Abstract

This essay seeks to give a Christian rationale for the practice of Scriptural Reasoning by exploring how it might constitute a locus for the formation of Christian identity. It argues for an understanding of the universality of the Christian biblical story, not in terms of conceptual resolution, according to which all others are inscribed into its universe, but in terms of its call to transformation and conversion—engendered, first and foremost, by Scripture's resistance to interpretation. It contends that such resistance finds indispensable embodiment in the resistance of others to inscription within its universe, and suggests that the others who present the most timely challenge to Christian thinking about universality today are Jews and Muslims