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Revelation and scripture

Revelation and scripture. Contemporary theological positions. inspiration. Extent of inspiration? Infallibility Inerrancy. Theories of inspiration. Illumination Theory Dynamic Theory Verbal Theory Dictation (or mechanical) Theory. Excursus: modernity & the Enlightenment .

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Revelation and scripture

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  1. Revelation and scripture Contemporary theological positions

  2. inspiration • Extent of inspiration? • Infallibility • Inerrancy

  3. Theories of inspiration • Illumination Theory • Dynamic Theory • Verbal Theory • Dictation (or mechanical) Theory

  4. Excursus: modernity & the Enlightenment • Largely a Western Phenomenon • Watershed • “Age of Reason” • Omnicompetence of reason • Independence of reason • Immanuel Kant, Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone

  5. Enlightenment: Effect on theology • Christianity is no longer a ‘revealed’ religion, but a ‘natural’ religion • Influence on view of Scripture: • With divine inspiration called into question, the Bible is not to be differentiated from other types of literature • Thus open to same type of analysis as other works of literature

  6. Enlightenment effects • John Locke: • “Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.” Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding • Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) • Christianity a supplement to natural religion • The fundamental ideas of Christian belief can be derived from reason without the need for supernatural revelation • religious belief is rationally acceptable only if there is good argument for it • Revelation is subject to reason; reason judges revelation

  7. Enlightenment critique of Theology • Revelation and Scripture • Skepticism/Denial of Miracles • Original Sin • Significance of Jesus Christ

  8. Enlightenment: Christian reaction • Classical Liberalism • Conservative Christianity • Mainstream Christianity

  9. Classical liberalism • Schleiermacher • Experience‘ • Event rather than facts • Immanentism • Revelation and Scripture as interpretation of religious experience • Problem with Classical Liberalism’s position

  10. fundamentalism • Reactionary • The Fundamentals: A Testimony to Truth • Inerrancy of Scripture • Deity of Christ • Substitutionary Atonement • Christ’s bodily resurrection • Christ’s literal (premillennial) second coming

  11. Fundamentalism • Propositional nature of revelation • Insistence on Inerrancy • The inerrancy ‘wars’ and Fuller Seminary • Problems

  12. Neo-Orthodoxy: barth • Focus on transcendence of God (contra Classical Liberalism’s stress on immanence) • No to general revelation • Revelation from above, not below • Word has the character of an event or encounter (see Martin Buber)

  13. Neo-orthodoxy: Barth’s three forms of the word: Revealed, written, proclaimed • Proclamation • of the Church • Witness of • Scripture Jesus Christ as the Word of God Incarnate

  14. There is no distinction of degree or value between these three forms. For to the extent that proclamation really rests on recollection of the revelation attested in the Bible and is thus obedient repetition of the biblical witness, it is no less the Word of God than the Bible. And to the extent that the Bible really attests to revelation it is no less the Word of God than revelation itself. As the Bible and proclamation become God's Word in virtue of the actuality of revelation, they are God's Word: the one Word of God within which there can be neither a more nor a less. Nor should we ever try to understand the three forms of God's Word in isolation. The first, revelation, is the form that underlies the other two (Church DogmaticsI/1, 120-121).

  15. Bible as a human witness • A mediating position between Classical Liberalism and Fundamentalism • Bible points beyond itself to God (contra Classical Liberalism in which it points back to human beings • Scripture as fallible • Only Christ is infallible • Human word is used by God

  16. Reflections on barth

  17. Contextual theologies

  18. Contextual theologies: Introduction • Two senses of “contextual • The idea that all theology is contextual • A more limited sense • Not all theology is intentionally contextual • Failure of Enlightenment to recognize its own contextual nature

  19. Global theology • Global Theology • Considerations • Concerns

  20. Emerging themes • Hermeneutics • No such thing as interest-free reading • Experience • Practical Nature of Theology • Particularity and Diversity • Inclusivity • Ideological Critique • Liberation as the Goal of Salvation

  21. An evangelical perspective

  22. An evangelical critique • Dangers of Current Approaches • Importance of Inclusivity

  23. Important affirmations of an evangelical theology of revelation and scripture • Relationship between the Bible and human writers • Relationship between the Bible and revelation • Bible is about both encounter and propositional truth • The Bible as trustworthy • Role of the Holy Spirit

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