by Carl G. Carlozzi

ll Christians, whether they be Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, fundamentalists, or members of other traditions, are called by the Holy Spirit to share and hold in common the positive affirmation that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God. What, however, does the phrase "Word of God" mean to Episcopalians? Does it mean that God dictated the words of scripture to the writers of the Bible as an inerrant record of his thoughts and teachings, without the cultural conditioning and prejudices and naive scientific understanding of the writers entering in?

Or does "Word of God" mean something far less restrictive, but nonetheless true, in its underlying message - a message which contains the truth of God as told by fallible human authors in, as St. Paul would say, "earthen vessels"?

The Episcopal Church, along with the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the majority of the mainline Protestant churches, holds to this latter view of the "Word of God". In short, the Episcopal Church believes that God "inspired" the writers of the Bible to tell his story in their words and frame of reference, rather than conveying his dictated message to them in an inerrant and infallible record (see Catechism, Book of Common Prayer, p. 853.)

The Episcopal Church Catechism further states the question: "How do we understand the meaning of the Bible?" Answer: "We understand the meaning of the Bible by the help of the Holy Spirit, who guides the church in the true interpretation of the scriptures."

But what is the "true interpretation" of the scriptures? Does any church or denomination have a monopoly on the truth which is made known in Jesus Christ? The answer is no; for God speaks to all of us in different ways, through his Spirit, as distinct and yet equally valid and necessary members of his Body (see 1 Corinthians 12: 13).

Our part of the Body of Christ, known as the Episcopal Church, interprets the scriptures by the express command and understanding of the Holy Spirit's voice to us, with our individual interpretations being tested and corrected by Tradition and Reason (which includes the spiritual gift of biblical scholarship). We call this understanding and interpretation the "doctrine" to which we refer in our ordination vows and in the Constitution and Canons of our church.

Not to be true to this understanding and interpretation would be to call the Holy Spirit a liar and deny the very voice of God in our lives as called parts of his Body. Equally important is that we respect the voice of the very same Spirit to other members of Christ's Body, as the Holy Spirit endeavors to carry out his purposes in their lives, according to his will and not our own.

While the Episcopal Church says quite clearly that the Bible is the Word of God, it does not hold, however, that the Bible contains all of the Word which God has spoken. For in each new day, God continues to reveal himself in and through the ongoing inspiration of the Holy Spirit to his people.

The Three Testimonies

Bishop Phillips Brooks, one of the most eloquent preachers in the history of the Episcopal Church, once commented, "The Bible is like a telescope: look through it and you can see distant worlds; look at it and you see only a telescope." Accordingly, Episcopalians do not believe that God would ever allow himself to be confined to the paper and ink of a holy looking book called the Bible. In short, Episcopalians do not confuse the Word of God (Christ/Logos) with the words of scripture. In fact, the Episcopal Church sees three testimonies to the Bible.

First there are the Hebrew Scriptures, in which the people of Israel come to know and believe in an unseen God through the events of their history and, in that knowing and believing, anticipate the eventual entrance of this God into their world of time and space as the Messiah.

Second, there is the New Testament, in which the Messiah comes in the incarnate person of Jesus Christ and enables people to enter into a personal relationship with him and enjoy the fruits of his redemption. But alas, he leaves this world, and the chance for personal encounter seems to become just as dead as the printed words in the Bible which declare this historical fact.

Were it not for Christ's promise of the coming and living presence of the Holy Spirit, there would be no opportunity today of participating in Christ's life. In short, the coming of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to continue in Christ's life now in a personal way, just as the Bible recounts the disciples' participating in Christ's life then.

Accordingly, it can be said that Episcopalians walk by the Spirit and are led by the Spirit, with the Bible as their road map and guide in the "continuing testament" of the Bible. In so doing, Episcopalians worship their living Lord and not a deified road map.

Living in the Spirit, for Episcopalians, is finding God, not in a book, not in some preacher's eloquence, and not in our emotional imagining, but rather in finding God and being found by him through the power of the Holy Spirit in our personal, corporate, and liturgical lives.

And once being found by God and knowing his presence in our lives, we live out this "continuing testament" with just as much assurance, just as much validity, and just as much of God's presence, as did the followers of Jesus in the New Testament.

Reading the Bible in Christ

Episcopalians, then, stand in Christ and read the Word. We do not stand in the Word and read about Christ. The advantage for us in this is that it frees us from the narrow constraints of a biblical literalism which finds itself unable to deal with the reality of scientific discovery without impugning the integrity of God, especially relating to the creation of the world.

Episcopalians say yes, most definitely, God is the Creator of the world. But to believe that God created the world according to the Adam and Eve story is a bit naive for us. God may have created the world through evolution, and indeed we may find through further scientific inquiry that he did it some other way.

However, what is fundamental for us is this: no matter how the world came into being, it is still our God who is the source and author of the Creation. This is what we believe the writers of Genesis were attempting to affirm, given their understanding of the nature of the universe.

Episcopalians further rejoice, as they are called by God in an historical-critical method of Bible study which finds its base in an exegetical, as opposed to eisegetical, approach to scripture. Exegetical inquiry means that we attempt to "read out of" scripture the original meaning intended, while eisegetical inquiry means "reading into" scripture a meaning which may not have been intended by the author.

Accordingly, the Episcopal Church's reading of the apocalyptic literature in scripture, most notably the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, is far different from that of our fundamentalist brethren, who read into the "Beast" of Revelation, for example, (which was and always will be, for Episcopalians, the Roman Empire) a whole host of contemporary nations and personages which have nothing whatsoever to do with the original meaning intended by the authors of these books.

This is but one example among many of what might be called the new wave of fundamentalist, eisegetical apocalyptic projections which seek to make the Bible speak and relate to things which were never intended. Indeed, while Episcopalians firmly believe in the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment, we say, with Christ, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (Matthew 24:36).

Therefore, when Episcopalians read the Book of Genesis or the Book of Revelation or find in scripture concepts and views not in accord with Christ's teaching of agape, such as the literal Pauline view of the subjugation of women, Episcopalians take heart in knowing and believing, as do many of their fellow Christians, that Christ came to take away our sins and not our God-given rational thought processes.

Taken from the pamphlet of the same name, printed by:

Forward Movement Publications
412 Sycamore Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

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