THE SCRIPTURE PRINCIPLE

I had a book review due tonight for one of my classes. The book was excellent and tackles a crucial topic for Christians - the authority of Scripture and what we mean by calling it "inerrant" - so I thought I would post it here in its entirety:

Review of The Scripture Principle: Reclaiming the Full Authority of the Bible by Clark Pinnock and Barry Callen, Third Edition 

Introduction: Drawing the Lines

Although they are never emblazoned across a church’s entryway, certain presuppositions regarding Scripture shape each pastor’s study and preaching, and thus also the life of the congregation. Pastors universally refer to the Bible as “God’s word”, but what they mean by that phrase varies widely. In looking beneath pastors’ personal opinions about the reliability of Scripture and the role it plays in faith – opinions shaped by denominations, mentors, historical figures, and seminaries – is it possible to discern a bedrock principle which ought to shape the Bible’s use in the life of believers collectively, as the church, and individually? Clark Pinnock and Barry Callen propose such bedrock in The Scripture Principle: Reclaiming the Full Authority of the Bible. The authors make a convincing case for a middle path between the inflexibility of fundamentalism and the free-for-all of progressivism. The authors argue for the need to understand and appreciate the interplay of the human and divine in both the formation and the interpretation of the Bible.

God’s Special Revelation

In offering their corrective to both the left and right sides of the theological spectrum, the Pinnock and Callen first seek to establish the validity of their understanding of the “Scripture Principle”: the Bible as God’s special revelation, meant for the transformation of believers. In giving the Bible, God has documented important aspects of His nature and His intentions toward humanity. The authors consider the Scriptures to be like a telescope, an instrument whereby humans can clearly see something otherwise unknowable. The authors warn that it would be an unwise scientist who lets interest in the functioning and construction of the telescope distract from the wonder of the object toward which the telescope is pointing.

The Old Testament is internally consistent in seeing itself as the instrument of God’s special revelation. The fact that its witness began as an oral tradition long before being written down is merely one facet of the interplay between the divine and human through which God delivered His inspired word. The New Testament also witnesses to the reliability of the Old, even as it (unsurprisingly) reinterprets its message in light of the arrival of the Messiah. Likewise, the New Testament writers give evidence that they considered the New Covenant writings to be authoritative and inspired even as they were yet in the process of being gathered and canonized. The authors maintain that though the Bible sees itself as inspired, it does not clearly nor explicitly claim strict inerrancy for itself.

The exact method of this inspiration is never outlined clearly within the pages of the Bible. What is clear is that the message is from God and for humanity. Biblical criticism is valid and useful in so far as it seeks to foster that message rather than undermine it. Criticism becomes counterproductive when it focuses all attention on the search for error and contradiction. On the other side, blind loyalty to perfect inerrancy does harm to believers’ credibility in the face of legitimate textual difficulties. Thoughtful readers of the Scriptures must acknowledge the power of cultural forces to shape communication of any sort. Thoughtful reading, then, must account for the fact that inspiration occurred in the context of a particular time and place.

Pinnock and Callen offer an interesting reframing of the inerrancy question by comparing Scripture’s containment of divine wisdom in human words to the incarnation of Jesus Christ Himself. If believers can confess the mystery of Jesus being fully human and fully God, in some ways limited and yet without sin, surely Scripture can likewise be conceived of as fully inspired and trustworthy yet having a fully human dimension. A hardcore insistence on strict inerrancy cannot accommodate the trickiness of those human dimensions of Scripture even as basic as translation, the strengths and challenges of the various genres found within the Bible, or the extent to which culture colors communication.

As a result, the authors do not see biblical criticism as an enemy to be feared or shunned, but as an ally in getting the most out of biblical studies. Criticism then, whether form, redaction, textual, source, or historical, is a positive force to be embraced - with one fundamental caveat: the critic always must remember that the text is first criticizing the reader. Negative criticism of the sort that assumes the text is little more than human strivings after God is to be avoided and called out. There is no justification for the prejudice against the supernatural which is common in much progressive criticism.

Although most of their book concerns issues surrounding God’s giving of Scripture to the world, Pinnock and Callen conclude The Scripture Principle with an examination of the other side of Scripture’s inspiration, the Spirit’s role in humanity’s receiving of the message. Again, the authors see both the left and the right falling short in appreciating the Holy Spirit’s role in interpretation. The right tends to devalue the subjective experience and the left the objective truth. Both are necessary, however, for the Scriptures to bring transformation. If readers on either side hope to find God’s word to be living and active, they need to consciously set aside presuppositions to the best of their ability.

Conclusion: The Middle Way

Pinnock and Callen provide a valuable service in carefully navigating turbulent waters with their proposed correctives to inadequate or harmful conceptions about the reliability of the Bible. The Scripture Principle is written in such a way so as not to provide too much comfort nor provoke too much ire with either the theologically left or right. In addressing this complicated topic, the authors’ treatment is thoughtful, balanced, and comprehensive. Pinnock’s update in the appendix is particularly encouraging as he relates how faith experiences outside the world of the academy have caused him to double down on some key underlying themes of the book: the transformative mission of God’s word and the reader’s need to apply both heart and mind in order to secure that transformation. Those are Scripture Principles worth spreading.