Abstract
When a thoughtful Christian approaches the New Testament, he or she enters upon very special terrain. For the New Testament is acclaimed by the Church as part of canonical Scripture. It is not like other literature as something that one can take or leave. I may account Pascal the greatest of all Christian writers and affirm that it was he who brought me to Christ, while you may say (and are perfectly entitled to say) that you have never been able to see much in him. None of us, however, may so treat the Bible, for its documents are the primary witnesses of the Christian faith. Nevertheless, how we approach the Bible is another and by no means uncontroversial question. The Bible is a complex literature.1 The words of the New Testament must be interpreted in the light of all our knowledge if we are to do justice to the revelation we acclaim in it. Yet ‘the word of our God shall stand for ever’.2
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? Why was he born blind? John 9.2 (NEB)
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Chapter 4: New Testament and Patristic Witness
See Dennis Nineham, The Use and Abuse of the Bible (London: Macmillan, 1976) which sets forth the general principles on which modern biblical scholars work. Although my perceptions would differ from his at some points, I would recommend this book as an admirably clear statement of what needs to be said on the subject in the Church today.
See, for example, J. Munck, Untersuchen über Klemens von Alexandria (Stuttgart: 1933) pp. 224–9.
G.L. Prestige, God in Patristic Thought (London: S P C K, 1952) p. 279.
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© 1982 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Macgregor, G. (1982). New Testament and Patristic Witness. In: Reincarnation as a Christian Hope. Library of Philosophy and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06094-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06094-8_4
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