Living and Active: Scripture in the Economy of Salvation

356 Pages·2016·16.38 MB·English

by  Telford Work

LIVING AND ACTIVE
Scripture in the Economy of Salvation
TELFORD WORK
WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
C 2002 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
All rights reserved
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
255 Jefferson AVe. S.E .• Grand Rapids. Michigan 49503 I
P.O. Box 163. Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 03 02 7654321
Library of Congress Cataloging.in.Publication Data
Work. Telford.
Living and active: Scripture in the economy of salvation I Telford Work.
p. cm. - (Sacra doctrina)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8028-4724-2 (alk. paper)
1. Bible - Theology. 2. Bible - Evidences. authority. etc.
I. Title. II. Series.
BS543.W67 2002
220.13 - de21
2001040308
www.eerdmans.com
To the disciples at Christian Assembly
and Westmont College
who, in using Scripture,
show that you know intuitively
what I have found myself struggling here
to put in analytical language.
You say more in inflecting one verse
than I can write in an entire book.
Contents
Foreword, by Richard B. Hays xiii
Acknowledgments xix
INTRODUCTION
THE CRISIS OF SCRIPTURE I
Why?
Iconoclasm as a Paradigm for Reflection on Scripture 3
An Era of "Biblioclasm"? 4
Preview: The Structure of Systematic Bibliology 9
Early Indicators: The Bible in the Sensus FideliunI 15
The Analogy of the Word in Theology Proper 19
Not So Fast: The Objections of James Barr and Markus Barth 27
1. THE BEGINNING OF SCRIPTURE: THE GOD OF WORD 33
Entering the Circle 33
I. Athannsius: The Word's Self-Involvement in the World 36
Saving Knowledge: Scripture among the Word's
Self-Manifestations 39
The Role of Scripture in Athanasius' Account 42
Knowledge as a Form of God's Saving Presence 44
Toward an Incarnational Ontology of Theological Language 47
vii
CONTENTS
II. Augustine: The Divine Ontology of Biblical Practice 50
On Christian Doctrine: Augustine's "Rhetoric of Conversion" 51
Augustine's Analogy of the Word 52
From Incarnation to Interpretation: Scripture's Mediating Role 56
The Will of the Father and the Intent of Scripture 57
Scripture as God's Rhetoric 59
Biblical Truth as Divine Ethos 61
Biblical Kenosis: God's Word Put at Risk 63
III. Barth: The Threefold God and the Threefold Word 67
Scripture as the Second Form of the Word of God 68
Barth's Analogy of the Word 72
The Divine Transcendence of "Indirect Identity" 74
Obedience and Freedom: The Two Hands of the Word of God 76
Evaluating Barth's Proposal 78
The Word of God and the Word of Jesus:
A "Barthian" Critique of Barth 84
The Later Barth and His Implications 88
Lessons from Barth 91
The Personification of Biblical Narrative:
Does the Analogy Equivocate? 93
Kenosis as the Answer to Barth's Project 97
Iv. Balthasar: The Word of the Holy Spirit 100
Biblical Word as Icon: Applying the Iconodules' Case to Scripture 106
Are Words Like Images? 109
Unsubordinating the Spirit:
The Role of Spirit-Christology in Scripture 110
Annunciation and the Double Agency of Biblical Speech 112
Jesus' Baptism: The Word in Spirit and Power 118
Kenosis and Power Reconciled 120
Conclusion: A Bibliology of Word and Spirit 122
viii
Contents
2. THE MISSION OF SCRIPTURE:
A SCHOOL FOR ALL THE WORLD 125
Form versus Function?
