Testing Scripture, by John Polkinghorne

Chapter One

1.  “To use an analogy that comes naturally to me as a scientist, the Bible is not the ultimate textbook in which one can look up ready-made answers to all the big questions, but is more like a laboratory notebook, in which are recorded critical historical experiences through which aspects of the divine will and nature have been most accessibly revealed. I believe that the nature of divine revelation is not the mysterious transmission of infallible propositions which are to be accepted without question, but the record of persons and events through which the divine will and nature have been most transparently made known.”

- How does Polkinghorne’s perspective on scripture align with yours?  How does it compare with the position of other churches?

2.  “The Word of God uttered to humanity is not a written text but a life lived, a painful and shameful death accepted, and the divine faithfulness vindicated through the great act of Christ’s resurrection. Scripture contains witness to the incarnate Word, but it is not the Word himself. Its testimony is that ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only Son, full of grace and truth’ (John 1.14).”

- How is this definition most useful in confronting the various misinterpretations and abuses surrounding The Word?

3.  “A central task for the Christian interpreter of Scripture is to discern what in the Bible has lasting truthful authority, rightly commanding the continuing respect of successive generations, and what is simply time-bound cultural expression, demanding no necessary continuing allegiance from us today.”

- Where do people get hung up on this task today? 

- How does one acquire such necessary discernment skills?

4.  “In the early Christian centuries, the Church Fathers often sought to recognize four levels of meaning present in the Bible, essentially the literal, the moral, the symbolic and the spiritual.”

- Define each of these and then discuss their relevance and application in both ancient and current times.

6.  “The notion of an inerrant text is inappropriately idolatrous, but merely to regard Scripture as an antiquarian deposit that does not need to be taken too seriously today would be an equally grave mistake. Scripture, together with the worshipping experience of the Church and its accumulated traditions of insight, as well as the exercise of our God-given powers of reason, together form the context for Christian thinking and living.”

- How does the first statement identify cultural norms today?

- How does the second statement align with your faith journey?