The South Carolina Study Center Alastair Roberts — Holy Scripture & the Modern Academy
Oct 2, 2025
Alastair Roberts, a public intellectual and theologian, dives into how Holy Scripture is interpreted in modern academia versus its historical church context. He explores the shift from scrolls to codices and the impact of silent reading versus oral traditions. He contrasts different reading methods, emphasizing the church's role in Scripture's meaning. Roberts connects the Reformation and modern challenges like AI to the authority of Scripture. Ultimately, he argues that the church should be the primary vessel of Scripture, embodying its transformative power.
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Form Shapes Reading
- The Bible's modern physical form shapes how we read it, privileging private, silent, discontinuous reading.
- Alastair Roberts argues this technological shape alters what we think Scripture is and how interpretation functions.
Scripture Lived In Performance
- Medieval Scripture lived in liturgy, oral performance, and communal memory rather than private books.
- Roberts shows that earlier reading practices emphasized hearing and communal enactment over private study.
From Itinerary To Map
- Chapter, verse, indices and page tools transformed texts into mapped resources for selective searching.
- This 'mapped' layout encourages atomizing passages and reading them out of their narrative context.
