I’ve just added a couple of good links and some brief notes on inerrancy at my Threads blog.
Jul 182010
Mar 092010
I spend a good deal of time talking in my book (When People Speak for God) about discerning God’s voice and also about the way that people use the phrase “God told me” and its like in a manipulative way.
Today on the Spectrum blog, James Coffin has a post titled Divining the Voice in My Head, in which he suggests that some of the people in scripture might have been engaging in the same practice:
Anyway, as I read the scriptures, I wonder if maybe the people in Bible times weren’t given to the use and misuse of the “God told me” expression just as we are now. Maybe even more so. “God told” people a lot of things back then, it seems. And judging just from the context and the ethics of the advice given, I think it possible that there may have been times when God gets the credit for something that came from other sources. …
He continues by discussing the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and their interactions. It’s well worth reading.
Nov 122009
I respond to some discussion of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy on my Participatory Bible Study blog.
Oct 082009
In How has Literal Interpretation Changed, Erik at Fundamentally Changed discusses the ways in which we must reinterpret literal interpretation. I don’t generally like the very idea that interpretation should be literal, but Erik makes some excellent suggestions.
One of the questions I ask in When People Speak for God is just how Abraham knew it was God speaking when he was told to leave Ur. But an even better example, is Genesis 22. James McGrath discusses this in his post In Abraham’s Shoes Without a Bible. McGrath also brings us an excellent quote on the nature of scripture. In addition he suggests that the Bible is not even a book. (You’ll have to read the post to find out what that means.
One of my key arguments is that almost all of our discussions of the Bible relate ultimately more to authority than to any of the underlying issues such as reliability or inerrancy. Scot McKnight has two posts thus far on authority, Bible Authority Revisited 1 and 2.
Peter Enns announces an interesting event. It’s tomorrow and Saturday, but if you live around Rye, NY, it would be worth going.
Finally, three different views on inerrancy. Jeremy Pierce thinks the doctrine of inerrancy is much broader than many people believe. He’s right, though sometimes I think the concept of inerrancy has be so broadened as to lack any meaning. James McGrath, on the other hand, thinks inerrancy may be somewhere around its last gasp. As one who doesn’t like the doctrine of inerrancy, I think McGrath may be a bit optimistic.
On the other hand, John Hobbins thinks that one can breathe new life into the doctrine, and in fact compares creating a doctrine of scripture without it to creating a doctrine of salvation without the concept of grace.
Yep! I’m guessing this debate will still be quite heated for some time to come!
Jul 022009
This is not a blog!
Remarkable, isn’t it then, that I post something here and invite discussion. I am planning to use the WordPress software as a content management system, and the blog posts section to make a few rare announcements.
In the meantime, this post will provide an open discussion area for response about When People Speak for God, in case a comment doesn’t fit on any specific page.