Thank you for your insights here! I find it interesting you you have described the Old Testament to be a work written and meant to be read and studied in community. Recently, I listened to an interview with Francis Chan and Lila Rose where he pointed out how in American culture, we tend to sit in our own desks and come to our own conclusions about what the Bible says independent of the input of others in the present and in the past throughout the centuries of church history. It reminds me of 1 Timothy 4:13: "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching", how in Revelation we are encouraged to read its words out loud (Revelation 1:3), and the multiple proverbs about seeking counsel and wisdom within community.
Oh yes! This is exactly right. Scripture is communal through and through, which doesn't mean that we don't engage with it as individuals, but that our individual engagement is always flowing in and out of our engagement with the church. This can be tricky, cause, as a child of the Reformation and because of my "decolonial" work, I'm not saying our thoughts and interpretations have to line up with the Tradition and the wider community, but we must take it seriously, and if we're going to diverge, we have to have a better reason than private interpretation and study.
Thank you for your insights here! I find it interesting you you have described the Old Testament to be a work written and meant to be read and studied in community. Recently, I listened to an interview with Francis Chan and Lila Rose where he pointed out how in American culture, we tend to sit in our own desks and come to our own conclusions about what the Bible says independent of the input of others in the present and in the past throughout the centuries of church history. It reminds me of 1 Timothy 4:13: "Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching", how in Revelation we are encouraged to read its words out loud (Revelation 1:3), and the multiple proverbs about seeking counsel and wisdom within community.
Oh yes! This is exactly right. Scripture is communal through and through, which doesn't mean that we don't engage with it as individuals, but that our individual engagement is always flowing in and out of our engagement with the church. This can be tricky, cause, as a child of the Reformation and because of my "decolonial" work, I'm not saying our thoughts and interpretations have to line up with the Tradition and the wider community, but we must take it seriously, and if we're going to diverge, we have to have a better reason than private interpretation and study.