The False Dilemma of Postmodern Bibliology 125
Scripture as Divine Missionary 129
I. My Hope Is in Your Word: Scripture's Cosmic Mission to Israel 130
Athanasius' Soteriology of Scripture 132
A Conversation Cut Short and Restored:
The Saving Work of God's First Words 134
Scripture as Presence 136
From the Patriarchs to the Conquest:
The Word as Gatherer and Deliverer 138
The State and Its Critics: Holy Words of Kings and Prophets 143
The Beginnings of Tanakh 147
Inner-Biblical Exegesis:
The Work of Scripture on Scripture 149
A Very Present Help:
Scripture's Pneumatic Mediation of Salvation 151
Restoration: Israel Regathers around the Tanakh 154
Human Wisdom and Its Lord 154
The Rise of Apocalyptic: The Word as Judge 158
Torah from Temple to Synagogue 162
God Speaks in Greek Too: The Septuagint's Development 164
Second Temple Judaism's Biblical Practices:
Scripture Made Personal 166
II. The Language of the Logos: Scripture and Jesus 167
Creation Becomes Creator: The Canon's Formation of Jesus 168
The Work of the Son as the Will of the Father 170
Sword of the Spirit: The Word of God in Jesus' Hands 174
Sin, Grace, and the Hermeneutics of Salvation 178
The Election of Scripture 181
Scripture as a Means of the Atonement 188
The Bible as Kerygma: Jesus' Dialogue with Scripture 194
This Is That: The Pentecostal Fulfillment of Joel and the Psalms 198
ix
CONTENTS
Typology Run Riot? Matthew's Vision of Biblical Fulfillment 200
Confession as the Ultimate Exegetical "Technique" 203
The Gospel's Reformation of the Canon 205
Texts of Triumph: The Canonical Shape of Holy Scriptures 208
Summary: The Language of the Messiah 212
Biblical Community: Scripture in the Age of the Church 212
3. THE END OF SCRIPTURE:
GOD'S WORD IN FAITHFUL PRACTICE 215
I. Churc/, as the Bible's Community 215
Between Ascension and Return:
Scripture's Eschatological Context 218
Presence-in-Absence:
God's Eschatological Relationship to the Church 221
The Church as Eschatological Gathering 222
Word as Response: James Barr versus Karl Barth 224
The Divine Humanity of Christian Preaching 226
Human, but Human Enough? 229
II. Beyond Argument:
The Humanity of Churchly Biblical Interpretation 234
What Is the Church?
The Historical Problem of Christian Diversity 234
What Is Truth? The Philosophical Problem of Christian Diversity 235
Are Truth-Claims Even Defensible? 236
Overcoming the Postmodern Impasse: Exegesis as Argument 237
Locating Commonality and Difference in Canonical Practice 240
Is Life in Christ an Argument? 243
The Divine Shape of Christian Discourse 245
Unity of God's Fellow Workers and Their Word 246
Diversity and Divisiveness in the Church: A Place for Both? 247
Diversity versus Discord 250
Holiness as the Divine Appointment of Difference 252
From MacIntyre to Paul: Beyond Argument 255
x
Contents
From the Church of History to the Church of Faith:
The Bible as Transformer 259
Ill. The Bible's Life in the Church 261
Scripture as Process, Content, and Instances of Tradition 261
Dumitru Staniloae: Tradition Is Scripture 263
Protestantism: Is Tradition Scripture? 266
Karl Barth: The Church under the Scriptures 268
Ernst Kasemann: Tradition over tradition 272
James McClendon: Scripture Is tradition 278
Avery Dulles: Is Tradition More Than Scripture? 283
Tradition and Eschaton 288
Four Traditions, One Tradition? 294
Tradition and Translation 298
IV. Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever: The End of Scripture 301
Scripture as Worship Leader 301
The Voyage Home: Scripture's Role in Personal Salvation 304
Allegory as the Politics of Sanctification 308
The Bible after the End 310
Conclusion: The Church's Book 313
AFTERWORD
THE MEASURE OF SCRIPTURE:
EVALUATING SYSTEMATIC BIBLIOLOGY 315
Implanted Word, Fiery Tongue:
The Indispensability of Scripture 315
Bibliology's Answers to Liberalism, Evangelicalism,
and Narcissism 316
The Place of Bibliology: Everywhere 317
Hermeneutics: Bibliology's Ultimate Fruits-Test 320
References 329
Index 339
xi
Foreword
Telford Work's Living and Active is a book of signal importance for the
church's theological reflection about Scripture. To explain the reasons for this
judgment, it will be useful to sketch - begging the reader's indulgence - a
bit of my own intellectual pilgrimage in grappling with the role of the Bible in
Christian theology.
