Proclaimer Blog
Are we fighting the right battle on Scripture
This quote is taken from a 2008 book I'm just getting round to: Reforming or Conforming? Post Conservative Evangelicals and the Emergent Church edited by Gary Johnson and Ronald Gleason (interesting footnote, I notice that Smart Mart(in) Downes, one of Wales' leading lights has contributed a chapter entitled The Emerging Church Conversation and the Cultural Captivity of the Gospel; however, for some strange reason he's been left off the list of contributors! – do pray for Martin at the moment; read his blog to see why he and his family, particularly Kezia, need our upholding). The particular quote comes from Paul Wells who lectures at Aix-en-Provence (though he's really a scouser…).
And where does the real problem lie, in so far as the doctrine of Scripture is concerned for evangelicals? Not primarily in its authority and inspiration, nor in its divine nature, nor even in its inerrancy….but in its humanity. If the major evangelical publications over the last fifty years were reviewed, relatively little would be found about the specific nature of the humanity of Scripture. However, it was precisely on this point that modernist critique focused, in the belief that if the humanity of the text is taken seriously, then the nature of the divine revelatory action involved will require some reformulation. Liberals thought that because of the humanity of Scripture, the understanding of divine revelation needed revamping, whereas evangelicals seemed to suppose that if the divinity of Scripture were squared away in the context of inspiration, with inerrancy following close behind, the questions about the human nature of Scripture would somehow go away.