By the third century, Christianity was no longer a fledgling faith, but had come into its own as a spiritual and intellectual force in the Roman world. Across the Empire, despite periodic and localized persecutions, Christians could be found in most walks life, found among slaves and citizens, and from the army to the Imperial … Continue reading Allegory and its Limits: Reading the Bible in Alexandria & Antioch
In the first post in this series on how the Bible has been interpreted throughout history, we saw that the writers of the New Testament used the language and stories of their Scriptures in order to make sense of what they had experienced in their encounter with Jesus. This meant that, in turn, they read … Continue reading The Rule of Faith: The Bible in the Second Century
Over the past two thousand years, Christians have interpreted their Scriptures in many different ways. These different interpretive methods and traditions didn’t arise out of nowhere, however. For the most part, Christians have used the methodologies of the cultures in which they’ve lived. But, they have also done this within an interpretive trajectory that began … Continue reading ‘As it is written’: How the New Testament reads the Bible
One thing all Christians agree on is the central position of the Bible in the teaching, life, and faith of the Church. This may be a bold statement: Certainly it’s been a historical claim among Protestants that Roman Catholics don’t value the Bible, and today many self-identified evangelicals claim that progressive Christians don’t ‘believe in’ … Continue reading The Bible and the Problem of Interpretation
Matthew Root 