Scripture and the Authority of God

N. T. Wright

Bishop of Durham

First published in Great Britain in 2005

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge

36 Causton Street

London SW1P 4ST

Copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2005

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 978-0-281-05722-1

ISBN-10: 0-281-05722-2

For Stephen Sykes and Robin Eames

Contents

Preface

1 Scripture within the Church and Christian Living

Scripture within Christianity: the First 1,500 Years

Scripture within Christianity: the Reformation to the Present

Scripture as Central to Devotion and Discipleship as well as to Doctrine

2 Scripture within Contemporary Culture

Scripture in Today’s World: Five Areas

Scripture and Culture

Scripture and Politics

Scripture and Philosophy

Scripture and Theology

Scripture and Ethics

Scripture and a Fresh Word from God

On Recognizing the Difference between New Battles and Old Ones

The Shallow Level of Current Debate

Recent Literature

3 ‘Authority of Scripture’ as Part of a Larger Whole

‘Authority of Scripture’ is a Shorthand for God’s Authority Exercised through Scripture

Authority and Story

‘Authority of Scripture’ as the Language of Protest

God’s Authority’ is Best Understood within the Context of God’s ‘Kingdom’

Scripture Thus Transcends (Though It Includes) ‘Revelation’

Nor is Scripture Simply a Devotional Manual

4 Scripture within the Kingdom-People, bc

‘God’s Kingdom’, in Old Testament and Judaism, Affirms God’s Victory over Evil

Inspiration and ‘the Word of yhwh’

Israel, the People through Whom God’s Kingdom would Come, Constituted as the Scripture-Hearing People

Scripture in Second-Temple Judaism

5 Scripture and Jesus

Jesus Accomplishes That to Which Scripture had Pointed

Jesus Insists on Scripture’s Authority

6 ‘Word of God’ and Scripture in the Apostolic Church

Apostolic Preaching of ‘the Word’: the Jesus-Story Fulfils the (OT) Scripture-Story

This ‘Word’ Carried the Spirit’s Power to Change Lives, Calling the Church into Being and Shaping Its Mission and Life

The Writers of the NT Intended to Energize, Shape and Direct the Church; Their Writings were Intended to be Vehicles of the Spirit’s Authority, and were Perceived to be That in Fact

The Rich Diversity in the Canon Appears as ‘Contradictory’ Only When Seen through the Lens of Later, Distorting Worldviews and Theologies

The Early Christians Worked out a Multi-Layered Reading of the OT: Not Arbitrarily, but Reflecting Their Understanding of the Church as God’s New Covenant People and Their Place in the Ongoing Story

Continuity and Discontinuity in the Early ...