Nevertheless, his main point becomes that for Christians
there is an infallible Word of God that the New Testament writers point to, but
his name is Jesus. From this point Brad puts the Bible back into its context as
a liturgical text shared and interpreted by its community, especially in terms
of how it points to God. Brad shows how the whole of scripture according to the
early Christian traditions was seen as an unfolding drama of redemption. Yet, it
itself is being told through the messiness and brokenness of human lives and it
constantly reflects that.
What changes is when Christ claimed that all of
scripture always testified about himself, which is what Brad calls the Emmaus
Way of reading the Bible. He convincingly argues that Christians are not being
disingenuous when reinterpreting the whole text through Jesus. Just as every
Judaic interpretation comes from one of many rabbinic schools of tradition,
so Christianity comes from its own rabbinic Jesus-tradition. This tradition reveals Jesus as the plot twist that makes us have to rethink and reinterpret everything that came before it.
So, if you have ever found yourself disturbed and
confused over the Bible’s many tensions, good. You were paying attention. This
book will be a helpful resource for reorienting you toward what to do with that
trouble. In essence, it is okay for the Bible to be a text in travail because
it is a saga that is going somewhere. But, as Brad contends, it is one that points
toward the unpredictability and incomprehensibility of an infinitely merciful, redemptive
and Christlike God.
(I received this book for free from
Speakeasy in exchange for an honest review.)
