Five. What does that term elicit in your mind’s eye? If you are diet conscious you may think of your five-a-day intake. If you live on the east coast near the Canadian border you may think of the Great Lakes. If you are in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day you may think of the Books of Moses. If you were raised reading Enid Blyton you will undoubtedly think of Julian, Dick, Anne, Georgina (George), and their dog Timmy — The Famous Five. Today, I want to draw your attention to another Famous Five – The Five Solas – and their abiding relevance to contemporary life.
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The Unoriginal Oden
Theologian Thomas Oden (1931-2016) was adamant that he brought nothing new to the table. His goal was to be unoriginal. While that vision may not capture the attention of Silicon Valley or your local trendy university town, Oden believed his approach was precisely what a generation of Christians needed who had lost any anchoring in the 2,000-year tradition that preceded them. Oden was convinced that modern Christians lagged behind their forebears in the ability to read and interpret Scripture and to immerse themselves in a deep understanding of God’s revealed word. In terms of theological reflection and understanding, Oden was always “trying hard to catch up with the fourth century.”
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Encouragement for Bible Reading from Puritan Women
“So how can we know what the Bible really says?” my classmate timidly asked at the end of a long lecture about interpretation. She was not playing the devil’s advocate, but was clearly discouraged by the fact that there seem to be many different and discordant ways of interpreting the Bible. Sometimes reading intense scholarly debates that dissect every tiny part of a passage, listening to sermons that use methods we don’t know how to use, or overhearing a friend joke about misapplying passages like Jeremiah 29:11 make us shrink back from Scripture.
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Take Up and Read
“Tolle lege. Tolle lege.” Augustine heard a voice, perhaps of a child nearby, saying, “Take up and read. Take up and read.” He took this as a command from God, and therefore opened his Bible to Romans 13. From that day forward, Augustine would profoundly shape how believers read and understand the Bible. While the turn-to-a-random-passage and read approach is not encouraged, in this case it had incredible ramifications down to the present day.
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