The Bible, the Church, and Authority

Array
(
    [date] => Sunday, February 20, 2011
    [scope] => 
    [year] => 
    [month] => 
    [post_id] => 77708
    [series_id] => 
    [day_titles_only] => 
    [exclusive] => 1
    [return] => formatted
    [formatted] => 
    [show_date] => 
    [show_meta] => 
    [show_content] => 1
    [admin] => 
    [debug] => 1
    [filter_types] => Array
        (
            [0] => primary
            [1] => secondary
        )

    [type_labels] => Array
        (
            [primary] => Primary
            [secondary] => Secondary
            [other] => Other
        )

    [the_date] => Sunday, February 20, 2011
)

Array
(
    [0] => 2011-02-20
)

Array
(
    [0] => 2011-02-20
)

At the Sunday class from February 6 until Lent begins in March, Fr Austin will give short talks on The Bible, the Church, and Authority. These talks will be on questions concerning the Bible such as: What books are in it? What is the history of its acceptance as a “canon”? What is its relationship to the church? What makes it authoritative?

There is a remarkably clear short book by Professor Joseph Lienhard of Fordham of that title which participants might want to read in parallel to the class, but Fr Austin will not be expecting that anyone has read that book.

The topic for February 20: More on the two ‚Äúcollections‚Äù of the New Testament (i.e., the Gospel and the Apostle) and on the authority of each. We saw last week that although Christians had a Bible from the beginning (it was the Jewish Scriptures), they didn’t have a ‚ÄúVolume Two‚Äù until the latter part of the 2nd century. This is a remarkable shift: from authority being placed in Jesus as remembered by those who knew him, to authority being placed in (certain) written documents. There are coffee and tea in the room.

• Theology Events