Re: [asa] a theological exercise

All -

I'm glad my suggested "exercise" has provoked some good discussion. Of course I didn't - & don't - have any intention of "grading" responses, but it may be helpful to comment on three important issues that have been raised.

1) Implicit in the phrase in my original post about using "your theology" was the fact that we all have different ways of thinking about the Christian faith that we hold, & therefore different theologies. The fact not only that there is a diversity of theologies within the Christian tradition but that some diversity is scripturally warrented is shown by that fact that one finds a spectrum of theological positions within the Bible itself: E.g., The ways in which the Gospel of Matthew speaks of law, sin, salvation &c is not identical with the Letter to the Romans speaks of those matters. The NT of course speaks of unity in the faith (e.g., Eph.4:5), but this can be identified as unity in theology only if "the faith" is identified with a set of doctrinal propositions - which some Christians have indeed tried to do. (I know whereof I speak, coming from a Missouri Synod background!) This being the case, changing one's theology because of new scientific discoveries does not necessarily mean a change in one's basic faith commitment.

2) The authority of scripture is an important component of any theology that purports to be an understanding of the historic Christian faith. This is not true just for Evangelicals but for all reasonably traditional Orthodox, Roman and Protestant Christians. In fact, it's even true for some outside that group - e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses. But the very fact that scripture is held to be authoritative by people with quite different - & in some cases conflicting - views points up the need for some theological principle of biblical interpretation if one's theology is to say anything definite. Simply saying "the Bible is true" or even "inerrant," that it must be interpreted in its original sense, is insufficient. How is the Bible to be read? What is the interpretive center of scripture?

3) The extent to which sources of knowledge external to scripture can be used in the interpretation of scripture is an important issue. It is obviously a theological issue, but it is perhaps not always appreciated that it depends on one's theological; evaluation of the sources in question. In particular questions about the extent to which scientific knowledge of the world can be used require some theological understanding of the world (e.g., whether its "goodness" includes intelligibility) and of the scientific means (observation and reason) used.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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Received on Wed Jun 4 20:13:36 2008