What is the place of Reason?

Wright continues to lay out how to read scripture rightly by asking “what is the place of reason?”

Likewise, reason will mean giving up merely arbitrary or whimsical readings of texts, and paying attention to lexical, contextual, and historical considerations. Reason provides a check on unrestrained imaginative readings of texts (e.g. the proposal that Jesus was really an Egyptian freemason - a proposal solemnly advanced by recent work of pseudo-scholarship). It will include the need to make sense. Of course, the question of what counts as ‘making sense’, and the question of ‘whose rationality?’, will remain contested, but not so as to render all discussion futile. It will mean giving attention to our own contexts, and the biases thereby introduced. This is why public discussions and debates, rather than shouting matches, are such an urgent requirement. Far too much discourse on contentious issues has consisted of rhetorical moves designed to wipe one’s opponent’s pieces off the board before the game has begun.

We talk a lot in our community about exploring truth, where we affirm the need for public discussion and debate when reading the scriptures. However, we also find it easy to slip into rhetoric!

Lord, teach us to be gracious, patient and loving to one another!