I finished The Drama of Scripture by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen. The book is an absolute gem and if you haven’t read it yet you need to purchase a copy immediately!

The basic point of the book is to provide an introductory look at the grand overarching narratival flow of the Bible. The assumption is that God, in the Scriptures, presents reality as a grand narrative. The book does a fine job of accomplishing this purpose. Written with a college student in mind the book doesn’t miss its mark.

The authors play heavily off of NT Wright’s metaphor of the biblical narrative existing in 5 acts and the authors build upon this, including a sixth: 1) Creation, 2) Fall, 3) Israel, 4) Jesus, 5) Church, 6) Resolution. We know how the story begins, we know the climax, and we know how it ends. And now we find ourselves in the 5th act, already having begun, seeking to faithfully improvise the script of the scripture in our age.

Many have thrown arguments at a narrative reading of the text. This book does a fine job at educating one as to what a narrative approach to reading the scriptures looks like. It demonstrates a faithfulness to the text, to the authority of the scriptures (the authority of the script?), and is not reductionistic - somehow subsuming all literary genres into Narrative.

The book uses a missional hermeneutic of sorts, even though they don’t call it that. The thread that seems to tie the scriptures together in the mind of the authors is God redemptive purposes in our world. (I’d be interested to know what you think of this idea.)
All that said I would also say that the book serves as a fine overview to the scriptures themselves. For that reason alone I think this is a worthy read.

Has anyone else read the book? What do you think?

What is your take on narrative reading of the scriptures?

What is your take on this idea of a missional hermeneutic?