Harvesting the Drama Metaphor for Biblical Theology – Review of The Drama of Scripture

Following on from yesterday’s post about ‘harvesting the drama metaphor’, here’s the first book review on Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen’s The Drama of Scripture (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004).

Biblical Theology (the term has many different usages, but here is used to denote the central or key theological message that comes from considering salvation history as presented in the OT and NT Scriptures) has had its long history, with its own ups and downs among the scholarly community. But for the last 30 years or so, Biblical Theology has received new attention and focus, especially from the likes of scholars like B.S. Childs and Australians William Dumbrell and Graeme Goldsworthy (see C.H.H. Scobie’s article ‘History of Biblical Theology’ in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology). Several proposals have been suggested for the center theological message - ranging from Covenant (Dumbrell) to the Kingdom of God (Goldsworthy, Vaughan Roberts) to the story of Israel (C. Marvin Pate, J. Scott Duvall, J. Daniel Hays et. al.).

Enter The Drama of Scripture. In one sense, this book does not suggest anything radically new – it sees the central theological message to consist in Covenant (OT) and Kingdom (NT). Likening the whole book of Scripture to a grand cathedral, Bartholomew and Goheen (abbreviated henceforth as B&G) sees ‘covenant and kingdom to be the double door of the same main entrance to the scriptural cathedral, evoking the same reality (p.24)’. But what is new is the way B&G casts the whole exercise of biblical theology against the backdrop of the drama metaphor – biblical theology is understanding God’s ‘meta-drama’ of which we have been graciously invited through his grace to be a part of now, i.e. we are actually in this drama NOW. For a fitting participation, two things are needed – to know the story that has gone before us, and to know how this story is going to end.

B&G begin with an introductory chapter where they outline the importance of stories or grand narratives to understanding who we are and hence what we are to do. Following the lead of missiologist Leslie Newbigin and philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, they argue that we can only answer the question ‘what am I to do?’ if we can answer the prior question, ‘Of what story do I find myself a part of?’. In another words, the grand narratives or stories which seek to explain the way the world actually is affects us, regardless of whether we are conscious of it or not. In this regard, following the lead of N.T. Wright, they argue that Christianity offers a story which is the true story of the whole world. Adapting the basic structure provided by Wright, they argue that God’s story can be thought of as a story (or drama) with six acts -

Act 1: God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation
Act 2: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall
Act 3: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated
Act 4: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished
Act 5: Spreading the News of the King: The Mission of the Church
Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

B&G suggest that we live in Act 5, and a large part of the drama in Act 5 is ‘missing’ or is being filled out right now; and it is for the actors (us) to improvise a suitable scene, preparing for the conclusion God has revealed, toward which our play must move (p.26).

In the rest of the chapters, B&G go through key events and their theological motifs from each of these Acts. They provide quite an adequate and good coverage of these events and their theological interpretation within each of these acts, sometimes providing rather interesting reflections. The theme of Kingdom connects these events and theological subthemes somewhat loosely as compared to another Biblical Theology book like Goldsworthy’s According to Plan; and so in this sense this book complements Goldsworthy’s earlier work. It is in Act 5 that B&G pick up again on the drama metaphor – this is where we join in and become part of the drama – by being part of the church. The church is the ‘sphere’ or ‘location’ by which we are drawn by God’s grace to participate in His story, His drama. And the main direction in which the church plays out its role in this drama is in continuing the mission of Israel, Jesus and the Early Church – a mission which belongs to God Himself; a mission which consists in nothing less than His Kingdom extending to the entire New Creation itself. In another words, ‘mission’ here is not just reduced to evangelism or cross-cultural missions, but

“[...] when we grasp that the salvation of the kingdom restores the creation, and all of it, we see that witness to God’s kingdom is as wide as creation. Witness will mean embodying God’s renewing power in politics and citizenship, economics and business, education and scholarship, family and neighbourhood, media and art, leisure and play. It is not just that we carry out evangelism in these areas of life. ]...] It means that the way we live as citizens, consumers, students, husbands, mothers, and friends witness to the restoring power of God.” (p.201)

