We can ask of our particular lens, our prolegomena, questions that range from “Do universal foundations of knowledge exist?” to “Do we have a system that is justified by its own internal standards which don’t have to be shared or approved by anyone else?” I believe the most important question to ask, though, is “Can Christian belief be taught and appreciated by someone who is not a Christian?” Without going into all of the different answers theologians have given to these questions I’ll just lay out here my lens and how I approach theology and the Bible, as many theologians now do when they write their books. (Mind you, I do not consider myself a theologian!)
First, I believe that universal experience shows that we live in a spiritual world (Rom 1:20), which means that there are forces in it that go beyond the normal scientific expectations and knowledge. Secondly, beyond a pantheistic view, with Aristotle I believe that there is an “unmoved mover” who started our world and created it (Gen 1:1). This means that there is Spirit who is outside of this world and greater than it. And it also means that humans must test the spirits we experience through our senses to see if they are of this Spirit who is separate from this world (1 John 4). Thirdly, because humans experience wonder (the wonder in study, in creation, in actions, etc.), we can recognize this Spirit at work (see Love Alone: the Way of Revelation, Hans von Balthasar). Fourthly, the greatest wonder experienced by humans is love. Fifthly, the greatest experience of human love is presence-with and self-sacrifice, which I am taking as universal truths seen in psychology. These two experiences are seen in the Christian view of Jesus as Immanuel/God with us and Jesus’ voluntary death to bring us into God’s presence. And this fact is evidenced by the transformation of individuals within the community to these "presence-with" and "other-centered" standards.
My precommitments, therefore, are that God as Spirit is always revealing Himself to us each day, and that others have experienced God as presence-with and sacrificial love and wrote down the way He historically revealed Himself to them in what the desiring-God community collected as the Bible. This community universally has decided that these writings show us the path to relationship with God. And, God as presence-with has chosen to speak to us as the ultimate Word through it. So, I read the Bible in two ways.
One, devotionally I hear God speaking to me today through its pages. This understanding of what God is saying through its writings is limited by what motivated the community to keep this particular piece of writing as sacred, as something that brings us closer to Him. How did reading it help them to walk closer to God? How does this interpretation interact with the other writings that the desiring-God community kept? This is the tradition part of Hooker’s stool. What are those sacred parts that inspire wonder/knowledge of God, makes us feel known by Him, and know His person as truth. And then, most of all, how does this sacred writing help me walk today with that Person.
And the second way I read the Bible that also conditions the first, is that we understand what God is speaking through those pages as we attempt to understand how the human writer and reader of each writing was experiencing God, that is through exegetical study of the writing. This uses the reason leg of Hooker’s three-legged stool on the Scripture leg.
This is all very humbling. This rough sketch would be seen by any theologian as shot through with holes, and self-revelation is scary. But I believe together our hearts will be encouraged towards Him as we are “knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-3).
I found our rector’s sermon Sunday very helpful in this regard. There are three streams of Anglican tradition—Anglo-catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal/Holiness—and we need to learn to listen to each stream in every area. Our tendency is to relegate our liturgy to the Anglo-catholics, our study of Scripture to Protestants, and our prayer life to the Charismatics. But this is the wrong approach. We need to converse with each other in love concerning every area of our Christian lives.
So I suppose the prolegomena I’ll use to engage this year’s study of the Bible with our community reveals my roots in the Charismatic/Mystic/Pentecostal tradition, which has since been conditioned by the Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic streams. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to apply our understandings gained through our study of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. I hope to recognize God through wonder (original solitude), know Him as revealed in the sign He has given us in marriage (original unity), see how we experience God through each other as God's gifts (original purity and original nakedness), and generally understand the divine image in human beings.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:5).
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