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A review by jaybatson
Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy by Michael F. Bird, R. Albert Mohler Jr, Peter E. Enns
informative
slow-paced
4.5
In the world in which we live in 2023 both Christians and non-Christians alike will encounter situations where a Christian will claim his/her view on a topic is formed by what the Christian Bible says. However, implicit in that statement will be a set of rules about how that individual reads & interprets what the Bible says. And not all Christians utilize the same rule set for this, which leads to divergence in how different Christians will interpret "what the Bible says."
So while Christians nearly universally agree on key things emerging from the Bible, that agreement starts to diverge as topics get further into details based on how that Christian "reads" the Ble.
For instance, one person using a "literal" inerrancy ruleset will read the Genesis creation story as representing a 7-earth-day, "young earth" history. Yet another person will read the same passage as displaying the creative act of a single God ordering the void, written in a manner that is artistically composed and theologically deep, especially against the ancient backdrop around at the time of its writing.
This book explores those different rulesets by asking five authors to describe their ruleset, support the validity of that ruleset within the bounds of Christianity, and then apply it to some traditionally "difficult" interpretational passages. After each author writes their bit, the other four offer a reaction / counterpoint to that author, challenging or agreeing or distinguishing as they see fit.
Because the Bible is central to Christian faith & witness, every professing Christian must - implicitly or explicitly - have a ruleset / method with which they are comfortable.
Importantly, for many who call themselves evangelicals, the ruleset called Biblical inerrancy...
So while Christians nearly universally agree on key things emerging from the Bible, that agreement starts to diverge as topics get further into details based on how that Christian "reads" the Ble.
For instance, one person using a "literal" inerrancy ruleset will read the Genesis creation story as representing a 7-earth-day, "young earth" history. Yet another person will read the same passage as displaying the creative act of a single God ordering the void, written in a manner that is artistically composed and theologically deep, especially against the ancient backdrop around at the time of its writing.
This book explores those different rulesets by asking five authors to describe their ruleset, support the validity of that ruleset within the bounds of Christianity, and then apply it to some traditionally "difficult" interpretational passages. After each author writes their bit, the other four offer a reaction / counterpoint to that author, challenging or agreeing or distinguishing as they see fit.
Because the Bible is central to Christian faith & witness, every professing Christian must - implicitly or explicitly - have a ruleset / method with which they are comfortable.
Importantly, for many who call themselves evangelicals, the ruleset called Biblical inerrancy...
... is crucial to securing the centrality of the Bible. Inerrancy has been commonly viewed as the doctrine upon which evangelicalism stands or falls.
The definition and use of the word "inerrancy" can, however, be just as broad as the ruleset. And inerrancy is not simply a stand-alone doctrine; it is interconnected with others, and resulting debates become heated.
This book, then, tries to reduce the heat, and open conversations among professing Christians to how to read the Bible in a way that presents Christians a path to increasing their wisdom & build their faith in and love for God.
I have several personal takeaways from this book. First, the introduction and conclusion by the editors / organizers (Merrick & Garrett) make the book worth the purchase alone. Their context & framing is as valuable as the individual insights within each contributor's section.
Second, hearing the different views on reading the Bible faithfully, but differently than how I've been told in the past to do so, has helped me see how to use different ways of reading scripture to get different perspectives that - in the end - strengthen my relationship with a loving God.
Third, it was immensely valuable to get outside my North American walls and see how the global community reads the Bible differently, and realize how much of how we North Americans are told to read scripture is formed - and unnecessarily constrained - by our unique history.
Finally, though - and maybe this is okay, yet uncomfortable - the result of reading all this is that I'm left a tiny-bit unmoored. I now have an ability to see how to read scripture differently than I did before, but exactly what (which) framework / ruleset I feel is "the one" eludes me. I'm a bit left adrift. However, I at least have the tools now that I can use to anchor myself when I need to.
This isn't a book for the faint of heart, or weak-of-faith. It is, however, a book that can help Christians who struggle with being told "the Bible says ...." and feeling like they're not feeling comfortable that they draw the same conclusions as the one saying so.