A few brief words here about what I think part of the
difficulty is with "inerrancy."
First, I agree with the statement of faith that ASA
has in regard to scripture.
Second, this does not mean that I find inerrancy at
all a comforting intellectual or faith concept for
several reasons:
1. Inerrancy of the scriptures, improperly placed as
a doctrine, may become idolatry toward the scriptures
which violates our calling as Christians not to engage
in idolatry.
2. While I can believe theoretically in inerrancy of
the scriptures, I cannot believe that any particular
person's interpretation of those scriptures is
inerrant. This makes an absolute inerrancy of
scripture essentially a logical impossibility. I can
go through a book length set of reasons why there are
all sorts of potential pitfalls in interpretation of
an otherwise inerrant scripture, but I don't think I
would change anyone's mind about this.
Third, as a result of the difficulty of assuring that
our interpretation is inerrant (which I dont think we
can do), my personal focus is on humility toward our
theological interpretations of scripture. We may have
very good reasons to believe that there are better
interpretations of scriptures than others (something
that I do believe), but we should be humble that our
understanding of otherwise inerrant scriptures is
going to be incomplete.
Interestingly, I find, from a Calvinist perspective,
that the doctrine of total depravity and the fallen
nature of human intellect SHOULD make one humble about
the interpretation of scripture even while scripture
is upheld as inerrant as a doctrinal matter.
Thus, I do find inerrancy a slippery concept (even
though that quote is mine) even when I believe in the
inerrancy of scripture, because of the limits (and the
fallen nature) of human intellect and ability to
interpret otherwise inerrant scripture.
So, I see a trust in the inerrancy of scripture can be
theoretical, but never really actual (in that we can't
be certain we understand the inerrant scripture the
way it is supposed to be understood). Thus, we must
be humble about all things, including our
interpretations of scripture, inerrant as the
scripture itself may be.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 15 2002 - 20:09:09 EDT