12 Imagining a Future for the Bible

OFB, 190–205

Overview of chapter twelve

This chapter concludes the book by looking to the future, and seeking to imagine how we might use the Bible with confidence in our kind of world. It is divided into several brief sections:

    • Our kind of world (pp. 190–93).

    • What kind of churches? (pp. 193–95).

    • What kind of Bible? (pp. 195–201), which has several short sub-sections:

      • Technology and the Bible (pp. 195–97)

      • The Canon (pp. 197–98)

      • Biblical authority (pp. 198–99)

      • Participation in Bible reading (p. 199)

      • Cultural impact (pp. 199–200)

      • Access, Justice, and Subversion (pp. 200-201)

    • A possible "progressive reclaiming of the Bible" is sketched on pp. 201–03.

    • The concluding cameo (pp. 204–05) looks at the YouVersion internet project.

Some of the issues discussed in this chapter are also covered in this DVD from the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria:

The brief film clip from the Eureka St interview recorded at the end of the Common Dreams 2 event in Melbourne, is also relevant to this final chapter.

Web links with particular relevance to this chapter include:

Work is already underway on a second volume, with the working title The Once and Future Scriptures. This is a collection of essays written by colleagues from the faculty at St Francis Theological College in Brisbane, Australia. These essays explore how a critical approach to the Bible, such as outlined in The Once and Future Bible, is expressed in contemporary theological thinking about God, revelation, Jesus, Anglican identity, worship, and the troubled interface with science.