I was wondering, assuming you are a Christian, seeing as you are a PhD student, do you still hold to biblical inerrancy? From what I understand critical scholarship kills people's faith. But could all be hearsay idk
I just finished my PhD, and I officially graduate in a week, and I am still a Christian. That said, “biblical inerrancy” is a modern phenomenon, and not a theology that Christians have held historically, really until like the 18-1900’s. It came about in large part because of the rise of fundamentalism. Anyway, the Bible does not have to be perfect and without error for it to be authoritative and inspired by God, and those who hold inerrancy often are misinformed on what the text is, and how we got the text of the Bible. So, to be direct, no, I don’t believe in “inerrancy.” Especially considering that theological concept is usually used to justify many harmful theologies, like the subjugation of African Americans, women, and more. So, inerrancy has often caused a lot of harm over the years. Critical scholarship definitely kills fundamentalist faith, but fundamentalist faith is usually not even a faith based on the Bible or the historic Christian faith. So, if a person is willing to let the Bible be the Bible, and let the God depicted in the Bible be that God, then critical scholarship should not be an issue. However, those who go into studying the Bible with assumptions and nonnegotiable conclusions (like, the Bible must be perfect, the Bible must be historically and scientifically correct, every word must be without contradiction, and so on), then they will likely have difficulties. Yet, when you let scholarship inform how you understand the Bible, I think you can gain much. And, it is also a myth that critical scholarship on the Bible is filled with of atheist and agnostics. In reality, many scholars of the Bible are believers of some kind (Christian, Jewish, something else), and often they are clergy. And, I also am in constant dialogue with scholars who are Christian, not Christian, Jewish, atheist, agnostic, and more. Anyone and everyone can read the Bible and find value in it. All that said, that doesn’t mean scholarship is going to strengthen your faith or something like that. Scholarship will help you understand the Bible, critically interrogate your theological assumptions, reformat your conclusions, refine them, and also help you form new theological conclusions. Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@biblegeekPhD Wow! this is an amazing response. I have heard people say similar things about inerrancy being a modern thing before but it has always confused me, like if you told one of the church fathers there are historical errors in the bible I feel like they would be horrified right? I struggle to understand how one can think the bible is divinely inspired if it has errors. Regardless I appreciate the response and the great video. Congrats on your PhD.
Thank you for the congrats! And, when it comes to church fathers, it really depends on who you read. Many are actually aware of the issues, some find no issue with them, many don’t care about historical things because they read allegorically, and others will just catalogue differences and seeming contradictions, others will try to correct or harmonize those differences, and more.
One thing I always like to point out is that the early church actually canonized 4 different gospels. For whatever reason, people wanted to have a depiction of Jesus that was multifaceted and even with notable differences. So, the early church was ok with difference in scripture, and we should too.
Great to see this video!
Thanks for watching!
Really interesting video! I'd always been told mark was a drama but now I get more of what that means.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Glad you enjoyed the video :)
Nice presentation, thank you for your insights.
Thank you for watching and commenting! :)
I was wondering, assuming you are a Christian, seeing as you are a PhD student, do you still hold to biblical inerrancy? From what I understand critical scholarship kills people's faith. But could all be hearsay idk
I just finished my PhD, and I officially graduate in a week, and I am still a Christian. That said, “biblical inerrancy” is a modern phenomenon, and not a theology that Christians have held historically, really until like the 18-1900’s. It came about in large part because of the rise of fundamentalism. Anyway, the Bible does not have to be perfect and without error for it to be authoritative and inspired by God, and those who hold inerrancy often are misinformed on what the text is, and how we got the text of the Bible.
So, to be direct, no, I don’t believe in “inerrancy.” Especially considering that theological concept is usually used to justify many harmful theologies, like the subjugation of African Americans, women, and more. So, inerrancy has often caused a lot of harm over the years.
Critical scholarship definitely kills fundamentalist faith, but fundamentalist faith is usually not even a faith based on the Bible or the historic Christian faith. So, if a person is willing to let the Bible be the Bible, and let the God depicted in the Bible be that God, then critical scholarship should not be an issue. However, those who go into studying the Bible with assumptions and nonnegotiable conclusions (like, the Bible must be perfect, the Bible must be historically and scientifically correct, every word must be without contradiction, and so on), then they will likely have difficulties. Yet, when you let scholarship inform how you understand the Bible, I think you can gain much. And, it is also a myth that critical scholarship on the Bible is filled with of atheist and agnostics. In reality, many scholars of the Bible are believers of some kind (Christian, Jewish, something else), and often they are clergy. And, I also am in constant dialogue with scholars who are Christian, not Christian, Jewish, atheist, agnostic, and more. Anyone and everyone can read the Bible and find value in it.
All that said, that doesn’t mean scholarship is going to strengthen your faith or something like that. Scholarship will help you understand the Bible, critically interrogate your theological assumptions, reformat your conclusions, refine them, and also help you form new theological conclusions.
Thanks for watching and commenting.
@@biblegeekPhD Wow! this is an amazing response. I have heard people say similar things about inerrancy being a modern thing before but it has always confused me, like if you told one of the church fathers there are historical errors in the bible I feel like they would be horrified right? I struggle to understand how one can think the bible is divinely inspired if it has errors. Regardless I appreciate the response and the great video. Congrats on your PhD.
Thank you for the congrats!
And, when it comes to church fathers, it really depends on who you read. Many are actually aware of the issues, some find no issue with them, many don’t care about historical things because they read allegorically, and others will just catalogue differences and seeming contradictions, others will try to correct or harmonize those differences, and more.
One thing I always like to point out is that the early church actually canonized 4 different gospels. For whatever reason, people wanted to have a depiction of Jesus that was multifaceted and even with notable differences. So, the early church was ok with difference in scripture, and we should too.