Thursday, March 13, 2008

Quoting Theology: N.T. Wright on the Bible

"Tragically, the history of Christianity is littered with ways of reading the Bible which have, in effect, muzzled it. The computer I'm writing on right now will do a thousand things, but I use if only for writing and for access to the Internet and email. In the same way, many Christians--whole generations of them, sometimes entire denominations--have in their possession a book which will do a thousand things not only in and for them but through them in the world. And they use it only to sustain the three or four things they already do. They treat it as a form of verbal wallpaper: pleasant enough in the background, but you stop thinking about it once you've lived in the house a few weeks. It really doesn't matter that I don't exploit more than a small amount of my computer's capability. But to be a Christian while not letting the Bible do all the things it's capable of, through you and in you, is like trying to play the piano with your fingers tied together."

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