B&G follow on in a unique way by citing the stories of three individuals whose lives have been affected by this bigger meta-drama of which they have come to be a part of – a businessman; an ecologist; and a student and her friend, who is an agriculturist. In all this, eschatology plays an important role. “As we are pushed forward in our mission by the impetus and forward movement that we saw in Jesus’ own words and works while he lived among us, we are also pulled forward by hopeful expectation of the future kingdom to be revealed when Jesus returns.” (p.206)

I conclude by providing three comments on this book. To begin – and here, it is a positive point - I have to admit very frankly that I am attracted to B&G’s way of casting Biblical Theology against the backdrop of the Drama Metaphor. Not that I have not benefited from Goldsworthy’s earliest books – God alone knows how much I have benefited and grown in my love for Him and His Word through the works of Goldsworthy – but is always very hard to run away from the thought that says ‘I have understood Biblical Theology when I have understood the Kingdom of God and how it is played out in every stage of salvation history... or I have understood Biblical Theology when I have understood the covenants’. In another words (epistemologically), Biblical Theology seems to be a discipline that is very much locked up in the realm of knowledge, and we have to take that deliberate and extra step in applying Biblical Theology in our lives. Another way of recasting the scenario, how many of us when teaching Biblical Theology in our churches end up teaching the main themes in the Bible – Kingdom of God, covenant – with the result of our participants walking out of the seminar feeling they have understood biblical theology because they have understood the concepts, but feeling deep within that missing gap in terms of seeing how this impacts their lives? But here, with the Drama Metaphor, Biblical Theology becomes a lot more ‘alive’, it seems to have grown ‘feet’ – biblical theology now no longer has to do exclusively with knowing; but more of knowing for right living, right participation in God’s drama of which we find ourselves involved in. What was previously disjoined as a two-stage process now becomes joined.

But this is also where the second comment comes in – I feel B&G could have gone a lot further in developing the Drama Metaphor and how this particularly affects the way we understand Biblical Theology. The chapters covering Acts 1-5 (up to the early church) are almost written like a survey of key events or themes and their theological significance (sometimes following the chronology of salvation history e.g. for the OT bits; and others following major topics or headings – e.g. the miracles, parables and journeys of Jesus); but little is drawn out as to how these events affect our living now – or to carry on the drama language – how these events affect our improvisation in God’s drama now. Rather B&G wait till the end before showing us how the whole story affects us in the broad way outlined above. Even in the above broad outline, I think an important area is missing – that of ethics. Of course I can be quite rightly accused of being overly harsh in my comment – afterall, B&G didn’t set out to write a systematic theology or doctrine textbook – but here’s where the point hits home: perhaps a better way forward in considering biblical theology (especially against this drama background) is via a ‘doctrinal’ approach, i.e. as we move along salvation history with its key moments, highlight key doctrines that arise which affect our living (or improvisation) now. In another words, Biblical Theology almost becomes like a bridge discipline to bring out doctrine or systematic theology from our biblical studies. Afterall, if biblical theology is understanding the whole drama for a fitting participation now, then as Vanhoozer suggests in the Drama of Doctrine, doctrine could be the very thing or the very connector which provides direction for that fitting participation. Exciting ideas; but all for another time, another place, another post.

My third comment – and I have to admit here it is a disappointment – is the almost complete silence on the theme of Jesus’ substitutionary death and atonement for our sin. Instead, the Christus Victor view is presented as the almost exclusive theological view of Jesus’ death and the defeat of God’s enemies. This is surprising considering that the doctrine of sin is well explained in the chapter describing Act 2 – sin is presented as the problem. Jesus’ substitutionary atoning death gets a slight mention in the section describing Paul; but other than that, is almost silent in the rest of the chapter, especially the chapter concerning the person and work of Jesus. While I can be accused of importing my ‘theological framework’ into the equation here instead of considering the message of the person and work of Jesus as it actually arises out of the Scriptures, I think it is hard to deny that the suffering servant of Isaiah played a vital role in Jesus’ understanding of his own death and his mission (for a good exploration of this theme, refer to Peter Bolt’s The Cross From a Distance (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004)). Surprisingly, the suffering servant is not even mentioned in the section describing the prophets – a somewhat glaring omission.

