This collaborative work proposes ten principles for using the Bible in the work of theology. It asks how theological teachers and students should appropriate scripture as they pass from biblical texts to theological positions. The question is particularly appropriate in our day as more people turn to the scriptures to support ideological positions. At universities, biblical studies (still largely historically oriented) and theology are normally taught separately, sometimes giving rise to problems when they are brought together.
The ten principles developed here have to do with the theologian as a person and with the science of theology. In brief they are the Principle of Faithful Hearing, the Principle of Active Hearing, the Principle of Community and its Creeds, the Principle of Biblical Convergence, the Principle of Existential Consensus, the Principle of Metathemes and Metanarratives, the Principle of Continuity within Discontinuity, the Principle of Eschatological Provisionality, the Principle of Philosophical Assistance and the Principle of Inculturation. The principles are tested by applying them to central questions in Christology, soteriology, the doctrine of God and ecclesiology.
