Two Reasons to Read the Bible.

Donald Senior uses Israel and its history as metaphor to illustrate the Christian

communities understanding of its role as God’s people influencing a pluralistic world.

He compares Israel’s elect position in God and its greater responsibility to reveal the

glory of God to the nations with the similar Christian task of revealing Christ to the

world. To illustrate his point Senior presents two biblical visions as to how the

Christian community lives out its responsibility. Implied in his presentation are two

possible reasons we should read the Bible. Also implicit in Senior’s thesis are some

expectations of what might happen in the Christian attitude as they read the

Scriptures.

What is the goal of reading the Bible? If my observation of the assigned reading is

correct the first goal would be to “imagine a future vision” of God’s world (Senior,

2008a, p. 50). The Pauline view of the future helps the reader to remember God is not

just a God of Christians but of all humanity. Reading the Scriptures should expand

our thinking as to the scope of God’s plan for the entire world. Paul, prior to his

conversion, saw the world as revolving around those within the covenant. Paul’s

experience at Damascus recalibrated his vision and he became the apostle to the

Gentiles. Likewise, the Christian is confronted with seeing beyond his or her own

community or ethnic group to view of the love and mercy of God in enormous

proportions. The Scriptures consistently challenge the reader to aspire to become a

vessel revealing the glory of God to those who have not yet known. Therefore, the

goal of this challenge is to envision a future that is inclusive of all that God would

call.

The second goal of reading the Bible is tied closely to the first. The first

empowers the believer to see a greater community; the second is to see a new ethic
that propels the community to love its neighbors. It is not enough to merely see a

larger vision of community there must be an ethic that pushes us past prejudice to

engage the new vision. Matthew illustrates this ethic by presenting multiple narratives

of those who both approached Jesus, as the incarnate God and a Jesus who

approached those who may have been considered outside the community or covenant

(Senior, 2008a, p. 52). Similarly, the Christian’s goal in adopting this new biblical

ethic is to put it into action through works of righteousness motivated by the larger

vision of God’s loving character. As both goals one and two work together the result

should be a new view of the world, our involvement in it and God’s sovereignty over

it.

In his article “The State of the Bible in North America and It Significance for

Communities of Faith,” Senior (2008b) presents us with, what I think is, an

overwhelming expectation of reading the Bible: continuity. Whether we are reading

the Scriptures from a Protestant or Catholic view there is a greater tradition that

should prevent us from making the Bible a one-sided narrative rejecting the consensus

of the wider Christian community. This one-sided scenario happens often in the

Christian community as some seek to justify certain positions (or sell books) related

to eschatology or, unfortunately, create a justification for anti-Semitism (Senior,

2008b, pp. 40-41). These abuses are widespread at times but there always seems to be

move by the Christian community to bring people back toward a more conventional

view of the Scriptures and its moral and narrative continuity.

 References

Senior, D. (2008a). Living together in the twenty-first century: some biblical probes.

Currents in Theology and Mission, 35(1), 45-54. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Senior, D. (2008b). The state of the Bible in North America and its significance for

communities of faith. Currents in Theology and Mission, 35(1), 32-44.

Retrieved from EBSCOhost.