04 September 2007

Scripture in the Community of Faith

An interesting quote I ran across while reading for my long essays lies below. I am becoming increasingly convinced of the primary need of an interpretive community when interacting with scripture, over everyone primarily serving as his/her own hermeneut:

“…All this [he has just talked about scripture in the worship tradition of the Church], then, belongs to what may be called the liturgical use of scripture, rooted in the rich context of corporate worship to which it focally belongs. It is only at this point that the question of the so-called ‘devotional’ use of scripture can be faced. That it is introduced at the end, and not at the beginning, is not accidental. It might seem logical to start discussion with the picture of the individual Christian with the Bible in his hand, but the logic of the Gospel points in other directions. Scripture locates itself at the heart of the Christian community and at the centre of its worshipping life. Its liturgical use remains primary. When the community disperses, the Tradition goes with it, to write new commentaries in individual lives.” Clark, Neville, “Scripture in Liturgical Perspective”, in Gray, Donald, ed., The Word in Season (Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1988), p. 27.

The spin-offs of this are manifold and fascinating! What does it mean for our evangel? Our soteriology? Our lives of discipleship?