From monarch to bishop: Covenant, Torah, and community formation in the Old Testament and the Anglican Communion

17. The Episcopal Church acknowledges and seeks to receive the gifts of the Lutheran tradition which has consistently emphasized the primacy of the Word. The Episcopal Church therefore endorses the Lutheran affirmation that the historic catholic episcopate under the Word of God must always serve the gospel, and that the ultimate authority under which bishops preach and teach is the gospel itself (see Augsburg Confession 28. 21-23).13

For Christians, the content of the "scroll of the Torah," the heart of the teaching affirmed by King Josiah in his reforms, is refracted through the lens of the gospel's new covenant, that is, the meaning of the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel "covenant" thus has an anteriority and a priority that transcends any other covenant.

An ancillary point arises from this analogy. No doubt those of a more evangelical bent and advocates of such contemporary trends in the church as the "Total Ministry" movement who have read to this point are already nervous about my analogy between monarch and bishop. Where is the role of the laity, of "all the baptized" in this model? I should point out that this analogy nowhere argues for unlimited power to be placed in the kings, read bishop's, hands. In both accounts of Josiah's reform, an institutional check on kingly power is made by a lay woman who serves as court prophet!14 Huldah serves as the authenticator of the Sinai covenant traditions represented by the scroll of the Torah. Moreover, the Sinai covenant tradition views the whole of Israel as elected and party to the covenant. Each member of Israel, Josiah the Davidic king included, is called to observe the Torah. We can see this on analogy with the requirements of the baptismal covenant. Baptism serves as a sign of the new covenant in which all are called to a Christian vocation of service in the world, the bishop chief among them, and with unique responsibilities. Thus, the bishop functions neither as an independent nor as a sole voice of authority, but as a final one, in matters involving doctrine. The bishop is not to serve in a prophetic role. The monarch must regularly consult prophets and recognize their authority, as well as attend to the more difficult task of discerning true prophets from false ones. The gospel imperative as recognized by modern-day prophets functions both as the wellspring on the basis of which the bishop must act and serves as the ultimate check on her or his office. Modern-day prophets also are answerable to Christ as revealed in Scripture and the ongoing life of the church, who is not only the prophet of prophets, but king of kings, and chief high priest. Although God can and will call whom God wishes to be a prophet, if we understand Scripture to provide the pattern, it will be the rare bishop indeed who will fill such a role, because prophecy lies outside the parameters of the bishops office.

(2) The bishops role as guardian of the faith implies maintaining stability and unity, but these mandates do not necessarily imply preserving stasis. Indeed, Josiah's precedent points to reform and change as a result of the discovery of the scroll, which in turn points to an alternate view of the divine-human relationship from the royal theology of Zion. The bishop's role as guardian of the faith does mandate continuing study of Scripture, theology, and tradition, as well as being attuned to the contemporary culture in which teaching from the classical sources must be in conversation. In the Chronicler's account of the reform and retrieval of Torah, a new method for preparing and preserving the Passover lamb is devised as a result of being faithful to earlier, diverse traditions. Yet this change comes as a result of a faithful response to earlier Scripture. As the role of the king in Deuteronomy 17 (quoted above) suggests, the bishop should always be a student of Scripture, theology and church history, engaging the tradition in ways that may enable new insights for the contemporary situation.