A couple of conversations this week about how we use the Bible have reminded me that one of the gifts of postmodernity (it's not from the devil it's just describing a cultural phase you know...) is to recover the sense of Bible as narrative... A wonderful story of God, His people, His world, His interaction with people and creation.
Some who claim to hold the Bible in high regard actually do it a huge injustice by seeing it solely as a guidebook for life. This view seems to follow the car manual line - if there's something wrong with my car, I'll look it up in the car manual, which tells me how to fix it... If there's something wrong with my life, I'll look it up in the Bible, which tells me how to fix it.
We must realise how much this view is deeply influenced by modernity, and seeing the Bible through that cultural perspective. Modernity looked for rules, for certainity, for left-brain perspectives. And this view worked within that culture - and it is still valid - to some extent... But only to see it like that is actually not to hold the Bible in very high regard at all. It does it a huge disservice by missing out on the narrative, the mystery, so much more that the Bible is beyond just a guidebook/manual... Let's never think we have it pinned down, and let's recover a high regard for it in seeing it in all its breadth, depth and many colours
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