Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch

Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch. By John Webster. Current Issues in Theology Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. vii + 144 pp. $19.00 (paper). In Holy John Wehster, professor of systematic theology at University of Aberdeen, seeks to challenge commonplace treatments of Christian biblical text advocating for a shift away from emphases on interpretation, role of reader, and methodology, and towards deployment of tropes such as listening, hearing, and order. Webster is a respected and influential Anglican systematician, schooled in theologies of Jungel, Barth, and Calvin, and it is from such a perspective that he argues that primary task is not to establish foundational arguments for scriptural authority (be they epistemological, cultural, or ecclesiological); rather, he states that task of reflection is chiefly exegesis. Webster's engagement with Scripture does not intend to deny fact of its historical and cultural production, but he does insist against reducing text to cultural poetics. He dismisses analyses that describe nature of Scripture way of some socio-anthropological notion of community usage (Cantwell Smith), cultural-linguistic grammar (Lindbeck), or ecclesially mediated communication with Word (Congar). Webster argues that such perspectives are reductive, resembling foundational explanations for function of biblical text. He insists that one's understanding of Scripture must remain authentically theological to avoid becoming a religiously gilded mixture of social science, history, cultural theory or hermeneutics (p. 43). Such a properly understanding of Scripture requires a dogmatic move: a reintegration of authority of Scripture into doctrine of God (p. 54). It is this call for locating any understanding of Scripture within context of communicative divine economy of Trinity that serves as book's central thesis and unifying theme of its four chapters. The first chapter, Revelation, Sanctification, and Inspiration, outlines principal ontological structure that informs Webster's perspective, most interesting section being his explanation for preferring concept of sanctification as most helpful way to describe how the creaturely reality of Scripture serves God's self-communication (p. 17). Chapter 2, Scripture, Church, and Canon, locates ecclesiological position of emphasizing Word's role in building up church by breaking it open (p. …