I have been thinking about inerrancy (again) quite a bit recently. I heard informally about a prof in a religion department at a Christian college being discouraged by (some) other members of his department from continuing to teach there because his views about biblical inspiration and authority didn't line up with the Chicago Statement. This irks me. I read the Chicago Statement in Seminar in Biblical Literature with Dr. Helyer a few years ago. I remember thinking at the time that I became less inclined to agree with it as the drafters became more specific. Here are my present thoughts as I go through it again now: Read the Full Post. Comments on the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (Based on fulltext retrieved here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Chicago_Statement_on_Biblical_Inerrancy) PREFACE For, as Christians we confess “Christ is Lord”; thus we claim to submit to divine authority in the person of Jesus. If the scriptures are the Word of God—if they in some significant sense represent or mediate to us Christ who is the divine Word—then, as evangelicals are typically understood to confess, we must regard the scriptures as authoritative for our faith and practice as Christ’s disciples. To understand the basis for the evangelical claim that the Bible is authoritative for us, we must properly understand the connection between the authority of the scriptures and the authority of Christ our Lord. 2. The authority of the scriptures is contingent upon their inerrancy. The writers of the Chicago Statement imply that in order for us to “adequately confess” the authority of the Bible we must recognize its “total truth and trustworthiness”—this latter is the doctrine of inerrancy. (¶ 1) To deny biblical inerrancy, they write, is to ignore the witness of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit—thus, to fail in our loyalty to our God in at least two of God’s Persons—and to refuse to submit to the authority of God’s Word, which submission is a necessary condition of “true Christian faith”. (¶ 2) At the same time, the drafters of the Chicago Statement admit “that many who deny the inerrancy of Scripture do not display the consequences of this denial in the rest of their belief and behavior”. (¶ 4) This implies (along with the next point below) that the statement should not be understood to condemn all who deny biblical inerrancy as false Christians or as heretics. This implies that the drafters of the Chicago Statement did not wish the statement to be employed as a litmus test for orthodoxy. It is not to be regarded so highly as, for example, the Nicene Creed as a statement of orthodox faith (what has been believed “always, everywhere, and by all”). Likewise, the three-day consultation which resulted in the Chicago Statement should not be regarded so highly as an ecumenical council—i.e., on par with the Council of Chalcedon which gives us the definition of Christological orthodoxy. The drafters explicitly lay no claim to infallibility. (¶ 5) The Chicago Statement is intended to (a) affirm and clarify the doctrine of inerrancy, (b) to exhort other Christians to understand and appreciate the importance of this doctrine, and (c) to spur on “a new reformation of the Church in its life, faith, and mission.” (¶ 3) The truthfulness of God & the revelatory purpose of scripture I. “God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.” Explication Comment
(I'm working on my thesis. Really. I wrote most of this last night. I'm taking a short break to post it.)
[Autonoesis: #2 above is the one point from the Preface which I would like to debate; I’m not sure I’m convinced it is true. Clearly its plausibility will depend on what is meant by “inerrancy” and what is meant by “authority”.]
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