Walter: While we might affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, our interpretations aren't inerrant. That we can affirm simultaneously the plain readings of Scripture, but hold in high esteem the actual truthfulness of Scripture while having a modicum of humility at least about our interpretations and how incredibly important it is because of our limitations to be in conversations with other communities, other kinds of groups, other times in history.
Because in those conversations we begin to realize, “Hey, wait a second, you know, maybe my interpretation, maybe that plain reading might actually be plainly wrong.” And we actually need a different way of looking at it. And you've helped me see that different way because we're in that conversation. But that seems really hard nowadays.
Aaron: Yeah, I mean, I think it's made it all the more difficult in churches that are segmented by race and by class and where it is very easy on social media to find echo chambers, and it's very easy to, in our neighborhoods, do the same kind of thing. And I think this is why, just, as first step, asking ourselves: Who are we talking to? Who are we reading?
Not just so that we can have some sort of generic cosmopolitan sensibility of like “Oh, I've surveyed lots of different opinions,” but that actually because the church is of every tongue, tribe and nation, and I think that if our own sensibilities and readings of Scripture don't reflect that rich diversity, then our theological and scriptural imagination will be impoverished as a result. Like it's so hard to do that, because it means that we have to listen well, and we have to go places with others that are sometimes uncomfortable. But I think it's important.
Walter: God made it clear that we have a Body. The Body has lots of different parts, and we can easily reduce that to say: The hand and the foot, we all need each other in some mechanistic way in order to make the mechanics of the church work. You need some people who teach, and some people who serve and all that stuff. But you're actually getting at a deeper issue. It's not just the mechanics of how you make a church work that needs the diversity of the body. It's actually understanding God himself, his purposes in the world, the good news of Jesus Christ.
You need different vantage points — not to compromise, but to actually capture a fuller picture, a more robust picture of just how great and glorious this good news is and the renewal that God has intended for us. And evangelicals have sought to tap into in its best moments and really ride the wave of God's Spirit. In some of its worst moments can be crassly self-justifying in their own plain readings. And so, it is once again, deeply encouraging what you share with us, but deeply challenging.
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