Much of my life and thought over the past couple decades has revolved around the Word of God in Scripture. My goal here is to write a series of child pages, linked from this page, that explore a number of different facets of Sacred Writ.
Some of my interest is in reflection upon and study of the Word, but I also have more mundane issues I’d like to pursue, such as a survey of Bible Study software, a comparison of various English language translations of the Bible, perhaps a survey of the history of the development of Christian Scripture – from the formation of canon, through the challenges of vernacular translations and changing models of interpretation.
I’ve been involved in numerous discussions – some more heated than others – over the status of the books that Catholics call Deuterocanonical, and I also hope to find the time to share some of my understanding of that problem. It ties directly into what I consider one of the most interesting secondary questions around Scripture: the nature of scriptural inspiration. While the Deuterocanonical problem, to avoid sinking into pure subjectivity, must ultimately come back to the question of the authority to define the Scriptural canon, it still has to reckon with what it means to say that a text is inspired or not inspired. It will not suffice to suggest that “inspired” is just a synonym for “authoritative,” because that definition can’t differentiate between Scripture and, for example, the famous theorem of Pythagoras.
At the heart of most of these matters is what I’m increasingly convinced is at the heart of most – if not all – important matters: the meaning of authority. However, I call these secondary questions, because the primary question is simply this: are you coming to know the Scriptures? Everything else is secondary – and probably even a waste of time if you haven’t properly addressed the primary question.
Still, it seems to me that questions like the nature of inspiration are at least almost as important as questions like the nature of Christ – and it was not for no reason that Christological controversies rocked the early Church for generations. In a world in which Christianity sometimes appears to be divided between Fundamantalists on the one hand, and, on the other, those who, for example, have convinced themselves (and perhaps others) that the Bible has nothing to say regarding the morality of homosexuality, there has perhaps never been a more important time to find a way to begin to understand and express the mystery of God’s written revelation.
As of this writing, I have begun writing up my thoughts and concerns around Bible Study Software, and will continue to flesh out this Scriptura section of the site just as soon as I find that ever-elusive critter called Time.
JWG
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