"All worldviews...claim to be public and comprehensive. They must therefore offer some account, along with everything else, of what the adherents of other worldviews are ‘really’ doing....The question is, whose account of everybody else makes most sense?..." "Biblical studies needs theology, because only with theological tools can historical exegesis get at what the characters in the history were thinking, planning, aiming to do--to understand what it was they were trying to say, and perhaps how their social and political actions reflected their discussions. Early Christianity cherished certain beliefs and aims, which can be traced back to their underlying worldview(s); New Testament readers are committed to studying the ‘inside’ of events in the first century, which includes finding what made early Christians tick; ergo, New Testament readers need to study theology. One cannot study Paul seriously without enquiring as to his worldview, mindset, basic and consequent beliefs, and practical aims and intentions...." "Biblical studies needs theology, because only with the help of a fully theological analysis of contemporary culture can those who read the Bible be aware, as they need to be, of their own questions, presuppositions, aims and intentions. If anyone thinks that he or she comes without presuppositions, that the questions they ask are ‘neutral’, the study of worldviews and theology should disabuse them of the idea...." "Theology— needs biblical studies, since the claims of any theology must sooner or later come into contact, perhaps conflict, with the stories contained in the Bible, and if a worldview of any sort is to be sustained it must be able to meet the challenge posed by its rivals....To be truly Christian, it must show that it includes the story which the Bible tells, and the sub-stories within it. Without this, it lapses into a mere ad hoc use of the Bible, finding bits and pieces to fit into a scheme derived from elsewhere...." "If finding a proof-text, or even a proof-theme, from the Bible, is what counts, then theology is simply reproducing the worst phenomenon of an earlier proof-texting biblicism, while often lacking the robust and courageous faith that frequently characterized such movements....It is vital to remain within the boundaries of serious historical work....There is simply no point using the word ‘Jesus’ at all within theology unless one intends to refer to the Jesus who lived and died as a Jew of the first century...." "The task is clear. Literary, historical and theological exploration of the New Testament, and particularly of Jesus and Paul, is our goal. And if that is to be even a possibility, it is vital that we set out the historical context of the investigation as clearly as possible. We must therefore study, first, the Judaism from within which Christianity came to birth, and, second, early Christianity itself, as the context not only of Paul and his writings but as the world within which people remembered, and wrote about, Jesus." --Wright, N. T. The New Testament and the People of God: Volume 1. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:10:09 +0000