Proclaimer Blog
Good letter in the Times last week
Just every now and then there is one, you know (a good letter, that is). It was last Thursday, but it's taken me until now to post it.
Sir, Delighted as I was to hear of Professor Turner’s warning on biblical exposition (Canon Stagg, letter Jan 10, responding to Edward Solomon, letter, Jan 7), we candidates for the Congregationalist ministry at the former New College, Hampstead, London, were even more solemnly warned by Principal John Huxtable during our 1960s sermon classes: “Gentlemen, I wish you would read the Bible more: it sheds such light on the Commentaries.”
The Rev Dr Peter C. Jupp
Department of Divinity, University of Edinburgh
I heartily concur. Commentaries are friends and helps. But please, not first, not second even. Read, read, read and use a little brain first, second and even third. And, in fact, the second letter of this correspondence will sound familiar to any well trained preacher:
Sir, The way Edward Solomons quoted Deuteronomy xxx, 19 (letter, Jan 7) in connection with issues relating to terminal illness reminded me of the warning Professor H. E. W. Turner used to give to Durham theological students in the 1950s and early 1960s: “a text out of context is a pretext”.
Canon Michael Stagg, Norwich