1:2 B. The Paralyzing Fear of Particularity

Does Particular Readings Equate with Relativism?
If we must do our readings in local Christian communions, does this not certainly lead to the end that all interpretations will be so determined by their context so as to make any "truth" relative to the context? This is the central question (41) addressed here and McClendon goes on to discuss historical options to the question, "what community is Scripture thus committed?"
1. The catholic option maintains that truth (authentic Christianity) is defined "institutionally."
2. The protestant option maintains that truth is found in "right teaching."
3. The current approach, a "communitarian" option maintains that the "essence of Christianity" is not found in a hierarchical body or "single theological tradition" but in the "faithful church," a community of practice whose text is the Christian Scriptures.

A Good Contest
Still this seems to reek of radical relativism, however, McClendon suggests that it is not only not a problem that the essence of Christianity is a hotly debated concept, but that such a contest is a good thing in that it produces growth. In the debates, we hear what issues are at stake and are in a position to realize "the goal represented in the concept." Admittedly this means we must be able and willing to listen to other's views of the faith so as to be open for change myself.

But how can anyone be happy knowing their position is particular and context dependent?
Option 1: it doesn't matter which side you are on within the tradition.
McClendon on Option 1: rejected because "true structure... and pure teaching... are alike inseperable elements of the constitutive practices of Christian community." (43)

Option 2: Pattern and structure of church life do matter, but that such patterns and structures may well change in the future by other generations as they engage in the practices of the faith.

Church, Bible, and the Baptist Vision
The church's self-understanding is strongly linked to its understanding of the Bible. There is a high degree of unity among Xtn traditions that the Spirit continues today in the church, thus the "Bible and the church compose one story, one realilty." (44) However, upon applying the point of Scripture to this day, that unity disappears among these various traditions.

McClendon proposes that the Baptist vision includes:
1. an acceptance that the plain sense of Scripture is its "dominant" sense and that there is a continuity between the story it tells and the church's story.
2. an acknowledgment that finding the point of the story leads to its application, and
3. that the past, present, and future are linked "by a 'this is that' and 'then is now' vision.

This baptist vision may seem sectarian, but unity comes via use of this method. To quote McClendon:

We may already see that this reading strategy incurs no obligation to reject everything others, employing other reading strategies, discover or believe. This is not a sectarian way, declaring all others wrong in order to be alone right. IT is rather an ecumenical way, confessing the fullness of its style of Christian existence and offering it to all in the hope that in that the conversation that ensues it will be adopted by all." (46) Doctrine

Notice: McClendon is suggesting a way forward for the church. He's not defining here the content of "what is to be believed," but a method of going about church teaching, and it largely relies on Hans Frei's work in "The Ecclipse of the Biblical Narrative.