First netfriend wrote: I believe that Scripture, as opposed to Augustine's or anyone else's reflections on God, is normative and supremely authoritative even though not exhaustive about God.

A second responded:

I believe that too, but I think that it is a theoretical belief or a creedal affirmation which doesn't ultimately make much difference to how we discern the leading of God. It would if we could have unmediated or uninterpretted access to what Scripture says, but we don't and can't. Even putting aside the questions of which ancient manuscripts and which contemporary translations might bring us closest to the unavailable original texts, the Bible says nothing to us that doesn't first pass through the filters of our own understandings of what the words mean and our own beliefs and assumptions about the nature of God, scripture and the world. Nobody has access to a pure and infallible version of what the biblical texts meant in their original context or what they mean in today's contexts. We only have access to the understanding that forms in our own mind when we hear the words. Disciplined study and prayer can improve the likelihood of a more adequate understanding forming in our minds when we read the words, but that only goes to prove the point that there is no such thing as a pure uninterpretted reading. We all know that two people can read the same passage (or the same newspaper article) and form two different conclusions of what it is saying. This is not because one has better access to the "pure message" of the text than the other. They both only have access to the message that forms in their mind when they read the text. Now, just as when reading the newspaper or listening to someone talk, one person's understanding may be closer to the intent of the communicator than the other, but that won't be because they had access to an uninterpretted version of what was said. It is more likely to be either because their own language is closer to that of the communicator, or because they have a better personal relationship with the communicator.

At that point, we are back to having to say that scripture is one of the means through which we sacramentally encounter the living God. Is this collection of texts which God uses to make himself known to us infallible? Perhaps. But even if it is, when can I know for absolute certain that I have understood it perfectly? Never! And that is precisely why Christian discipleship requires faith. Faith is only ever required in the absence of certainty. Faith is what enables us to commit ourselves to a pattern of life and practice about which absolute proven certainty is not possible.

I believe that the celebration of the Lord's Table is normative and supremely authoritative too, but do I or anyone else have access to a perfect, pure and uninterpretted version of what God is communicating in it? Of course not. The Bible is no different. Both are perfect gifts from our perfect God, and in them God lives and breathes and draws us into a sacramental encounter with his fierce and tender presence. But we do not have access to the pure truth of either, any more than I would have access to the pure truth of my wife by collecting in writing everything she had ever written or said. I would only ever have access to "my understanding" of what she was on about, and while a lifetime of intimacy will improve my strike rate in understanding what she means, I will still be getting it wrong sometimes, just as I and all the rest of us will be in our endeavours to understand what God is trying to communicate to us through the Bible and the sacraments and our prayer and our experience of the world.

The first netfriend again:

It is the totally reliable "map" that enables people to encounter the same divine reality others have encountered and experienced.

The second again:

I'm not so sure about that metaphor. I think if God had intended to give us a reliable map, he would have been quite capable of getting it published in the form of a reliable map, or at least in the form of a systematic collection of doctrines and instructions. Instead, God has given it to us in the form of stories and prophetic messages to the particular communities of faith who have lived those stories. Given to us in this form, it functions to draw us into the story - into the story of God and God's gracious relationship with the world. Rather than tell us exactly where we are and how to get to where we should be, it tells us a grand story and invites us to entrust ourselves to the author of that story, to be captured up into that still unfolding story, and to thus be blown who knows where. That's why it is so much more exciting and life-changing to read than the Melways (street directory)! But it is not the primary self-revelation of God; that title belongs to Jesus the Christ, the Word made flesh. The Bible is the primary written witness to that self-revelation, and as such is indispensable to our quest to know and faithfully follow the God who is made known in Christ. But it is still just a witness, whose message we will sometimes reasonably comprehend and sometimes completely misunderstand. It is the living God, not the Bible, who will lead us into all truth and righteousness; the Bible is just one of the precious gifts he uses to do it.