Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology)

by Zondervan

To read the book of Revelation with understanding means adopting an apocalyptic way of being in the world. This means being aware that our theodramatically charged present looks both to the past (the “already” or historical aspect of Christ’s work) and to the future (the “not yet” aspect of Christ’s work). What God communicates with sundry voices and in diverse ways through Scripture is ultimately this theodramatic vision of the world being made new. In speaking of “performing” the script, then, I have in mind not reproducing the world behind the text or of recreating the scenes depicted in the text but rather of living in a way that conforms to the world as it is being transformed “in Christ.” Not every performance by the church correctly enacts the world implied by her script. Misunderstanding happens. Some interpreters will misconstrue the discourse and move beyond Scripture in ways that miss the Way. The criterion for normative appropriation, I submit, is a function of what I shall term the implied canonical reader.