The hallmark of modern Christian fundamentalism is an unwavering adherence to the notion of Biblical inerrancy. In its most extreme forms, belief in the inerrancy of the Bible stifles inquiry, perpetuates ignorance and glorifies dogmatism. Read more …
N.T. Wright on the Bible:
There are many, many issues where I say I am committed to believing this text whenever I figure out what on earth it’s supposed to mean, which at the moment I don’t think I know.
Let’s briefly take a look at one of the knottiest textual problems in the New Testament: 2 Peter 3.10.
For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll set aside issues of canonicity (hotly-contested) and authorship (not Peter) and simply focus on the text of this single verse.
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In my post “The Bible Alone” I offered a definition of sola scriptura as “the belief that the Bible alone is the final and infallible authority in matters of Christian faith and that tradition, reason and emotions, though important, must ultimately be evaluated in light of Scripture.”
I later deleted the words “and infallible” from that definition because they seemed to add unnecessary confusion. The Reformers didn’t view Biblical inspiration (a belief held by all Christians) as necessitating a belief in the absolute inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. (more…)