“I wonder what it would be like if the Bible were to lose its authoritative role?....become ….a narrative, an epic story of faith and faithfulness into which we find ourselves drawn, rather than a box of principles to obey?” writes Craig Braun (“The Bible and Our Culture”, Spiritex Issue 46) Craig points to a radical disjunction between church practice and New Zealand cultural values which he associates with the authoritative role given to the Bible by the church.

 

I sympathise with his line of argument. The church in Australia is in similar straits. The problem comes with his assumption that society should call the tune for the  church. Don't both church AND society need radical critique? And where will it come from if not the Bible? The pallid values of freedom, fairness and tolerance will not save New Zealand or Australia. Where else but from the Bible will we hear of the in-breaking kingdom with its summons to the subversive values of love for enemies and forgiveness “seventy times seven”?  Where else but in the church will we see a community struggling to live according to these values?

 

It is a caricature to suggest that the Bible is “a box of principles”. Churches that use it as such will never be regenerated by it and deserve to fade away. The Bible has always been “a narrative, a story of faith and faithfulness” as well as a story of failure and restoration. Churches wax and wane in response to many factors, the biggest of which is the prevailing spiritual paradigm in its host culture. It does not take a genius to know that the current western culture could not be more hostile to the Christian message. What we do not need is a church which absorbs and reflects the host culture. That way lies a big, but ultimately feeble church.

 

Barbara Deutschmann, Melbourne