Symposium 2010

Every September, I have the opportunity to travel back to my Alma Mater, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, to attend their annual Symposium. This year's Symposium was entitled: "Scripture in the Church: Formative or Formality." I was particularly attracted to this theme because one of my electives (Theology of Scripture) in my Master of Divinity studies dealt with this issue. While one of my most difficult classes, it was ultimately the most fulfilling. And for the most part, the presenters and topics addressed did not disappoint.

A thread that continued through most of the papers presented was the inadequacy of our typically used definition of Scripture. The first and usually only move the Church makes is to claim that the Scriptures are "inspired" per 2 Timothy 3:16. That definition used to work when most, if not all, people agreed that the 66 books of the Bible (a few more for the Roman Catholics) are the Word of God. But that's not the case anymore. Critical scholarship has called much of that line of thought into question. In avoiding one error: the error of ignoring the divine Word and its authority, we have fallen into another error: ignoring the Scriptures as God's Word in human words. And which Scriptures are inspired? We have thousands of different manuscripts - none of which match the others perfectly down to the comma and the iota. It ain't as easy as it used to be. We need a much better definition and understanding of the Scriptures.

That's the problem. And a number of the presenters gave solutions. All centered around one theme, in fact one person: Jesus. In order for the Scriptures to be used properly and have any use in shaping us as followers of Jesus, they must be used authoritatively. And that authority comes from the one about whom the Scriptures were written: Jesus. The authority of Scripture comes from the primary user of Scripture: God. God uses Scripture to reveal himself to humanity and to make for himself a people through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So an account for the authority of Scripture must be grounded in work of Jesus Christ focused on his death and resurrection. The whole point being: if you want to attack the authority and valididty, and inspiration of Scripture, you have to first attack the one whom Scripture is about ("Who do YOU say Jesus is?"). The Scriptures have authority over us because of what we say every Easter (and ought to remember, proclaim, and live every day): "Christ Is Risen!"

An account of the authority of Scripture must also account for its humanity. The Bible is a book written by humans. But the Scriptures have authority because they were written about Jesus and have shaped and formed and authorized the proclamation of salvation through none other but him. Those human writers wrote by the Holy Spirit - the same Holy Spirit that was given by Jesus to the Apostles who were given his authority to proclaim salvation in Christ (often referred to as "The Rule of Faith). As Robert Wall wrote: "The Christian Bible gives written expression to the Rule of Faith."

That's just a few of my thoughts and reflections. What do you think?