STUDIES ON THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX
RELATIONSHIPS SINCE 2003
By Martin Davie
Gilead Books. 370 pages. £7.95
ISBN 978 0 992 671 389
In 2003, a Church of England report stated that the traditional understanding of the Bible’s teaching on same-sex relationships continues to be the most convincing one. However, in 2013, the Pilling report expressed greater hesitation in the face of what it called ‘conflicting scholarship’.
This thorough summary of studies on the Bible and same-sex relationships produced since 2003 assesses the validity of that change in judgment between 2003 and 2013.
This book has an importance that extends far beyond those in the CofE. The nature of the revisionist assault on the traditional understanding of the Bible’s teaching needs to be grasped by all who are concerned that the Bible’s authority in church life is not allowed to become a dead letter. The material Davie surveys is sufficiently comprehensive to ensure that his assessment will be valuable for many years to come.
In Part 1 the author sets out the revisionist approach to the nature of the Bible, key Bible passages, Jesus’s own teaching and practice, and purported examples of same-sex relationships in Scripture. The extensive quotes allow the authors to speak for themselves. In Part 2 there is a mirror image of this material in which those who have written in this area from the traditional point of view are surveyed. Finally, in Part 3 there is a brief but punchy evaluation (pp.314-346). Davie concludes that those who take the traditionalist view are ‘still entitled to say that a proper, detailed and informed study of the biblical material supports the traditional view of the Church of England’ (p.346). In other words he finds no justification for the shift in judgment expressed in the Pilling report.
All in all, this is a weighty study which will equip anybody who is serious about engaging with biblical teaching and understanding its relevance for the life and witness of God’s people today. It is available from Amazon and has a reduced price for the Kindle version.
