Preface

Preface
Scripture and the Authority of God


Writing a book about the Bible is like building a sandcastle in front of the Matterhorn. The best you can hope to do is to catch the eye of those who were looking down instead of up, or those who were so familiar with the skyline that they had stopped noticing its peculiar beauty. But as I have taken part in many discussions over the years about what the Bible is, and the place it should occupy in Christian mission and thinking, I have increasingly come to the conclusion that there are some, perhaps many, people both outside and inside the church who need to be nudged to look up once more, and this time with fresh eyes, not just at the foothills, but at the crags and crevasses, the cliffs and the snowfields, and ultimately at the dazzling and dangerous summit itself. What that all might mean in terms of the Bible will, I hope, become clear as we proceed...