A Grove Booklet, so
under 30 pages.
It is welcome to
have opportunities such as this to engage with the “Bibical”
stories about the relationships between men and women without feeling
it loaded with the pressure of current divisions within the Church.
Briggs is offering a way to engage rather than trying to define the
exact answers that come from that engagement.
Briggs has a chatty
style, peppering his summaries of the stories with contemporary
asides. You will properly find this either refreshing or intensely
irritating.
From his conclusion,
he draws three key points;
The first is the
importance of hermeneutics, “learning to think scripturally”, and
that “one need not claim to have uncovered the one true reading of
a text in order to have offered a coherent and compelling perspective
that may be of spiritual benefit.”
The second is that
the Bible has things to say about sex, but that “...Bible reading
is just one of the key components of wisdom. Self-awareness,
humility, alertness to the ways in which sex can be fun, or
frustrating, or ridiculous, or delightful – all these contribute to
shaping readers who may discern what to look for in their reading of
the relevant texts.”
And third, “is the
art of loving the text not so far removed from loving another person?
A loving reader takes time to listen, reflect, and engage
respectfully.”
Taken together these
would leave us to being both biblical and compassionate people –
things which too often are painted as being mutually exclusive within
the Church today.
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