Sean the Baptist

GAFCON: The Key Hermeneutical Point

It would be inappropriate, to say the least, for a Baptist to stand in too hasty judgment over those who have decided to renegotiate their relationship with the Anglican Communion (and Baptists that are inclined to disapprove have a consequent responsibility to 'consider their own position' in relation to such issues.)

However, in reading the 'Jerusalem Declaration' that has emerged from GAFCON which can be read in full here the following sentence struck me as lying close to the heart of the hermeneutical issues involved:

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.

Note the omission of the word 'interpreted'.  By failing to mention this level of mediated engagement with the scriptural witness, those who support the concerns of GAFCON are able to (a) imply that anyone who disagrees with their conclusions is reading their own agenda into the text, while they are simply teaching and obeying the plain and canonical sense and (b) identify that plain, canonical sense with the (i) church's historic and consensual reading and further (ii) their own own interpretive conclusions.

As I continue to argue, unless we take the inevitability and responsibility of the human work of interpretation seriously when thinking about Scripture, we will never progress beyond the kind of oppositional and conflictual discourse that characterizes the GAFCON statement (and, as noted above, much of my own Baptist heritage).

You Have to Laugh

The most delicious of ironies.  Conservative Anglicans who, eschewing the delights (and the rampant liberalism) of the Lambeth Conference, are convening in Jerusalem instead, have managed to planned the GAFCON to coincide with the 7th Jerusalem Pride march.  HT: Ruth Gledhill.

J. K. Rowling on Failure and Imagination

I have never read a word of a Harry Potter book, but I confess that I found J. K. Rowling's Commencement Address at Harvard to be rather impressive: funny, insightful and moving.  Check out the text and a video here.  (HT Geoff Pound).

Archaeology and Ideology

Mike Bird picks up on reports from Jordan (although he re-points the word) that a church dating from the period 33-70 A.D. (most likely from the 1st Jewish War) has been discovered in Jordan.  The BBC report is here (and seems to include the astonishing claim that they all lived underground in secret until Constantine!). This comes hot on the tail of news that the Baptist World Alliance has been given permission (along with virtually every other denomination) to build on the site that the Jordanians claim is the real location of Jesus' baptism (the Baptist Times ran it this week with clear statements by David Coffey (President of the BWA) and others to the effect that the site is actually the very place where the Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.

Well aside from all the obvious questions to be asked about both cases (like...errr....how do they actually know?) or issues that really require further study before any firm conclusions can be drawn (e.g. the ambivalence and ambiguity of the biblical evidence for the baptism site; or the sheer unlikelihood of there being a dedicated church building established at such an early date) we do well to remember a basic point.  Archaeological claims, especially those that (a) establish a claim that this piece of land is where sacred events really happened (and not over there - up or across the river) and (b) are likely to generate significant tourist income, are inextricably bound up with the competing ideologies and politics of the Middle East.  The evidence might indeed suggest, after careful scrutiny, the possible legitimacy of both sites, but my own view is that on the whole, in these issues, a hermeneutic of suspicion is often a necessary tool.

A Step Towards Women Bishops in the Church England

Ruth Gledhill notes the publication of the latest report addressing the legal issues surrounding the question of consecrating women as bishops with the Church of England.  It is good to note that there trajectory of this debate seems to be clearly in the direction of such consecration, although the inevitable sorting out of the legal issues will mean that, I guess, everything will take an awfully long time.

This is That...

...was the title of a little book by Fred Bruce (Paternoster, 1968) picking up the language of Acts 2.16.  The book was about the ways in which the NT writers read themselves and their story into the story of the OT.  The process continues: the NT invites us to read ourselves into its story - and to take all of our questions, challenges, struggles and issues with us as we go.

So, here is Doug Chaplin, re-telling the story of Acts 15 (or rather 'uncovering' a long lost letter from James to Paul).  It is a nice insight into what might have been happening then, but is also a powerful commentary on  what is happening now.  As Peter might have said ... "This is that"!

Rowan Williams on Sharia Law

A simple point.  I really, really hope that before anyone, not least a Baptist, feels the need to pass comment or judgement on what Rowan Williams has to say about Sharia law, they will:

1.  Read what he actually says, rather than what the media reports.  The speech can be found here.  And if you read it and don't really understand it, then don't comment.

2.  Read 1 Corinthians 6.1-8.

3.  Remember that, if you think that exploring such complex issues is not something that a bishop should be doing in a 'Christian Country' then you may be some kind of Christian and you may even be some kind of Anglican, but you are no kind of Baptist.

Update: as usual Ben is right on the money.  I continue to rejoice at the prospect that ultimately this will lead to the realisation that what is needed is not room for more religious law, but a more explicitly secular legal framework that does away with notions of representing Christian values and traditions; which would mean that the disestablishment of the Church of England is the obvious next step!

The City Where I Live

This report from the BBC gives pause for thought.

DSS on the BBC

Radio 4 this morning at 11.00 a.m. GMT will run the first of two programmes discussing the discovery and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  More information here.  The 2nd programme runs next Tuesday, July 24th at 11.00 a.m.  Anyone recognize the MSS opposite?

Disestablishment by Stealth

News yesterday that Gordon Brown has handed back the ultimate power to make decisions about senior Church of England appointments to the church.  The next logical step would be proper reform of the House of Lords and together these will only strengthen the case for complete disestablishment.  So, from a Baptist perspective, things are looking up.  Cartoon care of the Guardian and Steve Bell.