Overall, I would recommend this book – not as a first book on Biblical Theology, but nonetheless a very good complement to go along with some other more established Biblical Theology books like Goldsworthy’s According to Plan (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), or my personal favourite, Vaughan Robert’s God’s Big Picture (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2001).

Harvesting the Drama Metaphor

I’m beginning a new series of blog articles, all exploring how we can harvest the ‘drama metaphor’ for the three disciplines of biblical theology, ethics, and doctrine. The impetus really came from discovering three books which uses the drama metaphor to apply it to the three areas of biblical theology, ethics and doctrine. They are (respectively) Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen’s The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004); Samuel Wells’ Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2004); and Kevin Vanhoozer’s The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville, Westminster John Knox, 2005). Basically, the Drama metaphor seeks to see the gospel or salvation history as God's great drama, by which we become involved and participate in through His grace. The plan is to post a review of each of these books in turn, with other related posts interspersed in between. I have no idea how long this will take, but the aim of this exercise is to test the viability of the drama metaphor as a means of connecting these three disciplines together. If it is indeed viable, then the drama metaphor, properly ‘harvested’, could go quite some distance in providing a seamless connection and application of these three disciplines into our lives and the lives of our congregation members. Stay tuned!

Enjoy the Silence

Just in case some might be wondering why the silence for the past few weeks, I would like to assure all that Fongster has not given up on blogging! I've been doing some reading on books on Biblical Theology, and I'm trying to think through how we can better teach Biblical Theology in our churches in such a way that it doesn't just lead to an increase in knowledge (I'm more knowledgable now about the covenants etc, about Israel and her significant events etc.); but how that knowledge can even excite us about our Christian lives NOW. Part of it invovles trying to see how Biblical Theology could be bridged with Systematic Theology (with her generally 7 agreeded areas of doctrine of Revelation, God, Creation and Man, Christ, Salvation, Church, and Eschatology). This invovles doing some reading and research on my part, and that's always hard while one is juggling church and family responsibilities. So till something is ready, there will be a (hopefully brief) period of silence.

Enjoy the silence!

I Can Change!

Most of you know I've been reading You Can Change by Tim Chester (Nottingham:Inter-Varsity Press, 2006). Just finished it last night. Here's 7 reasons why I like it and strongly encourage as many of us to read it as possible (believe me... there's no commission earned on this!)

1. The book is organised into chapters that each address a key question as we think about change (or sanctification). They are as follows:

a. What would you like to change?

b. Why would you like to change?

c. How are you going to change?

d. When do you struggle?

e. What truths do you need to turn to?

f. What desires do you need to turn from?

g. What stops you changing?

h. What strategies will reinforce your faith and repentance?

i. How can we support one another in changing?

j. Are you ready for a lifetime of daily change?

Together, the questions provide a comprehensive treatment of what is involved in change.

2. The book is heavily grounded in good theology, and it's not 'ivory-tower' theology, but theology that's got 'feet'! In that sense, Tim shows us 'everyday theology'.

3. All throughout the book, Tim reminds us that change is ultimately God's work. This comes through his explanation of concepts such as 'sanctified by faith' (see blog below) and his emphasis of the liberating work of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While one might worry that this might lead to quietism and passiveness on our part, Tim shows that the opposite is true - recognising it is the work of God actually leads us to desiring and wanting to respond to Him and the Spirit's leading!

4. Tim's analysis of issues and problems is not on the surface, but goes very deep. Often very probing, sometimes hurtful, but almost always true. For example, he challenges us to think through why we want to change - to prove myself to God, other people, or even myself? He gets us to think through how we are going to change - are we going to rely on our own righteousness, the law, or the liberating work of our Trinitarian God? He gets us to go deep into understanding how our struggles and temptations never cause sin, but rather the root cause is always our heart and its sinful desires; and he challenges us to turn away from sin by desiring God more than our sinful desires.

5. He never grounds change or sanctification as an individual project, but locates change in a community context, and in this sense, he is much against the individualism of our day, which we sometimes carry over into our Christian thinking - even in this area of change and sanctification.

6. He is a realist. He gets us to realise change is a lifetime task, and not only that, but is also a daily task. But at the same time, because of what Christ has done and because Christ is coming back, he gets us to see change is possible - I can change! While all this time under-girding this whole process in a lifetime of grace.

