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I think that a community or an individual decides whether or not a text is considered authoritative for individual life and for a community. By authoritative, I am understanding that one allows it to have some power over how one lives one’s life, and how and what one believes about God and faith. I know that some Christians regard, at least confessionally, the entire Bible as authoritative, even though they do not consider some texts or teachings as applicable to their lives. For example, the Levitical dietary or culinary laws do not permit the consumption of pork, but many Christians love and eat pork. Or, when Jesus states that if somebody steals your coat, give them your shirt (Luke 6:29); instead we press charges and build a prison nation. Or we treat thieves more harshly rather than with compassion regardless of the reason for the theft (e.g., cold, homeless, mentally ill). It is possible to regard something as sacred and yet not authoritative or only influential over certain aspects of our behaviors and at particular seasons. The Levitical dietary codes can be considered sacred as part of the biblical text that we regard as sacred, but not authoritative for the way we eat, if that is how we relate to them. Belief in God is sacred, but we continually seek to understand God—faith is seeking understanding. KIM: I agree with my colleague. Authority is not encoded in the text. Rather, it is constructed by a reader’s faithful, critical engagement with texts. Readers can choose certain texts and embrace certain interpretations, while rejecting certain texts and interpretations.