“This approach (what he calls the constitutional method) if you haven’t realized it yet, defies both conservative and liberal categories. On the one hand, the conservative constitutional view claims to put us “under” Scripture’s authority, yet I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed that some of the most pompous and defensive people anywhere are found among those who stand and shout, “The Bible says!” Nor am I the only one to notice that before the Bible can serve as a constitution, it must be interpreted as one, which renders amazing authority to those interpreters. The Bible they want to put us “under” tends to be the Bible as they have interpreted it, which unsurprisingly means we are under their authority as they stand over us with the Bible in hand.
On the other hand, the liberal view reacts strongly against all this conservative slight of hand and largely resists using the language of authority at all when it speaks of the Bible. The liberal view ends up bequeathing a great deal of authority to liberal scholars who deconstruct the Bible, just as the conservative view does to the scholars of its tribe who constitutionalize it.”
Brian D. McLaren, “A New Kind of Christianity”, 2010, p. 96.
A middle ground is, indeed, rare air!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca.