7. There is a 'change project' at the end of every chapter in the book which gets us to think through questions relating to what he has just covered with regards to one area which we would like to change. This makes You Can Change an excellent resource for reading with another person. Just read the chapter beforehand, and come together to discuss and pray!

Enough reasons?

Thanks Tim for putting out what I found to be an extremely helpful book.

Suffering as a Kidnapper... but also as a Teacher

Here's a little excerpt on suffering that I came across. It's from Paul Tripp, a Christian counsellor, who writes about his daughter's recovery from a car accident, in which she was hit and crushed against a wall, leaving her seriously injured. Paul writes in one entry in his blog:


It's hard not to look at the day as a day of futile activity accompanied by needless discomfort. You can't honestly look at the day and make sense out of it... Suffering transports you beyond the boundaries of your reason and your control... Suffering is a kidnapper that comes into our lives, blindfolds us, and takes us to where we do not want to be.
But suffering is not just a kidnapper, it is also a teacher... It points you to the fact that there is little you can actually control. It instructs you as to where reliable comfort and sturdy hope can be found. Like a patient teacher with a resistant student, suffering pries open your hands and asks you to let go of your life. Suffering invites you to find security, rest, hope, and comfort in Another, and in so doing, assaults the irrationality of personal sovereignty that is the delusion of every human being. In that way, suffering is not just a kidnapper, and not just a teacher, it is also a liberator. Suffering frees us to experience a deeper comfort and hope than we have ever had before (From nicolenews.blogspot.com, June 11, 2006, as quoted in Tim Chester, You Can Change (Nottingham:Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), 161).


What deep words! But also... what true words for us who believe!

We've heard of 'Justified by Faith', but 'Sanctified by Faith'?

In his book on sanctification, You Can Change (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), Tim Chester has an interesting section which he entitled ‘Sanctified by Faith’. Below is an excerpt which hopefully captures the gist of what he is saying:

Sometimes people say conversion is all God’s work, but sanctification is a co-operation between us and God. Neither statement is entirely true. Conversion is all God’s work, but we have a responsibility to respond with faith and repentance. It turns out faith and repentance are also God’s work in us, his gift to us. God opens blind eyes; God grants repentance (Mark 8:18-30; 2 Corinthians 4:4-6; 2 Timothy 2:25). That’s why conversion is entirely an act of God’s grace. But, at God’s initiative and with God’s help, we’re involved. And it’s the same with sanctification. Sanctification is God’s work. But we are not passive. We have to respond with faith and repentance. Again it turns out that faith and repentance are God’s work in us. So salvation from start to finish is God’s work, in which we are active participants through faith and repentance by the grace of God. We work hard, but then say with Paul, ‘It was not I, but the grace of God that was with me’ (1 Corinthians 15:10, ESV). ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (Philippians 2:12-13) (p.62-63).

Tim then goes on to explain the differences between justification and sanctification, going very much with Reformed Theology’s definitions and distinctions. Yet, quoting John Calvin, he says that while justification and sanctification should be distinguished, they shouldn’t be separated. And the reason is because of our union with Christ by faith. We are justified because we’re united to Christ. But that union with Christ also brings about a change of life. Tim goes on to conclude:

What both justification and sanctification have in common is that they place through faith in Christ. ‘The Bible teaches that we are sanctified by faith [here he quotes Anthony Hoekema]’. By faith we find God more desirable than anything sin offers. By faith we continue to be united to Christ, the source of our new life. By faith we embrace the new identity that is ours by grace. By faith we follow the desires of the Spirit. Sometimes the Reformed and evangelical traditions treat sanctification as a human achievement made in response to the divine act of justification. We’re justified by faith in Christ’s work, but, it’s supposed, we’re sanctified by our own efforts or even by law-keeping. Our emphasis on sanctification by faith is, I believe, more faithful both to the Reformed tradition and to the Bible. We begin the Christian life through faith and repentance, and we continue the Christian life through faith and repentance (p.64).


