Review of N. T. Wright by David Burnette

Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today. By N. T. Wright. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011.

Reviewed by David Burnette

The former bishop of Durham and renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright now serves as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews’ School of Divinity. His latest in a long line of books is titled Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today, which is a revised and expanded edition of his earlier work titled The Last Word. Most notably, this latest edition includes two appendices in which Wright applies his view of scriptural authority to the specific issues of the Sabbath and monogamy. Wright’s central claim is this: “…that the phrase ‘authority of scripture’ can make Christian sense only if it is a shorthand for ‘the authority of the triune God, exercised somehow through Scripture’” (21, emphasis original). The remainder of the book is spent unpacking what is meant by this notion of Scripture’s authority and how it should affect the way we understand God’s Word.

Wright’s main goal is to help readers understand and apply Scripture as the medium of God’s authority. The book is not written with scholars in mind, as is evidenced by the lack of footnotes and endnotes; however, I suspect that readers with no formal scriptural training will need more background on the relevant hermeneutical and philosophical issues. Among the many topics covered are: Jesus’ view of Scripture, the “Word of God” in the Apostolic Church, the first 1600 years of the church’s use of Scripture, the challenge of the Enlightenment, and a critical look at postmodern views of scriptural authority. These wide-ranging issues form the backdrop for Wright’s exhortation concerning how to “get back on track” in our reading of God’s Word.

Strengths

As usual, Wright’s style is engaging and his thoughts on this crucial subject are thought-provoking. Though he is a bit repetitive and at times unnecessarily abrasive, he is never boring. Before listing several strengths regarding the book’s central arguments, it is worth noting that the very treatment of Scripture’s authority is a welcome contribution from a New Testament scholar. Though there are some wonderful exceptions, scholars who focus primarily on “biblical studies” too often treat the issue of scriptural authority as being foreign to their discipline, as if the nature of the biblical documents did not affect their interpretation. However, the issue of scriptural authority cannot be relegated solely to the domain of systematic theology or church history, for Scripture’s own self-testimony forces us to either submit to the text or go our own way. Wright correctly laments the modern distinction between theology and biblical studies (2).

At least three strengths of Wright’s work deserve mention. First, Wright reminds us that interpretation is never done in a vacuum. Both modern and postmodern philosophical influences affect the way we understand Scripture and the very questions we ask as we approach the text. Wright insightfully critiques the Enlightenment’s challenge to God’s authority.[i] On the other hand, concerning the irony of postmodernism’s appeal to tolerance, Wright memorably refers to it [postmodernism] as “an ideology which declares that all ideologies are power plays, yet which sustains its own position by ruling out all challenges a priori” (99). Wright’s inclusion of the church’s view of Scripture throughout history is also a good reminder in this discussion, even if one has some disagreements with his brief summary. More than a few biblical scholars have been guilty of “chronological snobbery,” to borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis, acting as if they were the first to approach the text in a thoughtful manner.

Third, Wright encourages the reader to interpret Scripture with contextual and canonical awareness. That is, in order to understand and apply the various commands, warnings, etc. contained in God’s Word the reader must consider such issues as genre, literary style, and the place of a particular episode in the context of the overall movement of Scripture. A helpful example can be found in the first appendix dealing with the Sabbath (143-173). Not all readers will be convinced by Wright’s views, as the issue is admittedly complex and often fraught with personal attachment. Nevertheless, Wright gives us a helpful interpretive model by considering the issue of the Sabbath in the context of God’s covenantal dealings with his people and in light of Christ’s fulfillment of God’s purposes.

Weaknesses

Given the wide range of historical, hermeneutical, and theological issues touched on in this book, many readers will have at least some minor quibbles with this or that point. Wright admits the rather abbreviated nature of the book, noting its lack of interaction with other authors and viewpoints (xii-xiii). With this in mind, I will note two closely related critiques that are more integral to Wright’s main arguments.

First, Wright has not adequately defined what is meant by “the authority of Scripture.” He concludes that “when unpacked” this shorthand phrase “offers a picture of God’s sovereign and saving plan for the entire cosmos, dramatically inaugurated by Jesus himself, and now to be implemented through the Spirit-led life of the church precisely as the scripture-reading community” (115-16, emphasis original). What Wright has given us here is not so much a definition or explanation of Scripture’s authority, but rather his own perspective on Scripture’s role in God’s plan of redemption. Since there are a number of Christian and non-Christian narratives on offer, the question still remains: why is this account of God’s plan for his creation authoritative? The authority of Scripture doesn’t merely “offer a picture” of God’s plan, it explains why, among other things, God’s plan is binding on all humanity.

To be fair, Wright notes that Scripture derives its authority from God and Jesus (21-22), so that it exercises authority in a “mediated” fashion (23). This is helpful insofar as it connects Scripture’s authority to God and keeps us from equating Scripture with God. However, to say that Scripture is the medium through which God exercises his authority does not adequately characterize that medium. For instance, can this medium ever err? Does God’s authority extend to the entire text of Scripture? Some of Wright’s comments seem to point to an affirmative answer to this question, but his definition of inspiration is hardly satisfying (35-36). Wright’s discussion runs the danger of distancing the authority of God from his Word. We need more specificity with regard to the relationship between God’s authority and the actual words of the text.

A second critique of Wright’s work is related to the first critique above and concerns his emphasis on the narrative or “story” aspect of Scripture. Whether or not one agrees with this emphasis on “story” over against Scripture’s propositional character, Scripture’s “story” aspect cannot shoulder the load as far as defining it’s authority. While it may be unintentional, Wright ends up locating authority in a meta-narrative constructed from his own reading of the text. After explicating this meta-narrative and God’s over-arching purposes for creation, Wright then interprets various texts based on whether or not they fit the narrative he has constructed. This approach works in the wrong direction, for Scripture’s authority means that any narrative or grand purpose we discern in the text are authoritative only to the extent that they are derived from and faithful to the inspired text. Wright’s question concerning how a narrative can be authoritative is certainly worth reflecting on, but his emphasis on the “story” aspect of Scripture over its propositional character only pushes the question of authority back further. Why should anyone accept as authoritative this particular story?

Readers will benefit from several aspects of Wright’s book mentioned above, and surely more could be added. Nevertheless, this book has not adequately answered what Wright himself has identified as one of the three key underlying questions in interpretation: “In what sense is the Bible authoritative in the first place?” (16) One wonders whether this question can really be answered without some recourse to terms such as “inerrancy” and “infallibility,” Wright’s disappointment with traditional “battles for the Bible” notwithstanding (1). This book’s purpose and target audience may rule out an extensive dialogue with Warfield, Rogers/McKim, and Woodbridge, but we would expect a more lengthy discussion of the nature of the God-inspired text. In keeping with Wright’s very practical purpose, readers should be motivated to listen carefully to Scripture when they believe that in its very words the God of all creation is speaking to them. A more lengthy discussion of verses like 2 Timothy 3:16 might also be helpful in which Scripture testifies to its own authority. In any case, Wright’s work reminds us that the age-old task of defining and submitting to the authority of Scripture will continue to be crucial for God’s people. This “battle for the Bible” is at least as old as Genesis 3.