this to be so only after doing the work. So what do I do? Do I write the paper and note at the end that this has pointed out a fault in the original assumption? Or do I change the focus of the paper away from a specific hermeneutic to an understanding of the Bible and Scriptural faith?

I also wish to move away from understanding the Bible in terms of one function, purpose, or nature, and towards appropriating scriptures diversity according to its kinds. I wish to think in terms of "scriptures" which implies multiple works allowing for literary diversity rather than "bible" that implies a single work and tends to encourage a "flat" or single approach to reading, theology, ethics, and praxis. And so I wonder whether attempting to develop a doctrinal description of the Bible is a good idea. Should I change my paper to discuss the nature of Scriptural faith and how this should shape our use of the scriptures? Maybe I should use my paper to argue against a "flat" understanding and reading of the sriptures?

If anyone does read this blog, now would be a good time to comment...

6 comments:

Sean said...

Yo dawg, I've just got Scripture and the Authority of God by Tom Wright, which is simply a MUST read for your thesis. I'll try and get a copy here and then post it to you, but if not get it from amazon. CHeap cheap, and VERY GOOD!

Eddie said...

are you serious!!? i thought it wasnt published yet! me and tracy r so tight on money rite now so i dont know if i will be ordering anything anytime soon....

nice to hear from you by the way. hope all is well, and that your run in with Wright went well

Later

Eddie said...

Im thinking of The Last Word : Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture. Is it the same book?

Sean said...

Glad things are well, but sorry a bit tight like a tiger... The book I have by Wright is called: Scripture and the Authority of God SPCK, 2005. haven't heard of the other one. It's a small book, not very engaging with other scholarship, but still fab reading on the issue. Will try mail you one, but ££ are tight too...

Sean said...

The Book that Breathes New Life: Scriptural Authority and Biblical Theology by W. Brueggemann is a must read for your research... I'm not sure if it's an edited collection, it didn't look that way, but the way Amazon has it advertised, it could be...

Eddie said...

Carey has already got a copy and i have been eyeing it up... Its a collection of Brueggemann's articles on the topic of authority and stuff.

If you could get me a copy of Wright's book that would be fab!