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Meditations on Inerrancy (Part 1)
Last year’s annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) was focused on inerrancy, a doctrine I’ve always taken for granted. But following a fascinating panel discussion from the contributors to the new Counterpoints Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy, I picked up the book and let it sit on my shelf a few months. In that time I’ve been wrestling with my bibliology (i.e. theology of the Bible) in a disorganized and plodding fashion. How ought I to think about revelation (the doctrine, not the end-times book) and truth and interpretation and authorial intent and . . . the list goes on. With that in mind and with my project to explore…
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The Bible as Literature
I’ve been reading through the Bible cover-to-cover for what is in some ways the first time in my life. I read all the books of the Bible for seminary (even translated a few) and growing up we read through the whole Bible every morning, randomly jumping around from book to book. But I can’t recall ever starting in Genesis 1:1 and persevering through all 66 books in conventional order. It’s been absolutely FANTASTIC. I’ve been journaling through the whole process, but rarely blogging. And it’s killing me! Because this stuff is too good not to share. So my hope in coming weeks and months is to be more vocal and hopefully spark some…
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The Great Commission and Theology
Then Jesus came up and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ I’ve already argued that Christian theology must begin with Christ, and I firmly believe that. So as I continue to explore what it means to be a theologian and what it means to do theology it only seems right to turn to Christ for my…
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Forgiving the Reformation
A lot of people seem to think that seminary is where you get all the answers. They’re wrong. Well, either that or I just don’t go to one of “those” seminaries. My experience has been that instead of receiving answers to my questions, I’ve been stripped of many of the answers I thought I had and been given more questions in return. Now I don’t say this to complain; I happen to think that’s the way it should be. But that doesn’t mean every day is a party either. One of the ways I’ve been challenged in seminary was the place of tradition in my theology. Specifically it was the…
