Βοοκ NOTES Ι 95
Orthotjox" \'Vesley. That is, such a view represents, once again, only half οΕ the conjunction because Wesley also underscored tl1e sheer gratuity οΕ grace, the giEts οΕ God a/one} especially ίη his artίculatίon οΕ free grace, ίη a way similar to what many P rotestants before him had done. Despite these critίcisms, Ι must conclude that Re/ationa/ Ho/iness is an i111portant work ίη that it will undoubtedly spark a live!y conversatίon that at this point ίη the liEe οΕ Wesleyan cummunions ί5 sorely needed.
Seized by Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture Joel B.Green 2007 Nashvi//e: Abingdon PlYiSS RevieJved by Kenneth J. Co//ins During the early twcntίeth-century Karl Barth opencd up for the Chήsrian com111unity "the strange nc\v \vor!d" οΕ the Bib!e ίη part by cu!ling some οΕ the insights οΕ the Protestant ReEorι11er s, especially Lnther. Today ίη onr NIent)'-first century postmodern context Joel Green, professor οΕ New Tcsta111ent ~lt Fnller ΤhωΙοgίcal Serninary, has performed a similar service by disρlaying the evocarive, world- creatίng power of the Bib!e when it ί5 approach a5 Scripture. Suc11 a reading represents a theo!ogica! jnd.g ment about the nature οΕ the O ld and Ne\v Testal11ents, and the essenrial character οΕ the division b etween the \vorld of the Bible and ου! ο\νη is thereEore not so much historical, as biblical criticism has led us to believe, but theo!ogical. Put another \vay, the approach, the openness that we bring to the Bible, that is, the willingness to inhabit its strange ne\v world, is decisive. The participatory approach to tl1e Bible t!1at Green articulates l11eans not must the text be proper!y exegeted using the best re50urces available but a!so the very narratives of our lives must be called ίηto account as they are caught up ίη tl1e larger story ofScripture. Given this engaging and challenging οηl)'
perspecrive t\vo 111istaken readings οΕ the Bible are possible: tl1e first fro111 the theologicalleft; the other fro111 tlIe theological right. The flIst 111isstep, hailing Er0111 the E nlighten111ent, takes the useful tools οΕ higher critίcism but then employs them ίη a scientίfic, ratίonal and utter!y objectίve way such that a reading οΕ the Bible as Scripture is never in the offing. As Green points out, "three hunllred years of biblical stuιlies anιl the last century of educatίonal prioritίes generally work against reading the Bib!e in just this way-as Scripture." Here an overweening cuncern with 111ethod and episte1110!ogy, whic11 p!ace the autonomous se!f at the center οΕ the knowing process, resnlts interesringly enongh ίη an anemic view οΕ learning. Si111ply put, an ntterly objecrive approach to the Bible eliminates at the ontset