Bible Not A Blueprint

     The Bible "no longer functions well as a blueprint for Christian living. The rules for family relationships laid down in the New Testament epistles, for example, seem as unusable for educated Western adults as the most timebound elements in the First Testament. ... Instead, the Bible needs be taught as something to have a conversation with. ... What we expect to find in the Bible is not an absolute blueprint either of belief or behavior, but an ongoing conversation that includes us as well and that can give rise to reflection on how God is dealing with us in our own times." [The Rev. Dr. L. William Countryman, Professor of New Testament at the (Episcopal) Church Divinity School of the Pacific, in the April, 1998 "Newsletter" of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars]