In Accordance with the Scriptures: The Shape of Christian Theology (John Behr) - Review
When we do theology, many people start
with the "Bible." Since it is considered the primary source for doing
theology, it seems prudent to define what makes the Bible the authoritative
source for doing theology. This is especially true for Protestants, and even
more so for those who embrace a restorationist view of the Christian faith. Once
we establish the authority of the Bible (as an authoritative book), we can begin
to address the various doctrines, perhaps starting with God’s nature or perhaps
creation, and then move from there to the consummation, with Jesus placed
somewhere in the middle. But what if such a starting point is too constrictive?
Instead of thinking of the Bible as a book with chapters that need to be read
from the beginning to the end, perhaps we should think in terms of the
Scriptures, which would allow for a broader understanding of what constitutes an
authority for doing theology. If we moved from the Bible to the Scriptures, what
might Christian theology look like? These are the kinds of questions that John
Behr takes up in his book In Accordance with the Scriptures: The Shape of Christian Theology.
The author of In Accordance with the Scriptures, John Behr, is Regius Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen
University (Scotland). He formerly served as professor and dean at St.
Vladimir's Seminary. Behr identifies as Eastern Orthodox, and it is from that
perspective that he offers this look at "The Shape of Christian Theology."
The book itself is based on Behr’s 2024 Didsbury Lectures, which have been
sponsored by Nazarene Theological College (Manchester, UK) since 1979 (F.F.
Bruce delivered the first set of lectures).
In recent years, many Western
Christians, including myself, have begun to look to Eastern Orthodoxy to
broaden and deepen their theological understandings. Some have converted, but
others (me included) have found Orthodox theologians such as Sergius Bulgakov,
Vladimir Lossky, and Alexander Schmemann, to be insightful and worth
consulting. John Behr is a younger Orthodox theologian who studied under Kallistos
Ware at Oxford, and to whom many have begun to turn for insight and guidance.
In Accordance with the
Scriptures is not a lengthy book, but it is dense at points. It challenges the
way many Christians, especially evangelical Protestants, view the Bible by
pointing us to other ways of viewing what we know to be the Bible. He has
chosen the term scriptures instead of the Bible for a reason. By choosing the
term “scriptures,” he allows for the elements we find in the “Bible” to be
engaged in their diversity rather than placed in an interpretive straitjacket. What
he does here is propose a theological center, which is Christological in
nature.
Behr begins this brief study in
Chapter 1, which he titles "Figuring Scripture." In this chapter, he
seeks to deconstruct the traditional view of Christian theology that is rooted
in a narrative pattern that follows a trajectory of Creation—Fall—Salvation
History— Incarnation—Crucifixion—Resurrection—Ascension—Pentecost, culminating in
the Second Coming. The problem with this pattern, according to Behr, is that even
though it is supported by a liturgical calendar, no council ever decided on an
official biblical canon. As he reminds us, the first full listing of what is
now the New Testament doesn't emerge until Athanasius provided his list in the
4th century. Therefore, if we are to better understand Christian theology, he
suggests we should unmoor our theology from the current narrative pattern. That
is, instead of looking at the "Bible" as a book for guidance, we
should look to the scriptures for guidance. By scripture, he envisions a “field
of literature” rather than a bound book. What Behr proposes seems to be a
complicated scenario, but it is an intriguing one. In laying out his vision for
doing theology, he draws on Irenaeus' concept of recapitulation, such that the
New Testament serves as a recapitulation of what we encounter in the
scriptures. In essence, he is calling for Christians to read the Old Testament
in light of Christ, something early Christian theologians did. As we think of
this in terms of doing theology, he places the contemporary reader into the mix
in an intriguing way, one that involves an “apocalypse of the cross.” I'll
leave it at that, but it does seem like a helpful way of engaging the
scriptures.
