Faithful reading
“Reading Holy Scripture is ‘faithful’ reading: exegetical reason caught up in faith’s abandonment of itself to the power of the divine Word to slay and to make alive.... [T]o read Holy Scripture is to participate in the history of sin and its overcoming; to encounter the clear Word of God; and to be a pupil in the school of Christ.”
—John B. Webster, Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 86–87.
I so nearly purchased this book a couple of days ago - but was really quite pricey for such a small book. What do you think of the book generally?
Ben,
I'm new to your blog. I've been reading it for a few weeks now and have enjoyed it tremendously. My name is Patrick McManus and I'm a Ph.D student in theology at the Toronto School of Theology working on Barth's late writing The Christian Life.
As to Webster's book Holy Scripture, I think it to be the most valuable book written on the nature of Scritpure that I've read since Barth in CD 1/I. To the above post, from Chris--it is definitely worth the price! His latest, Confessing God is also worth getting specifically for his essay "The Clarity of Scripture".
Well, glad to be here. Ben you have a wonderful blog and the folks who post here seem to take theology very seriously and practically!
I'm with you though--Jüngel is the finest theologian alive today. If you like Jüngel, you should read some Wolf Krötke (if you haven't already).
Blessings,
Patrick
These quotes echo certain of my readings lately.
From this quote, it would follow then, that reading Scripture entails recognizing oneself as a recipient of the history of the resurrection - an inheritor of the Christian tradition: a member of a community - a school - of those called to follow Christ.
Great quote.
Yes, I agree with Patrick -- it's a superb little book with tremendous insight. And Webster's paper on the "Clarity of Scripture" is also excellent. I know of a few people who really found Webster's book quite revolutionary.
Patrick, I'm glad to see that someone finally agrees with me about Jüngel! Yes, I like Wolf Krötke too (and he did his doctorate under Jüngel at Berlin, didn't he?).
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