The Last Word

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 29 AUG 2005

What do people mean when they say they believe the Bible is the "Word of God"? And why should they be at war with each other over the role of the Bible in the life of the church? Wright, an Anglican bishop and author of Jesus and the Victory of God, believes the church needs to re-examine the Bible's role in the life and piety of its people. Surveying biblical and contemporary history, he explains how the Bible, and the church's understanding of it, have been affected by the complex interplay of religion with reason, tradition, politics and culture. In true Anglican style, Wright takes a middle road between evangelical insistence on biblical inerrancy and the modernist tendency to dismiss biblical authority as an expression of "anti-intellectual pre-modernity." His final chapter, entitled "How to Get Back on Track," prescribes a path that integrates scripture more fully into the life of the church, proclaiming the Bible in such a way that it refocuses the believing community whose central focus is "the goal of God's kingdom." Wright offers sensible insights on the transforming power of God, very necessary in these times of skepticism and confusion.