Amazon Reader Review:

If you want to read a book probing the meaning of "authority" (a concept far too frequently taken for granted in most Christian circles), please read William Countryman's "Biblical Authority or Biblical Tyranny?" The real question that must be decided in dealing with most of the great controversial issues in contemporary Christianity all relate to the following question: "What does the authority of the Bible entail in this conversation? That is to say, how do we interpret what the Bible has to say about what we interpret to be references to the particular subject at hand?" Without answering that question, any discussion between the two opposing sides will just be a shouting match without any initial understanding of the terms of the discourse or the admission (or barring) of any evidence from either the Bible or Church history or any other source for that matter.

This book is a refreshing, if somewhat bracing at first, approach to some fun-damental questions of what it means to be authoritative in the first place. Countryman then follows up his discussion of authority with explorations on the nature of inspiration and authority, biblical inerrancy versus biblical authority, hermeneutical methodologies over the history of the Church [rabbinical, allegorical, historical-grammatical, and historical-critical] the relationship[s] between the Church and the Bible, and their place as co-authorities in the life of the believer. While deflating much of the overwrought fundamentalist rantings about the "perfection/Godhood" of the Bible, he also charts a course away from the Bible-negating tendencies of Christian liberalism and builds a bridge over which a coherent dialoge can cross for those willing to take a step of faith and act on God's authoritative word, rightly used.

L. William Countryman is Episcopalian Professor of New Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkley, California.