Christopher Bryan, And God Spoke: The Authority of the Bible for the Church Today, Cowley, Cambridge:, 2002, 149 pp

A review by Connie Jones

"What does a church that takes Scriptural authority seriously actually do with the Bible?" Bryan asks. This is a brief, but first-rate work of biblical theology for ordinary intelligent folks who hear a lector say, "The Word of the Lord" after Sunday's readings, but have said "Thanks be to God" with little curiosity until now. The time is surely ripe for classes and discussions on author's question, and this is my top pick for a beginning text.

Bryan's lucid handling of subjects like canon, inspiration, and interpretation rests on masterful scholarship not flaunted in footnotes or marked with pretense. His writing is graceful, clear, and inviting, in fact, a model of reasoning which is "appellative" rather than "coercive," a distinction he makes about the Bible's own authority. God respects human freedom and invites us into relationship rather than confronts us with propositions and instructions.

The Bible is difficult to interpret, Bryan argues, but it is a coherent whole to be interpreted by what church fathers called a regula fidei. Applying the rule of faith (unlike wielding the Bible as a weapon) is an ongoing process done in community, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is human-written, yet it is a vessel containing divine self-revelation, God's own self put into the hands of fallible humans, into human language, concept, and story. This incarnational condescensio dei is risk on God's part; it is divine love.

So how do we use this gift? Bryan suggests that, interpreted by the rule of faith, the Bible is for the edification and sanctification of the Body of Christ which seeks to do God's will in the context of a humble, holy, and unified community that does not coerce or depend on its own powers, but depends on God.

I doubt there could be any message more helpful in our time of distress.

[COVENANT, Number 16, December 2003]

The Revd Connie Jones is assistant rector, Christ and St. Luke's Church, Norfolk, VA, and a zinger of an American History teacher

[COVENANT, Number 16, December 2003]