Timothy George on Reading the Bible for the Sake of the Church

Timothy George, general editor of IVP’s new Reformation Commentary on Scripture series is interviewed by David Neff in Christianity Today, here.

Asked about the ‘superiority of pre-critical exegesis’, George responds: ‘pre-critical exegesis is done in the context of and for the sake of the community of faith. It’s churchly exegesis that puts us in touch with the life of prayer, the great doctrines of the faith, the catechetical tradition of the church, and the liturgy of the church, and it helps us to see Scripture as part of that whole.’

The rest of the interview takes in the inclusion of Roman Catholic and Anabaptist authors in the commentary series, the Reformers as ‘proto-postmoderns’ (‘They were very aware of the communitarian context in which knowledge, exegesis, and comment are made’), the relationship between the Reformers and early church fathers, the differing receptions of Luther over the years, and the renaissance of interest in Calvin.