The Impertinance of Scripture

Any public theology that includes Kingdom work must include the blueprint for that work, the Bible. Whether Authoritative, Inspired, Inerrent, or somewhere in between, the Bible is the basic set of documents of the faith.

For the sake of argument, I am going to pronounce that the Christian Canon turned 1641 this Easter. I base that entirely arbitrary date on the notation in Wikipedia that St. Athanasius included the books of our New Testament canon exclusively in his Easter address in 367 A.D., C.E., as you wish. The Old Testament was still out there, mostly nailed down, but with a couple more debates to be settled.

A Public Theology must be informed (defined) by the Bible. The amazing thing about Jesus is that he was exclusionary "I am the way and the truth and the life" and accomodating, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". It is a real pain in the pocket because it almost feeds the idea of the public and private spheres. Part two of the rendering statement is to render unto God what is God's.

Don't you wish for clarity? And don't even start on the complimentary and confusing movement of revelation from the Old Testament to the New Testament. (As a public figure, I tend to use the term "Hebrew Bible" to define the O.T., but as a pastor, I tell you it is every bit a part of my bible as the N.T.

So move over Constitution, move over Bill of Rights, let me, the Christian, place my holy book on the shelf with you. That is how I do things.

And in the quiet of my own faith, I will try to convince you this is the way to do things. But in the public sphere, how do I evangelize?

And how do I evangelize without using the means and powers inherent in the political system? Because my first point of departure with my Christian Right brothers and sisters is that we cannot use those powers to evangelize.