Proclaimer Blog
NT Wright in the Times
A couple of weeks ago there was a nonsense letter in the Times about Scripture, faith and reason being the pillars of the Anglican church, with the conclusion that we can only read the Bible in the light of Enlightenment (and in particular German critical) thinking. The point being, evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics have no place in the Anglican communion. NT Wright replied brilliantly, with a very helpful assessment of what tradition (not faith) and reason have in the place of the church – in essence, being tools to interpret Scripture, no more. His letter is worth repeating – especially if you're the kind of preacher that needs, from time to time, to demolish the liberal interpretation argument.
Sir, The Church of England, says Peter Nancarrow (letter, Oct 8), “rests upon scripture, faith and reason”. The normal trio is actually “scripture, tradition and reason”. Classic Anglican theology does not see these as equal and parallel “sources”, to be played off against one another. They are interlocking methods. As we read the scriptural accounts which converge upon Jesus (on whom alone the Church rests), we do so in an ongoing dialogue with tradition (what the Church has said down the years) and with the proper use of reason (ruling out arbitrary, fanciful or speculative readings). This remains a complex and exhilarating task, not to be captured by caricature. The idea that the so-called “wings” of the Church “deny the intellectual progress marked by the Enlightenment” ignores most of the leading theological and biblical studies of the last generation, which have taken on the Enlightenment’s proper questions but frequently come up with different answers. In any case, “the intellectual approach of the present age” is hardly that of the Enlightenment. The massive and multilayered critique offered by “postmodernity” on the one hand, and actual contemporary historical scholarship on the other, has refuted or made redundant many 19th-century critical theories, including those of the Tübingen school, cited by Mr Nancarrow. To suggest that a “middle liberalism”, in between the two “wings”, is the natural result of using one’s intellect to grapple with 1st-century texts must itself be challenged, as much in the name of “reason” itself as of scripture, tradition, or anything else.
The Right Rev Professor N. T. Wright, St Mary’s College, St Andrews