John Burgess's Why Scripture Matters: Reading the Bible in a Time of Church Conflict is not an abstract account of biblical authority (though some such account is presumed). It is not a book on hermeneutics (Burgess does not propose a particular method of interpretation). Rather, Burgess wants to re kindle a passion for Scripture among Christians—mainline Protestants in particular. He wants them to return to their first love. Neither more books on biblical authority nor more sophisticated hermeneutics can accomplish this act of reconciliation. Instead, Burgess seeks to revive what he calls a "piety of the Word."

Burgess's concern is that apart from a renewed piety of the Word, the Bible will primarily function as a weapon in the hands of warring parties within the church:

We must become much more intentional about resisting the temptation to wield Scripture simply as a weapon— to lift it up and wave it at our opponents—and more intentional about learning instead how to open Scripture as we would a good gift, standing before it together and in anticipation of hearing God's voice.

Having laid out these sorts of challenges, Burgess then goes on to diagnose the reasons behind mainline Protestantism's Scripture-weariness and illiteracy. This is perhaps the least satisfying chapter in the book. The rise of technology and the priority of information in Western culture, Burgess suggests, have undermined our sense of the poetic. This has led Christians to treat Scripture as a book of information, instantly accessible and straightforwardly applicable. While the chapter purports to offer something of a diagnosis, both eccleisal and cultural, of the mainline's scriptural malaise, this never really comes to pass.1

By emphasizing the "poetic" aspect of Scripture, Burgess seeks to show that Scripture has both a definite content and multiple layers of meaning. Scripture cannot be made to mean absolutely anything. It does, however, have "layers of meaning" which "find their ultimate embodiment in the mystery of Christ." It is here that Burgess seems to delve into a sort of hermeneutics, presenting an account of the power of poetic language. I suspect that many will find this account inadequate. Moreover, it is unnecessary. Premodern interpreters (including Calvin and Luther), in the absence of a theory of poetic language, fully understood that it was theologically crucial for Scripture to be multivoiced without lapsing into silly forms of interpretive relativism.

Following his discussion of Scripture's poetic qualities, Burgess goes so far as to call Scripture a sacrament. This claim is slightly misleading in that Burgess is referring primarily to various activities performed in relation to Scripture—that is, prayer, preaching, liturgy, and ethics—where Scripture can function as "an audible signal of an inaudible grace." The Bible on its own is not a sacrament in the same way that bread and wine on their own are not a sacrament. But in the end, this may turn out to be a terminological quibble, for, terminology aside, the thrust of this chapter is to assert that "Scripture sets forth the living Christ. In his presence, we find ourselves transformed into his image and incorporated into his body, the church." Ultimately, it is this fundamental conviction that will enable the piety of the Word to flourish in the lives of Christians.

Given this fundamental conviction, there are four disciplines that Christians must cultivate in order to develop a piety of the Word: reading Scripture aloud, reading Scripture in community (not individualistically), reading Scripture in context (both canonical and liturgical), and memorizing Scripture. Each of these disciplines has ancient (often monastic) bases, which Burgess outlines. He then notes how these disciplines might operate in contemporary situations. The practice of these disciplines, Burgess writes, will "open us to this Word, so that we may receive its compelling power, however it comes. Drawing on the wisdom of the Christian tradition, they nurture a piety deeply rooted in the Word as a sacrament of Christ."

While the reading of commentaries can both dull the senses and blunt one's appreciation for Scripture, Burgess correctly notes that attention to scriptural commentary is crucial for nurturing a piety of the Word. This imperative pertains not only to excellent written commentary but also to such things as iconography, church architecture (Burgess includes several interesting pictures of church interiors to make this point), and even the adornment of Bibles used in liturgies.

Most important, a piety of the Word is nurtured in Christian worship. Burgess argues that in worship the four central disciplines for reading Scripture are most aptly displayed. Moreover, "the basic structure of Christian worship is an important form of commentary on Scripture. … The ordo trains us in the basic disciplines of reading Scripture as a sacramental word. Attention to the ordo promises a fuller sense of Scripture's compelling power." Burgess concludes this chapter by surveying three churches outside the Protestant mainline ( a megachurch, an African American Baptist church, and a Catholic church) to illustrate his point.

In the penultimate chapter, "The Life of the Church as Commentary on Scripture," Burgess focuses on the Bible's role as the weapon of choice in many ecclesial disputes. He argues that if Christians were to develop a piety of the Word, then the character of Christian communities—including their disputes—would be transformed. He does not suggest that a piety of the Word is a way of eliminating interpretive, theological, and ecclesial disputes. Rather, it provides a context within which we can hope that such disputes will enhance rather than frustrate our prospects of living faithfully before God. A developed piety of the Word will enable Christians to have a measure of confidence in approaching Scripture in the midst of church conflicts; it will engender a humility before both Scripture and our sisters and brothers in Christ; and it will sustain an appropriate patience within Christian communities as they both wait on the Lord and engage one another in forbearance.

The concluding chapter offers a reading of the temptation story in Matthew 4:1-11. Here Burgess offers a multi-voiced and richly allusive account. It is the fruit of a piety of the Word.

Burgess is well read in the scholarly literature, but he wears his learning lightly. This is a volume for laypeople and pastors, lucidly written and unburdened by an extensive scholarly apparatus. In the text of the book he is particularly attentive to the works of Elizabeth Johnson, Stanley Hauerwas, and David Wells. Despite the obvious diversity of these three, Burgess is able to tease out some interesting commonalities, which he employs well. In addition, he includes an annotated bibliography as an appendix for those who want to explore some of the works that have influenced the arguments of the book.

While this is a book I want to commend warmly, I do have some concerns. Not surprisingly, the piety of the Word Burgess advances here is deeply Re formed in character, even though Burgess makes fruitful use of other Christian traditions. This is fine. Non-Re formed Christians can certainly engage the book and extend it analogously into their own traditions. I wonder, however, if this might also account for the fact that the piety of the Word is sometimes treated in abstraction and isolation from other specific ecclesial practices and disciplines. That is, how does a piety of the Word fit in with a more general account of piety? Clearly, a piety of the Word is most naturally developed and ex pressed within the church. How are the ends toward which a piety of the Word is directed related to the more general ends of the church and of the Christian life?

Again, while it is not specifically within the ambit of the book, it would have been helpful to have had a discussion of catechesis. Presumably piety, including a piety of the Word, must be fostered within Christians from the outset of their walk with God. There is little direct discussion of what churches must do to enable this. But these are relatively minor concerns. To a church that is both Scripture-weary and biblically illiterate, this book offers a clarion call and points a way forward.

Stephen E. Fowl is professor of theology at Loyola College in Maryland. He is the author most recently of Engaging Scripture: A Model for Theological Interpretation (Blackwell).

1. Those interested in this particular issue would be much better directed to Michael Budde's The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries (Westview, 1997).

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