Burgess, John P.  Why Scripture Matters: Reading the Bible in a time of Church Conflict. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

The author is a Presbyterian professor of theology, and speaks out of a particular context. The Presbyterian community, like other mainline churches, has had to deal with various internal conflicts, the latest of which is tensions around gay and lesbian issues. Burgess has noted how advocates on whatever sides tend to use Scripture as a weapon. “We appeal to a select handful of passages to justify our position but lack the capacity to order Scripture as a whole. We say that the Bible matters, but spend remarkably little time actually reading it.” (XV – my emphasis)

With respect to the relationship of individual believer to Scripture, he observes that, “Too often, people’s sense that the Scriptures matter is little more than a sentimental attachment to something long gone, such as a childhood experience (2).” “In a time of biblical illiteracy, Scripture has become little more than a sentimental idea, a vague hope for something secure, unchanging, and right. The existence of the book seems to be reassuring, even if we end up consulting it neither too often nor too closely (23).” The effect of this unfamiliarity with Scripture results in this: “We [Christians] lack a shared narrative – a common story of who we are and what ultimately matters to us  - that would enable us to sort out [the deluge of information coming to us through the media], and to determine which of it is valuable and which is merely distracting (31).” “We are simply unable to approach the text (of Scripture) as mediating the transcendent, that is, an encounter with the living God and this God’s will for our lives (32).”

Even though all Christian churches keep confessing that Scripture matters, matters a lot, neither from church worship, nor from the lives of individual Christians, it seems to matter all that much in actual practice. Especially in the lives of individual Christians ignorance of Scripture is widespread. So how do we recover familiarity with Scripture?

His first point: “The language of Scripture, even in translation, is a kind of poetry…It offers us a unique way of putting reality together. I believe that we will rediscover the compelling power of Scripture only if we allow it to speak to us as a poetic-like word that reframes our way of seeing the world and understanding our lives (39).” And “The struggle to recover Scripture is, in a sense, the struggle to recover poetry.” He says this after having explained that Scripture cannot be read simply as a sourcebook of [doctrinal] information, or as a way to have one’s emotions stimulated. “Scripture is a sacramental word that points beyond itself. Scripture is commentary on the reality of the risen Christ (42).”  He quotes W.C. Smith who says that Sacrament “bespeaks divine initiative, and human involvement, plus the empirical object that mediates [the book]” (43). Scripture and great poetry share the capacity to lift us up out of our ordinary selves, and to put us in touch with the ideal (46).”

His second major point is that communal Scripture reading takes precedence over individual reading. For one thing, we do not (cannot) read Scripture without interpreting it within the context of our own lives. He uses the example of a music score that does not become music until it is played or sung, and then each performance is unique. That leaves the door open to such a variety of individual interpretations that none comes to matter. But within a church-worship context individual interpretations can be challenged, refined, altered, and become a joint understanding. Citing theologian Lindbeck, Burgess observes that through Scripture experienced in context we come “to know God in the Christian sense [which is] to become a member of a community that engages in particular practices and adheres to particular beliefs. Scripture is constituted less by symbols or propositions than by a basic narrative that unifies Scripture’s diverse materials and shapes the community’s sense of faithfulness (40).” But Burgess adds that understanding Scripture as sacramental ads a vital element. “In this sacramental understanding, Scripture sets forth the living Christ. In his presence, we find ourselves transformed into his image and incorporated into his body, the church. We have not simply chosen the community. We are not members of it simply by virtue of the commitments that we have made to it. Rather, by God’s grace, we experience the Christian community as God’s gift to us in Christ (51).”

Receiving Scripture as sacramental requires that “We will nurture a piety of the Word that respects Scripture’s revelatory potential. We will humbly submit to insights and perspectives that break through entrenched positions. We will stand in awe and wonder before a word that is God’s living Word, Christ himself, alive and in our midst (5).”

He suggest four disciplines of that piety in key chapter 4.

* Reading Scripture aloud

For as much as we can, also in our homes. As poetry is meant to be read aloud (so much depends on how it sounds), so is Scripture (most of which arose out of oral traditions). Burgess observes that “…when Scripture is spoken, we are dramatically reminded that Scripture consists of more than words on a page. Scriptures draws us into relationship with the living Lord (61).” 

* Reading Scripture in community

“…we would do well to recover disciplines of reading Scripture in community (62)…to test their interpretations against the deeper wisdom of the community (63).”

* Reading Scripture in context

We need to read all of Scripture within the larger context of the whole. For one thing, much of the New Testament echoes the Old. He quotes Catholic historian Jean Leclercq who observes “…a scriptural phrase will suggest quite naturally allusions elsewhere in the sacred books. Each word is a hook, so to speak; it catches hold of one or several others which become linked together…(68).”

* Memorizing Scripture

As one who never mastered the art of memorization of text I’m dubious that this will become a regular practice. Moreover, as he observes, “In a word-weary world, memorization is a lost art (69).”

 I highly recommend this book. It makes the case for familiarity with Scripture, and makes worthwhile suggestions towards increasing that familiarity. One minor quibble: I found it lacking one specific emphasis. It seems to me that all that the impact of Scripture as the Word of God is predicated on familiarity with the overall grand narrative of Scripture. And that awareness needs to be established in the home, where families read aloud Scripture, perhaps using children’s bibles. That overall familiarity is implied but not emphasized. Unless that background is firmly established in Bible readers, the impact of portions is less than it might be.