When approaching biblical interpretation Anglicans (as well
as others) have incorporated literary techniques that aid in the study of the
bible. Historical criticism is a
structure that attempts to explore the variety of experiences within the
writing, recording, and editing of the Old and New Testament. Exploration of the history of a geographic
region is likely to have an impact on how a biblical writer tells the story.
These same techniques of study help to makes sense of
biblical texts when the quality of writing changes from very formal language to
more colloquial language in the same manuscript. This form of critiquing the text allows us to
see that some texts were spliced together over time to become one larger text such
as the Prophet Isaiah.
The ability to study scripture in this way gives us insight
to who is writing the text and to what type of people the texts are written.
Historical criticisms allow us to hold in tension those
aspects of the bible that seem to conflict internally. For example, in creation we are told that
Adam and Eve have three sons. And later
they are expected to be fruitful and multiple.
Where do their wives come from? We are left without a clear answer if we
are only allowed to believe that this text is a history of human reproduction. (We may find that the bible is not trying to
answer questions that we have for it.)
The bible also records the culture around the time that it is
written to persuade and convey the listener.
The use of the word, “Logos” in John’s gospel is thought to appeal to
the Greek philosophical tradition that put high importance on the reason and
logic of the gods.
Taken in this perspective the bible is not merely a rubric
of to-dos that faithful people must follow to gain relationship with their
Creator. It is more akin to a tapestry
of experiences of the God of creation that express a broad picture of the
diversity of humanity across an expansive geography and centuries of time. The tapestry presents a uniform revelation of
God and humanity’s place next to that God.
Anglicanism takes in all of these different perspectives that
at times reveals logical conflicts or presents paradoxes. At the same time Anglicanism doesn’t surrender to
the extremes of throwing out the texts as archaic or superstitious nor
embracing such a literal application of every text that we amputate our hands
or pluck out our eyes when these things cause us to sin as recorded in the
gospel.
It is because the Scripture contains such breadth about God
and humanity the Anglican custom is to be familiar with the entirety of the
bible. Where as some theological
traditions may focus on doctrines supported within Paul’s letters or to study
holy living in accordance with the Mosaic Law. Anglicanism is inclined to read
routinely the whole of Scripture in course through the Sunday and Daily
readings of the church calendar. In the
wholeness Anglicans are then shaped as an orphaned, adopted, fallen, redeemed
people and person of God.
At the heart of an Anglican’s approach to the bible is that
the story of God and his people has the ability to change the lives of the
people who read it.
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