Brian D. Russell on Reading Scripture for Church and World

I wrote the following mini review for EG, the quarterly magazine produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Brian D. Russell, (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and World (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2016).

For those interested in the Bible and mission, here is a book-length treatment of how our missional calling in the world provides an appropriate posture from which to read the Bible.

Along with others in recent years, Brian Russell sees God’s own mission as central to the biblical account. Scripture tells the story of God’s mission for the whole of the cosmos, which has come to its climax in Jesus and the redemption he has brought about through his death and resurrection, a redemption which will one day extend to every corner of creation. It’s a great reminder that while we tend to ask, ‘Where does Scripture fit into my life?’, a more appropriate question to ask is, ‘Where do our lives fit into God’s plan for the world?’

For Brian Russell, it’s through paying attention to the themes of mission, community and holiness in our reading of the Bible that we align ourselves with God and become ‘a missional community that reflects and embodies God’s character to, for, and in the world’.