As a novice in the study of theology, I spent a long time worrying over
the problem of the authority of Scripture. Why should the Bible be treated as
normative for the faith and practice of the church? Although this seemed a
pressing question on which much depended, I had trouble finding satisfying
answers. The arguments of conservative apologists for biblical authority of-
ten seemed contrived and unpersuasive, and "mainline" Protestantism - the
tradition in which 1 had been raised - offered little help on this matter. As
William Placher has remarked, "Non-fundamentalists' discussions of appeals
to the Bible have often consisted principally in ridiculing fundamentalism.
without defining any clear alternative to it.'"
One apologetic strategy [ encountered. especially among evangelical
writers, was to argue for the authority of Scripture by citing isolated Bible
verses. Even apart from the disconcerting logical circularity of such argu-
ments. they fail the test of careful exegesis. Scriptural passages (such as Isa.
55:11, I Thess. 2:13. and Heb. 4:12) that refer to "the word of God" are not
speaking - at least not in any simple sense - of the canonical text of the Bi-
I. Willi.m C. PI.cher, "Is the Bible True!" The Chr;,,;an Century t 12 (1995): 924-28;
the cited sentence appeilrS on p. 924.
xiii
FOREWORD
ble. Rather, they are speaking of the word orally proclaimed in a particular
setting by a prophet or apostle.' Therefore, to invoke these texts in defense of
biblical authority entails an act of unacknowledged special pleading, a theo-
logical sleight of hand that transmutes statements about the prophetically
proclaimed word into doctrines about the subsequently canonized text of the
Bible.
Even 2 Tim. 3: 16, the cornerstone of many arguments for the authority
of the Bible - while it does refer explicitly to "scripture" - will not support
the weight of the claims that have often been constructed upon it. The Greek
syntax of the sentence favors the translation "Every scripture inspired by God
is also useful ..." <as in the NRSV footnote) rather than "All scripture is in-
spired by God and useful. ..." Thus, contrary to the way the verse has often
been understood, the text does not categorically assert that all scripture is in-
spired. Furthermore, the sentence does not say that Scripture is inerrant or
even that it is authoritative on all theological questions. Rather, the passage
makes a more modest and sturdy affirmation: that every inspired text is "use-
ful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
In other words, Scripture, according to 2 Tim. 3: 16, is edifying for the purpose
of moral instruction. One might grant this claim but still wonder whether <o r
how) the text informs theological reflection about the character of God or
about christology or eschatology or other theological topics. Finally, and most
significantly, when the author of2 Timothy uses the term "scripture," he is cer-
tainly referring to the Old Testament, not the canonical New Testament, which
was of course not yet in existence when this letter was written.
In sum, the attempt to buttress the authority of the Bible by prooftexting
proves to be theologically vapid and unsatisfactory. Perhaps sensing this
unsatisfactoriness, some defenders of biblical authority have appealed to a
very different sort of argument, attempting to demonstrate the factual truth-
fulness of Scripture. The Bible, according to this line of argument, is true be-
cause it can be shown to be historically reliable. This project, however, is even
more fatally flawed than the prooftexting method, for two reasons. First, it
must expend vast energies seeking to explain away internal tensions and con-
tradictions within the biblical narratives. It violently subordinates the untidy
particularity of the Scripture we have actually been given to a theoretical ideal
of what sort of Scripture God ought to have given us. Second, and equally
2. or course, the term "word of God" in the prologue of lohn's Gospel refers to Jesus
Christ, not 10 the biblical text. Jesus is the "word" in the metaphorical sense that he is the "ut·
tered" manifestation of God's grace and truth; therefore. he has "excgeted" the invisible God
(John 1:17-(8).
xiv