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A Christian Conception Posted August 3rd, 1996 In what way can an
ancient book (actually a collection of books) - be relevant to the lives of modern people? And in what sense is it reasonable to say that God is revealed through such a book? This is a brief attempt at an answer to
those questions from a Christian point of view. In Christian theology, God - though the creator of the world - is distinct from the world. The knowledge of God which can be gotten from the world was referred to -
within theology - as general revelation. What is now called science was referred to by Christians as natural theology. This type of knowledge was considered valuable, but not sufficient for salvation. Saving knowledge
was considered (again within Christian theology) to be found within special revelation through a particular person (Jesus) whose work of salvation on the cross was prefigured in the community of Israel and illuminated
in the community of the church. Jesus was considered the full and final revelation of God on earth. This creates a paradoxical situation. As a *person*, our knowledge of Jesus is tied to the historical community he
came from (Israel) and created (the Church) - and the documents those communities produced. Yet Jesus Christ - understood as God, or Son of God, or the Word of God - is present in the world at large - the secular
world as well as the religious world. This is the true significance of the Doctrine of Creation for Christians: it claims that reality as a whole has a " Christ" character . What this implies is that the
Bible's significance is *not* that it is inspired by God, or witnesses to God. If God created the world, then anything - literature, art, music, science, charity - can potentially be inspired by or witness to God. The
significance of the Bible for those operating within the Christian community is that it is considered an *authoritative* witness. That is, one recognizes God in the secular world because one has *already* recognized God
through the authoritative witness to God in the Bible. It is the Christian's experience of the overall integrity of the Bible's witness to God's presence within ordinary, seccular life that causes them t give the
Bible this type of authoritative position. This is certainly circular, but no more circular - in my opinion - than a scientist saying they value the concept of " causality" in a theory because it makes
sense out of events. How does one " make sense out of events" other than by determining their cause and effects? And it is the Christian's experience regarding the overall integrity of the Bible's
witness to God that allows the Christian to read the text critically. This is where the fundamentalists have it wrong - it is this integrity, and not the Bible's culturally relative history, science, or ethics, which is
inerrant. Return to top of page. Return to Return to Return to The Inclusive Christian |
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