I like what Tim has written here. Though he might have slightly overstated the case a little with his statement ‘Sometimes the Reformed and evangelical traditions treat sanctification as a human achievement made in response to the divine act of justification’ (or perhaps it’s just a style of writing), I think he has a point there. More often than not, in pastoral situations, we often find ourselves presenting sanctification that way – sanctification as thanksgiving, duty, obligation, fear of final judgement etc. With the end result that we end up emphasising on our human response in sanctification, at the expense of God’s grace, at the expense of faith that it is God who will change us. Rather, if we start emphasising sanctification by faith (just as much as it is justification by faith), not only do we lay a much firmer foundation for our sanctification, but we anchor our human response in that much surer foundation as well. In that sense, sanctification by faith could really be said to be submitting ourselves to be ‘led by the Spirit’ – not passiveness and inactivity on our part, but rather action and response that is in step with the Spirit’s leading. And when one allows the Spirit to lead in sanctification, rather than law or any form of disciplinary regime, one always finds sanctification a much more joyous and enjoyable process. Maybe we need to start preaching more of ‘sanctified by faith’!

But Tim’s section has triggered me and led me to another conclusion – how right Calvin is when it comes to the ‘application of salvation’ in one’s life. Instead of following some strict ordo salutis (order of salvation) like regeneration -> repentance -> faith -> justification -> sanctification -> glorification; Calvin instead sees justification and sanctification as the double ‘distinguishable but inseparable’ benefits of faith-union with Christ, which the Spirit has brought us into through the Word held out to us. We can’t have one without the other; we can’t have justification without sanctification or sanctification without justification, because Christ is not divided. And if it is through faith that one is brought into this union, then it is by faith that we receive both these double benefits – it is by faith we are justified, and it is by that same faith we are sanctified. Another reason why Calvin is such a delight to read – he seems to get it right all (or at least most) of the time!

Understanding Biblical Freedom

Romans 6:1-7 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

I’ve been doing a bit of thinking of this idea of freedom. Seems like the world’s definition of freedom means being freed up to do anything we want, being freed up to live authentically and truthfully, consistent with who we are or who we really want to be. Seems like the world’s idea of freedom is tightly bound up with human autonomy. Seems like Philosopher Michel Foucault has summed it up by stating that the greatest good is an individual’s freedom to maximise pleasure.


Enter the biblical definition of freedom – where it is so radically different from the world’s definition. In fact, at first glance, it doesn’t seem like freedom at all – at least from the world’s point of view. How can freedom restrict how we live our lives? How can freedom prevent us from truly living according to our desires and pleasures? How can freedom be there when we are actually submitting ourselves to another person? The world throws these questions at us.

This is where the biblical definition of freedom needs to be held together with another key truth or doctrine – that of original sin or what John Calvin calls ‘the natural corruption of our human natures’ (Inst. 2.1.11). We need to realise that as we are, we are not really who we were created or intended to be. When the world tells us we are really free when we are free to live in accordance with our natural desires and pleasures, we need to realise that’s a lie – because those desires and pleasures are far from natural in the way God intended it, but they only natural in the sense that they have been naturally corrupted by the Fall. Think deeper – when we act freely according to our pleasures and desires, that is actually not manifesting freedom, but instead it is manifesting slavery – slavery to our corrupted natures, slavery to sin. Peter Jensen summarises the issue well


“[...] the nature of freedom [...] is not [...] the capacity for complete self determination. Human beings are never free from other powers that determine their lives. The problem of freedom is not the choice between having a master and masterless; it is the problem of which master we have. Christian freedom is liberty from the false powers of sin and death, with their ways of thought and their evil consequences, and submission to the true Lord, who made us for himself and loves us.” (Peter Jensen, The Revelation of God (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2002), 149).

In this sense, the glory and wonder of biblical freedom shines through. As the Spirit works in us to transform and conform us to the image of God’s Son; as the Spirit reworks and retransforms those desires within us, biblical freedom is being freed up to do what we want (in accordance with these new desires that the Spirit puts in us). Biblical freedom is being freed up to live authentically and truthfully with our new found natures, consistent with who God made us to be. Biblical freedom is being freed to live for God. As Tim Chester states, “Telling a slave to be free is to add insult to injury. But telling a liberated slave to be free is an invitation to enjoy new freedom and privileges.” (You Can Change (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008), 55)

So the next time you and I are tempted to sin in the name of worldly freedom, REMEMBER – don’t believe the lie! Because more than anything else, you and I who are in Christ are the ones that are really free!