WHAT IS SCRIPTURE?

In our Bible study sessions as a group of seniors, we never did answer that question. The late Professor Wilfrid Cantwell Smith, former distinguished scholar of comparative religion, at McGill and Harvard Universities, openly acknowledged that whatever else it may be, scripture is a human activity. In his final work, What Is Scripture?  (Fortress Press, 1993) Smith also asserted that no one tradition, religious or secular, no one civilization is adequate to do justice to our modern awareness of the multiplicity of scriptures. Smith further questioned whether for all practical purposes today “scripture” is a viable category.

One of the basic functions of scripture throughout the ages has been to make real for religious people at least that God has something to say to humanity. For those non-theists who insist that there is no God, scripture in the sense of some literature having existential meaning might say that the universe has something to communicate to us.

One of Smith’s conclusions is worth quoting: One might wonder whether any theist today, confronted with our vaster diversity of scriptures throughout the world and the diversity of readings of those scriptures over the centuries might emulate these Buddhist theorists by speculating that God has in fact remained (verbally) silent, yet has set up the human situation in such a way that diverse peoples in diverse conditions would have scriptures capable of letting Him/Her/It enter their lives and capable of guiding them to Him/Her/It and to spiritual richness.

Secularists would argue that the universe is silent and scripture is a strictly human function. Yet that does not explain why there is a nearly universal human propensity to create scripture and to find in them inspiration, nurture and moral guidance that makes sense for their daily living.

Is the age of scripture coming to an end? Some would say that it is. Yet the fundamental historicity of scripture over several millennia suggests that humanity has not yet reached that point. There is as yet no historical evidence that the transcendent dimension of human thought has disappeared. To quote Smith again: It has been one until now standard element, yet only one, in the complex patterns in and by which human beings  have lived…. The basic question is not about scripture, but about us.

A daily devotional posting on the internet by the United Church of Christ (USA) has been given the title, God Is Still Speaking. The assumption of these daily readings based on brief excerpts of the Christian Bible assumes that the religious practice of opening to the transcendent spiritual reality we call God is still valuable in the present world with all its violence and vicissitudes. But as is so much else today, making use of the scriptures of any religious tradition in any way is still a matter of individual choice.