Scripture within Contemporary Culture

Scripture within Contemporary Culture

Scripture in Today’s World: Five Areas

The Bible doesn’t just live within the church, because the church (if it is true to its own nature and vocation) is always open to God’s world. Our contemporary culture impinges on the questions that are being asked about the Bible, and does so in a variety of ways. I want in this chapter to look at five, each of which interacts with the others in complex interlocking patterns: culture, politics, philosophy, theology and ethics. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives an indication of why it is intrinsically difficult, not least in the Western world today, to use scripture in a way which will command recognition and assent across the church, let alone before the watching world...