The second chapter is titled
"The Paschal Christ." As we consider the message of the scriptures,
Behr points to the incarnation as the proper interpretive lens. More
importantly, following Athanasius, he speaks of moving from "womb to
tomb." For Behr, the tomb is a womb, such that it is in the tomb that
Christ is truly born. He points out that Athanasius's On the Incarnation [Behr
has provided an excellent translation of this important book] does not mention
the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke; instead, for Athanasius, the date of
Jesus' death, as well as other martyrs, is understood to be their birthday.
As we move forward to Chapter 3,
Behr reflects on "The Virgin Mother." While we usually think of the
virgin mother being Mary, mother of Jesus (as defined by the creed—born of the
virgin), as Behr understands things, the church itself is the virgin mother. He
speaks here of the way Paul and early Christians envisioned the church as the
womb through which the believer is born. He reminds us that Mary's name is
rarely mentioned in the New Testament, but many early Christians envisioned the
Virgin Mother giving birth to believers. In that sense, the Virgin Mother is identified
with the church. This is not meant as a slight to Mary, but it does bring to
our attention a broader vision of Athanasius’ idea about moving from womb to tomb.
When it comes to ecclesiology, Behr writes: “It is striking that this maternal
imagery of the church, with its deep scriptural roots and grounding in the very
proclamation of the gospel, is as pervasive in early Christianity as it is
absent in modern ecclesiological reflection” (p. 88). As Behr reflects on
ecclesiology, he notes that in the Eastern liturgy, the word “church” is
understood as local communities, not larger institutions such as a diocese. I think that most Protestants may find the use
of maternal imagery strange, especially when comparing the church to Mary, but
it is intriguing.
The fourth and final chapter, which
I assume was the fourth lecture, is titled “Becoming Human.” In this chapter, Behr
addresses the way we hear the scriptures speak of humanity, especially when it
comes to questions of sin and salvation. While Protestants, drawing on the
Bible, have focused on the Fall as the starting point for discussing “theological
anthropology,” the same was not true of
early Christians. He suggests that for early Christians, the relationship of
Adam to Jesus is understood very differently from typical contemporary takes on
the relationship. This is especially true since Christ is understood to be the
pre-exist Adam. Therefore, turning once again to Irenaeus, he emphasizes the
early Christian view of human existence as being one of growth, from infancy to
maturity. While Adam represents infancy, Christ represents maturity. Humanity,
therefore, exists within this schema, moving from infancy to maturity. In
addition to Irenaeus, Behr draws on Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor,
demonstrating how they speak to this idea of the growth of the human being from
infancy to maturity in Christ. Behr concludes by the study by noting that
"reading scripture from the perspective of the end that is the pascha of
Christ, Irenaeus, Gregory, and Maximos see the whole economy of God as bringing
his creature, through growth in time, to come to be in the image and likeness
of God and to share in the uncreated power of God." (p. 122). This is a
far cry from typical penal substitution atonement. It is also a reason why many
are turning to Patristic and Eastern sources for guidance. It is this paschal
Christology that Behr offers us that brings everything together, such that
death is converted into birth. What Behr does here, in a very brief book, is
invite us to let go of our traditional view of the Bible as a book and see a
different picture centered in Christology. At least, that is how I read it.
While part of me doesn’t want to
give up that narrative pattern that Western Christians have embraced, Behr’s lectures
offer us food for thought. Western Christianity developed in a very different
context from Eastern Christianity, which means that some of the problematic
theological positions, such as penal substitution atonement, didn’t develop in
the East. Having input from the Eastern churches, which push us into Patristic
sources, might prove helpful as we seek to reshape our theological
understandings. One needn’t become Eastern Orthodox to benefit from this
conversation. Thus, Behr's In Accordance with the Scriptures serves as an important conversation partner, as
demonstrated by the fact that he gave these lectures at a Nazarene college.
Copies of this book can be purchased at your favorite retailer, including my Bookshop.org affiliate and my Amazon affiliate.
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