Stephen J. Wellum on Theological Interpretation of Scripture

Stephen J. Wellum’s editorial in the most recent issue of SBJT contains some of the most insightful statements I’ve read on Theological Interpretation of Scripture:

“First, what is it and why has it arisen? . . . . Probably at this point, it is best to characterize TIS [Theological Interpretation of Scripture] as a broad and diverse movement comprised of biblical scholars and theologians who are mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, and evangelicals and who are attempting to recover the authority of the Bible and to return it to the church. Obviously this raises the question as to what TIS is recovering the Bible from and the answer to this question helps us describe why it has arisen. In a nutshell, TIS is attempting to recover the authority of the Bible for the church from the debilitating effects of the ‘assured results of biblical scholarship’ identified with the Enlightenment and modern eras which sought to squeeze the Bible within the alien world-view assumptions of methodological naturalism (e.g., Deism, naturalism, process theism) associated with the historical-critical method. That is why, a majority of those in the TIS movement arise out of non-evangelical circles since, like Karl Barth before them (who is often viewed as the ‘founder’ of the movement), they are attempting to recover the Bible’s voice by rejecting the liberalism they were taught and raised in.”

Note: If you’re a student at SBTS, the journal will not be available for you to pick up until early September (sorry . . . but please don’t pester the nice man who works in the Journal office).

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