I’m in the middle of reading Peter Rollins‘ excellent book How (Not) to Speak of God. Pete is maddeningly good at this stuff (one can almost hear his soft, intense Belfast voice reading the text) and his thoughts on Scripture voice with eloquence so many of my instincts. Continue reading
The more I read Jonah, the less like a historical account it seemed. The tie-in between ‘Jonah son of Amittai’ of this book and the individual in 2 Kings 14:25 was not necessarily conclusive; the height of Nineveh’s power came a century or so after the events of 2 Kings 14, and the book could easily have used Jonah pseudonymously. Moreover, the events were so melodramatic – the lament from inside the fish, the repentance of an entire capital city overnight (even the animals wore sackcloth!) and the miracle of the rising and dying plant – that they seemed almost theatrical. Maybe the Book of Jonah is, in fact, a play; a sharply satirical parable belonging more to Wisdom literature than Prophetic. Continue reading
As I thought about the issue of genre, and felt more free to read the Bible in critical new ways, familiar events and stories began to emerge in unexpectedly fascinating form. One of the most striking was the children’s classic story of Jonah – the recalcitrant prophet and the huge whale. Continue reading
My favourite film in my teens, and still the film I’ve seen more than any other, is The Three Amigos, a very silly slapstick western in which three movie stars are mistakenly hired to defend a Mexican village against the local thug. Much hilarity ensues, as you’d imagine given the talent involved. The theme is repeated in Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek spoof in which, once again, actors are mistaken for heroes. Continue reading
The first of the objections to inerrancy in my previous post was the subjectivism that comes with dethroning biblical authority. The charge I had always used to myself (and, maybe, to others) was that this would result in a gradual drift away from objectivity and an increasing marginalisation of core evangelical doctrine. Crucially, it would undermine the Bible’s ability to judge and challenge one’s views and practices. Continue reading
The last post posed the question: in the face of mounting pressure from internal and external ‘errors’, why do evangelicals (and why did I) cling so tightly to the notion that the Bible must be inerrant and authoritative?
It occurs to me that a random visitor to this blog (okay, I’m assuming a lot here!) who read the last couple of posts might be thinking, ‘If you’re so keen to challenge biblical inerrancy, why not simply find some alleged errors and point to these instead of this rather indirect critique’. Continue reading
Another argument for the authority of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, is that Jesus and Paul both quote from it extensively and attribute authority to it. For example, in Matthew 22:29 Jesus retorts to his opponents that ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.’ What to make of this argument? Continue reading
My recent journey started here. I had grown up with the Bible, had read it, sung it, taught it and believed it my whole life. I’d had a one-year seminary course in it. I never seriously thought I could ever read it any differently. Continue reading
Eventful Journey 