In these wide-ranging studies, Stephen Barton shows that Christian theology and the Christian scriptures have a vital contribution to make to contemporary wisdom about our common life. The subjects he addresses are relevant to the concerns of many people today. What he has to say about the family, sexuality, community and biblical interpretation is both informative and creative. Running through the book is the issue of the appropriate use of the Bible: how the sacred text may speak in ways that are life-giving. Stephen Barton claims that questions about the interpretation of the Bible have to be set in the larger context of what it means to be the church. A central argument is that the Bible is the kind of text the truth of whose witness is discovered above all in the lives of individuals and communities seeking to share by grace in the life of the Trinity.