Abstract
Listening to the Bible: The Art of Faithful Biblical Interpretation
Christopher Bryan, with an appendix on Liturgical Reading by David Landon
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 174 pp. $27.95
Christopher Bryan’s aim in this book is to reconnect biblical scholarship with faithful reading of the Bible within a church setting. He laments that the two have undergone a painful “divorce” and seeks to argue for a reconciliation. This will bring both traditional historical criticism and more contemporary literary criticism of the Bible into a meaningful relationship with the reading and preaching of the Bible as it occurs within the liturgy and the doctrines of the church. Bryan traces the breakdown of this once fruitful relationship to a predominance of academic readings that are suspicious of the text’s claims, and to a gradual loss of belief in the possibility of an objective reading. He asserts that such readers and readings find what they seek in the biblical text, and that much has been negative rather than faith-building. In response to this, Bryan argues for a return to a reading that starts where the Bible intends us to start, and to understand and interpret the Bible on its own terms—and that is from a position of faith.
Bryan suggests a three-stage reading process. Each biblical book should be considered from the perspective of its original context, as far as it may be interpreted, so that the modern reader is concerned about the same things as the author was concerned about, and has respect for the literary quality of the text, which is what makes the text so arresting. A reading should then be related to the overall witness of Scripture, the one divine story to be read out of the plurality of stories. Finally, a reading should be related to the life of the modern church and to the life of the reader who is imaginatively engaged in seeking to understand it. Bryan goes on to stress that originally the biblical text was written to be performed, and he considers the affect this might have on modern readings, particularly in a church setting, and in terms of the depth of our encounter with the text through “participatory exegesis” (127). In order to facilitate a rediscovery of the Bible as performed text, David Landon offers an appendix outlining techniques that will bring the text to life when read/performed in church.
The structure of the book, with its very short chapters and clear development of argument, invites engagement on many different levels. Bryan’s use of examples from literature, and biblical and literary scholarship, is attractive. There is a depth of scholarship here but it is worn lightly and is not demonstrated in order to impress or dazzle, but to further the argument. The book could be read with profit by interested church people with little knowledge of biblical criticism, although those from the academy will also find fresh insights here. Those who have been schooled in the more critical approaches to the biblical text, which Bryan seeks to go beyond, may find the appeal to resist reading with suspicion a little naïve. The tone of the book is positive and optimistic, and there is a firm belief in the power of imagination to enable a new and deeper understanding of God’s truth and love as they are revealed in the Bible: Bryan suggests that the abolition of slavery and women’s equality are fruits of such readings. Again, some may take issue with this confidence in such a general and broadly positive trajectory of biblical interpretation.
The appendix offers a practical guide to liturgical reading, and argues for layers of rhetorical effect to be communicated to the listener by the reader/performer of the text. The result is fascinating but perhaps overly technical for most church settings and their rota of readers. It also focuses on readings that are exhortatory and somewhat flattens the distinctions between different types of biblical texts.
Listening to the Bible has laudable yet difficult-to-achieve aims, and few biblical scholars could approach the task with the skill and sensitivity Bryan brings to it. It may not convince the skeptical reader, or even the reader who finds in the challenges and difficulties of the biblical text something important to say to the church. But it will certainly appeal to those already committed to the understanding of divine inspiration that it assumes, or to those who come from a church context and are new to these issues.
Alison Jack
School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh