The Future of the Bible?

The Future of Biblical Interpretation: Responsible plurality in biblical hermeneutics

The next battle for the Bible is on. For the UK church this is unlikely to be the

inerrancy debate or the authorship controversies of various biblical books. Instead the key area of controversy will be how we interpret the Bible. There are those that argue that their interpretation of scripture is virtually infallible on every subject from baptism to role of women. There are others who believe that 'anything goes' when it comes to reading scripture. Evangelicals have always held on to scripture as authoritative and yet have been elastic on issues considered to be of secondary significance; ie. 'not pertaining to salvation.'

But isthis approach to scripture tenable in light of recent scholarship? The eight essays contained in this multiauthored book attempt to grapple with vital questions of how we attempt to interpret scripture responsibly. They were first presented as papers at a conference at the university of Nottingham

honouring Professor Anthony Thistleton whose most significant work has been to pioneer the relationship between the theory of interpretation ( hermeneutics) and the study of the Bible. These are technical papers providing innovative perspectives but will prove to be hard going for many readers. As is usual for this kind of book there is little coherent narrative or interaction between the chapters and the papers vary widely in style and quality. Readers will not agree with all the conclusions reached but this is a timely book asking some very urgent questions.