It Means What It Says

At seminary, my Old Testament professor Robert Wilson summarized the interpretation of The Song of Songs as follows: It means what it says. Now, in the face of the deconstruction of the Scriptures that generally obtained at Yale Divinity School, this was a refreshingly simple reflection on God's Word Written.

A reminder that, even for the most rigorous student of the Scriptures, the plain sense of Scripture must be taken seriously - even when it's inconvenient to do so. This is a pertinent reminder for the Anglican Communion in the current kerfuffle - and the quote below from Kierkegaard is timeless (thanks Christopher Johnson for the excerpt:

"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."

AMEN!

Darin+