Manfred Brauch, now retired from many years of teaching at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer), calls us to a more serious approach to Scripture in order to end the all-too-common abuse of Scripture. Scripture is used for everything by everyone ... what I mean is that everyone thinks the Bible is on their side. Which means we've tamed the "blue parakeet" passages.
But I've been thinking of the many who have a great idea, know the texts where that idea is found, and then run everything in the Bible -- and I mean everything -- through that one idea. These folks "use" the Bible and end up "abusing" the Bible. That's why we need more Bible studies that focus on what the Bible does say in its context.
Brauch addresses just that concern and his book is called Abusing Scripture: The Consequences of Misreading the Bible
. I'm not hearing much about this book, even though it deserves a wide hearing and would make an excellent textbook for college students and a good Bible study book for the serious student of the Bible.
. I'm not hearing much about this book, even though it deserves a wide hearing and would make an excellent textbook for college students and a good Bible study book for the serious student of the Bible. In the process of urging us to take more seriously what we are doing -- and he's smack-on in this appeals -- Brauch illustrates his points. The focus of his illustrations revolve around three biblical themes: the use and justification of force and violence, the relationship of men and women -- home and church and society -- and the concern for justice and the sanctity of life.
After a welcome sketch of the inspiration and authority of Scripture, in which sketch he shows a moderate traditional view, Brauch addresses the following "abuses" of Scripture that can be found on too many church corners:
Which of these abuses do you see the most? Do you see others that concern you?
1. The abuse of the whole gospel, which he argues distorts the whole Bible: the healing, redeeming work of God is both personal-spiritual and social-corporate. Overdoing either or ignoring either distorts both gospel and the Bible.
2. The abuse of selectivity -- selecting the passages we want to believe and burying the others.
3. The abuse of biblical balance -- riding one hobby without considering of larger themes or complementary themes. He examines elevation of particular sins and imbalancing theology and ethics.
4. The abuse of words.
5. The abuse of context, and here he examines literary, theological, historical and cultural.
The whole is an appeal to be more responsible, to take more time, and to think more deeply. We need this book. It would be a very good textbook for upper level college students or for seminary students.
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Sounds like a great read. I'll have to check it out.
All of these are common abuses, but around here, I often observe abuses of "the whole gospel" (#1) and "biblical balance" (#3). I personally am most guilty of perpetuating the abuse of "selectivity" (#2). (Give me Matthew 25 any day, but keep Romans 9 for yourself!)
I would add to the list the abuse of "interpretation" (dismissing other perspectives or growing complacent in your own because "you have your interpretation and I have mine") on the one hand and the abuse of "authority" (rhe Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it) on the other.
The trick is to find a way to interact with fellow Christ-followers while 1) respecting the authority of the Bible, and 2) recognizing that it always requires an interpreter. This can be tough.
Wow. This looks really good. Having been both on the recieving end of abusing Scripture, I find this a topic of much interest.
I just finished reading this book and I second the sentiment that it needs to find a wide audience in today's church. I agree with the above commenter that they are all related, but part of what makes the book so rich is Brauch's ability to help distinguish between them.
The abuse of the whole gospel is particularly interesting, and widespread. To truncate the gospel has the effect of shading the meaning of the text so that words like salvation, or redemption, or justification, or any other number of rich and important works are only translated in the reader's mind based on the breadth of his or her understanding of that which is "the gospel." I see this a lot in my own church where the gospel is defined only as Jesus' death and resurrection for the payment of sins. In this case our singular task becomes to proclaim this message, while serious issues like God's care for the poor and the liberation made available through Jesus, issues of violence and oppression, and even the nature of powerful movements of God such as the incarnation are relegated to secondary issues or events.
Such abuse will likely include, or even be the result of, the abuse of biblical-balance, the abuse of selectivity and the others, but it also acts as a force that pushes readers to the other abuses as well.
I agree with the assessment of Calvinism in comment #6 as being a balance problem, but I also see a word abuse problem as well - assuming I understand what that means. From my observation, words like Justification, Righteousness, Cross, Propitiation (mercy seat...) are key systematic theological terms, which take on meaning within the philosophy of Calvinism. These systematic meanings are then read back into the text, overriding the meaning as suggested by context. So, I guess this is a little bit of "abuse of context" as well. I doubt that this is peculiar to Calvinism!
heh ... interesting to me that in a book review about abusing Scripture (which often turns into arguments over this jot and that tittle) the comments have become a "discussion" over which abuse is greater and which is lesser ...
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