What should the role of the Bible be in the life of the Church? Is it
the Word of God, or does it merely contain our words about God? Is the
Bible to be corrected when it contradicts so-called more enlightened
views? Of course, the answers to these questions can raise more
questions which cannot be dealt with here. What can be established,
however, are certain principles which have guided the Anglican
tradition in its use of Scripture. In short, according to the Anglican
Way, the Bible is the church's primary authority, because our
appropriation of it directly affects our salvation. The Scriptures
stand above the Church. Any other attitude toward the Scriptures is
simply not Anglican.
Since the English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Anglicans have
affirmed the primacy of Scripture in the life of the Church. When
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer first gave us The Book of Common Prayer in 1549, he
based his liturgy on ancient forms, but several of the collects were of
his own composition. His collect for the Second Sunday of Advent
expresses the role of Scripture in Anglicanism:
Blessed
Lord, which hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our
learning, grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark,
learn and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of thy
holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of
everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our saviour Jesus Christ.
Amen.
One notices immediately the imagery of the wholeness of human
encounter, so that to interact with the Scriptures involves all of our
being--hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them. Why? So that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life. How
we handle the Scriptures affects our salvation. The Articles of
Religion (finalized in 1571) affirm the same. Article VI, "Of the
Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation," states : "Holy
Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that
whatsover is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be
required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the
Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation...." The
following Article VII, goes into some detail as to the role of the Old
Testament in the life of the Church: "The Old Testament is not contrary
to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is
offered to Mankind by Christ...." And, as if anticipating modern
arguments against the authority of certain Old Testament passages that
do not fit with modern morality, the Article also states, "Although the
Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not
bind Christian men, notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is
free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral."
Again, the emphasis is on the Scriptures and our salvation. While
Anglicanism avoids the kind of religious fundamentalism that wants to
treat the Bible as a science textbook, it must also avoid religious
liberalism that gives lip service to the role of Scripture, but winks
and smiles at it, as one might toward a respected elderly relative who
still clings to unenlightened views. Certainly, Scripture does not
address every issue that humankind encounters, but on matters of faith
and morals, the Scriptures contain all things necessary for our
salvation.
The official Anglican Homilies (also completed in
1571) share the same theology. In the first homily, "A Fruitful
Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture," we read,
in the opening paragraph:
Unto a Christian man there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledge of
holy Scripture; forasmuch as in it is contained God's true word setting forth his glory and also man's duty. And there is no truth nor doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is or may be drawn out of that fountain and well of truth. Therefore as many as be desirous to enter into the right and perfect way unto God must apply their minds to know holy Scripture; without the which they can neither sufficiently know God and his will, neither their office and duty. And, as drink is pleasant to them that be dry, and meat to them that be hungry, so is the reading, hearing, searching, and studying of holy Scripture to them that be desirous to know God or themselves, and to do his will.
And what of those who do not view the Scriptures with the same
authority? "And their stomachs only do loathe and abhor the heavenly
knowledge and food of God's word, that be so drowned in worldly
vanities, that they neither savour God nor any godliness: for that is
the cause why they desire such vanities rather than the true knowledge
of God." Again, according to the Anglican Way, the right attitude
toward the Scriptures directly affects our salvation. "Therefore,
forsaking the corrupt judgment of fleshly men, which care not but for
their carcase, let us reverently hear and read holy Scriptures, which
is the food of the soul."
Not only are we to have a right attitude toward the Scriptures, but a right handling
of them. We are not to make the Bible say what we want it to say. As
the Reverend William Sherlock wrote a century later, "To put our own
sense on Scripture, without respect to the use of words, and to the
reason and scope of the text, is not to believe Scripture, but to make
it, is not to learn from Scripture, but to teach it to speak our
language, is not to submit to the authority of Scripture, but to make
Scripture submit to our reason...." For Rev. Sherlock, who stood in the
mainstream of Anglican thinking, the Scriptures stand above the Church.
We may not make the Bible say what we want it to say. We are to learn
from the Bible--the Bible does not learn from us. We are to submit to
its teachings and not make it submit to our views. Standing in this
tradition, Bishop John Jebb wrote in the nineteenth century, "Where the
Scripture clearly and freely speaks, she [The Church of England]
receives its dictates as the voice of God."
Bishop Jebb and
others have more to say about the role of Tradition and reason in
relation to Scripture, which we will visit in future articles, but
truly, the Anglican Way does not approach the Scriptures with
suspicion, but with reverence and submission. As the Psalmist prays,
"Your word is lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (119:105), and as
the First Homily says, "Let us pray to God, the only Author of these
heavenly studies, that we may speak, think, believe, live, and depart
hence according to the wholesome doctrine and verities of them."
WHS