Review of Five Models of Scripture (Mark Reasoner)
Mark Reasoner, Five Models of Scripture (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans: 2021).
This review appeared in the Expository Times 134(2): 91–92
November 2022
Mark Reasoner is well placed to issue this broad invitation to take up and read Scripture, having studied and taught for decades in both evangelical and Roman Catholic contexts. He most directly addresses undergraduates and seminarians for whom the Bible might seem boring, irrelevant, or worse. The invitation consists of four parts.
The first addresses questions of canon and inspiration, comparing Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox traditions. Reasoner works hard to fairly represent each tradition, though at times cannot avoid barracking for his own team. For example, the Catholic Bible’s extra wisdom texts partially explain, he says, why Catholicism is ‘more earthaffirming than some Protestant spiritualities’ (p. 20). Part 2 delivers the promised five ‘models’ for reading Scripture. He advocates employing a plurality of approaches, noting the strengths and weaknesses of each. The ‘documents’ model takes Scripture as records of the past (whether reliable or unreliable). The ‘stories’ model equips us to find truth in otherwise inaccurate or problematic narratives. The ‘prayers’ model brings a refreshing awareness of God in our reading. The ‘laws’ model provides for ethical applications of texts (not just the OT law genre). Finally, ‘oracles’ covers everything from inspirational verses to prooftexting to Christological hermeneutics.
Reasoner’s five models are compelling where he lets the text’s genre itself steer us towards a reading strategy. However, he also encourages readers to shift genres at-will to make difficult texts easier to swallow. How this trains us to hear the voice of the Other in Scripture is unclear. It may in fact allow us to dismiss problematic Old Testament texts prematurely – for example, Abraham owning camels no longer bothers scholars the way Reasoner describes on p. 84. Likewise to say ‘Paul has never been one for consistency’ (p. 118) is a dissatisfying resolution to an apparent contradiction in Reasoner’s interpretation of Paul.
Part 3 supplies some historical context to these models: the literal and spiritual senses, sola Scriptura and various metanarratives applied to the story of the Bible (from the Lutheran grace/law paradigm to Liberation Theology). Part 4 is an excellent pastoral reflection on the Bible in the classroom, academia and pastoral ministry. His practical advice here, as with the pastoral reflections at the end of each earlier chapter, are hard won from years of experience. They are, I think, the best contribution this book offers.
Reasoner is at his best when sympathetically engaging with the best that each Christian tradition offers. A slightly wider range of conversation partners could perhaps have enabled this to happen more consistently (Protestantism has more to offer than Martin Luther and Wayne Grudem, and Reasoner’s own work on N.T. Wright’s alleged anti-Judaism is probably mentioned once or twice too often). Overall, however, this is a welcome invitation to read and relish Scripture in diverse ways, in all manner of pastoral and academic contexts. I hope many will take up his invitation.
Andrew Judd
Ridley College, Melbourne
