The cover story in the April edition of The Christian Century poses an interesting question: What – in seven words – is the Bible for? Fifty writers – some biblical scholars or theologians, others writers or pastors – offer their suggested answers with some brief commentary to explain their choices. Among the responses:
- “Window into God, mirror to the soul”
- “A declaration of dependence”
- “Awakening us to God’s insistent call”
- “Asking questions but not always giving answers”
- “A library of human encounters with divinity”
- “Showing us our foolishness and God’s wisdom”
- “Connecting God’s people across millennia through story”
- “To be a prism refracting God’s light”
- “Gathering around stories of encounter with God”
- “Revealing the character and purpose of God”
- “Proclaiming God’s work as people understand it”
- “Expressing God’s longing for relationship with creation”
- “Encountering God’s grace”
The responses are thought-provoking and reflect the limitations of a seven-word answer, but they also offer a variety of perspectives on the question posed. As you may have noted, the question is not What is the Bible? but What is the Bible for? In other words, what is the purpose of the Bible? There are some assumptions about what the Bible is in that question, though that too may be somewhat ambiguous, and the answers reflect various understandings and emphases in that regard. In my own attempts to answer the question, I found that most of my answers ended up with eight words that were not easily reducible to seven. After several aborted attempts, I arrived at the following potential responses:
- Telling God’s story in human words
- Revealing God’s love and purpose for creation
- Inspiring faith and faithfulness among God’s children
- Finding and guiding the lost and unforsaken
None of these responses is wholly adequate either, but in different respects, each seems to me to answer the question in a faithful way. How might you answer that question? What is the Bible for – to you – in seven words or less? I invite you to reflect on that question and to send me your thoughts to be shared (unattributed) in another article in this space later in the summer. There are no right or wrong answers, only our best attempts to describe what place the Bible has in our lives and in the lives of God’s people.
— John Peterson
