On reading the Bible – a reflection
THE BIBLE lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It is the primary witness to the saving events of Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection, rooted in the covenantal history of Israel. Yet it is clear that all is not well, for the Bible has become a closed book and, to so many, an anachronism.
Reporting on a conference on the pastoral use of the Bible, Rodney Hunter drew on a distinction made there between “Bible-rich”, where the Bible is embedded in the culture, and “Bible- poor”, where the Bible is alien to its social environment.1 The origi- nal allusion was to the difference found between the churches and Christian communities where the Bible, often naively, is part of the fabric of social discourse and those, especially in the West, where the Bible cannot be taken for granted. However, behind that distinction there lies a broader cultural shift that has taken place in the West even in our own generation. There has been a sea-change that has meant breaking loose from the past which includes the attenuation of religious belief and practice. As Matthew Arnold put it, there has been the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of “the Sea of Faith”.
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