Scripture and the Authority of God

How to Read the Bible Today

By: N. T. Wright

Narrated by: James Adams

Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

In this revised and expanded edition of The Last Word, Wright, Bishop of Durham, one of the preeminent Bible scholars of our day and author of such beloved works as After You Believe and Simply Christian, gives new life to the old, tattered doctrine of the authority of Scripture, delivering a fresh, helpful, and concise statement on the current battles for the Bible; and restoring Scripture as a place to find God's voice.

Removing the baggage that the last hundred years of controversy and confusion have placed on this doctrine, he renews listeners' confidence in the Bible and explains that the Bible can still be a guide for their lives. This updated version includes two new case studies, taking a closer look at what it means to keep the Sabbath holy, and examining how Christians can defend marital monogamy in modern society.

©2011 N.T. Wright (P)2011 christianaudio.com

Takes scripture very seriously

Scripture and The Authority of God is a reworking of a 2005 book, The Last Word and I think is the most accessible and best book of Wright’s that I have read.

The basic thesis of this book is that the authority of scripture is completely dependent on the authority of God. So there is no separate authority of scripture apart from God. This seems fairly uncontroversial, but it is important. The book opens with a fairly long discussion about how we currently understand scripture. This necessarily involves a discussion of the enlightenment, modernism, post-modernism and a variety of other subjects. It is not a wasted discussion and while it may be a little repetitive for people that are fairly conversent with Wright and with his line of thinking, it really cannot be skipped.

The next section is a long discussion of what it means for scripture to have authority and then how we should and should not read scripture. This center section is really the meat of the book. This is the section where I was most impressed and most convicted that the Evangelical world in general, and I in specific, do not spend enough time or effort in scripture itself. Evangelicals like to talk about scripture and we often read it, but we do not often really study and allow scripture to change us. Wright believes that while personal reading of scripture is very important, scripture needs to be the center of our corporate worship. I know my church, and many Evangelical churches, no longer have focused scripture reading. The sermons attempt to be scripture explication, but extended readings of scripture (more than 90 seconds) are just not a part of the average worship service.

The last section is entirely new to this edition of the book. Wright takes Sabbath and the idea of monogamy within marriage as models to help the reader learn how to appropriately read scripture and submit to its authority. (Longer review on my blog at bookwi.se)

Educational

At first I thought I wasn’t going to like it but I learned so much I ended up liking it a lot.

Big Picture Theology

An excellent explanation of how scripture is and is to be authoritative. Not simply as a book of dos and do nots but as a story of God resurrecting humanity and all of the creation through Jesus to live in harmony with him as he intended

NT Wright at his best

This is NT Wright with some of his strongest and more accessible content. He begins big picture and breaks down his points into bite-size chunks and deals with many of the surface questions that arise with Biblical interpretation. NT Wright reminds me to learn with humility from tradition and the history of the Holy Spirit interacting with the church and looking in the Bible for focus on Christ renewing all of creation. This is NT Wright at his best and the tones was not at all condescending for non academic readers. The narrator takes his time allows for the thinking that is needed when approaching these topics. When I was familiar with the terms being used and understood what was being argued I was able to speed of the audio to as much as 2X and then for parts of the book that brought up arguments with which I’m unfamiliar I then slowed the speed back to 1X.

Well done

Excellent, scholarly work. NT Wright is, as always, thoughtful in his handling of the topic at hand.

Insight

This gave a new insight for me into seeing the authority of scripture and interpretation

Review

Though I am not a student of theology I have found N.T.Wright helpful to me.

disappointing

little actual information, little clearly expressed thought

I think this book has little to offer those who don't already know and agree with the author's conclusions

Wright Writes on the Writings

AT A GLANCE:
A high (and highly qualified) look at the Testaments.

CONTENT:
The study of the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian New Testament is fraught with issues and varieties of interpretation. N.T. Wright guides us through many common mistakes in reading these texts, then analyzes different methodologies from the critical to the allegorical, and finally spends far too much time off-topic. He sketches out his own view of reading the Scriptures as a cohesive whole story, emphasizing its historical context.
There were a few confusing points that seemed more asserted than supported, such as how the Christian West is so preoccupied with the divine/human theology that they miss part of the picture; it could easily be argued that this is more of an Eastern preoccupation stemming from the first six Ecumenical Councils onwards. He also spends far too much time in digression on the Sabbath and other issues that are only briefly related to his thesis.

NARRATOR:
James Adams rose to the occasion and provided suitable narration. His intonations reflected an understanding of the source material and its technical arguments. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to more of his work if the topic was interesting.

OVERALL:
Wright's view on Scripture is as complicated and nuanced as expected. I doubt all of it will be retained by his readers, but his style and carefully-argued points make it definitely worth a go for those interested.

God’s Word and Authority

A timely read to be sure. This should be read, reread and studied by serious and faithful Christians.