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The Scripture Principle
This book is a fresh examination of the authority and reliability of the Bible for the thoughtful Christian believer today. We live in a world of emerging ideas stemming largely from a reassessment of the critical thinking of the Enlightenment and the modern, secular age. The modern world created "a crisis of the Scripture principle" by substituting critical reason as the principle for knowing final truth. The postmodern world looks at things quite differently, focusing on what it means to live in a world where there seems to be no rational certainties, no philosophical proofs, and no final authorities. In the face of these modern and postmodern challenges, these Evangelical authors offer a fresh, informed, and balanced view of the role of the Scriptures in knowing God.
- GenresTheologyBiblical Studies
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
58 people want to read
About the author
Clark H. Pinnock
49 books20 followersClark H. Pinnock (d. 2010) was professor emeritus of systematic theology at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario. Widely regarded as one of evangelicalism's most stimulating theologians, he produced several widely discussed books, including The Wideness of God's Mercy and (with four other scholars) The Openness of God.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 7, 2009
"It is not just that the term inerrancy is not used in the Bible. That would not settle anything. The point to remember is that the category of inerrancy as used today is quite a technical one and difficult to define exactly. It is postulated of the original texts of Scripture not now extant; it is held not to apply to round numbers, grammatical structures, incidental details in texts; it is held to be unfalsifiable except by some indisputable argument. Once we recall how complex a hypothesis inerrancy is, it is obvious that the Bible teaches no such thing explicitly. What it claims, as we have seen, is divine inspiration and a general reliability, with a distinct concentration upon the covenantal revelation of God. . . . Why, then do scholars insist that the Bible does claim total inerrancy? I can only answer for myself, as one who argued in this way a few years ago. I claimed the Bible taught total inerrancy because I hoped that it did–I wanted it to. How would it be possible to maintain a firm stand against religious liberalism unless one held firmly to total inerrancy?" (page 58)
September 4, 2024
PINNOCK'S EXPLANATION OF HIS CHANGE OF POSITION ON THE BIBLE
Clark H. Pinnock (1937--2010) was Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College, and author of books such as 'Reason Enough: A Case for the Christian Faith,' 'Set forth your case: Studies in Christian apologetics,' 'A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality Of Jesus Christ In A World Of Religions,' 'The Openness of God,' 'Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God's Openness,' 'The Grace of God and the Will of Man,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1984 book, "I have three aims in mind in writing this book. The primary aim is to present an understanding of the Scripture principle and the authority of the Bible in a positive, systematic, and relevant way... My second aim in the book is to speak out... in defense of the full authority and trustworthiness of the Bible... [as] the reliable deposit and canon of normative instruction... My third aim is to assist classical Christians who hold to the full authority of the Bible to move ahead in the understanding of their conviction... I will admit that I have not found this an easy book to write... My aim has not been so much to uncover new data as to produce a better understanding of what we know already."
He suggests, "What the coming of the Spirit does mean for our doctrine of revelation is that the norms given in the classical disclosure ... can be dynamically interpreted and freshly applied in ever-changing situations. It means that revelation is not locked in the past as a collection of inflexible rules but is a disclosure that comes alive today... It means that the Bible, for example, cannot be seen as simply a set of ancient propositions, but as a means of grace by which God is able to speak to us in new ways." (Pg. 13) He adds, "the Bible is our religious classic. It is preposterous to suppose that at this late date Christianity will be anything other than a scriptural religion." (Pg. 19) Later, he adds, "Revelation has not ceased. A phase of it has ceased, the phase that provided the gospel and its scriptural witness, but not revelation in every sense." (Pg. 163)
More controversially, he argues, "Because Jesus cites a psalm of David or a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah, it does not follow that he is placing his divine authority on the line for the precise literary authorship of those texts... The literary composition of Isaiah is an issue to be settled by Old Testament scholars weighing the evidence, not by spurious appeal to Jesus." (Pg. 39) He adds, "Even more crucial for the church is the question whether the decision... to make the set of writings we call the New Testament part of the Scripture principle was sound and appropriate... We often mask this issue by assuming that a claim like 2 Timothy 3:16 applies to the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, when, of course, it does not." (Pg. 45)
He admits, "Does the New Testament, did Jesus, teach the perfect errorlessness of the Scriptures? No, not in plain terms... Why, then, do scholars insist that the Bible does claim total inerrancy? I can only answer for myself, as one who argued in this way a few years ago. I claimed that the Bible taught total inerrancy because I hoped that it did---I wanted it to. How would it be possible to maintain a firm stand against religious liberalism unless one held firmly to total inerrancy?... Looking at the actual biblical evidence today, I have to conclude the case for total inerrancy just isn't there... In the last analysis, the inerrancy theory is a logical deduction not well supported exegetically." (Pg. 58)
He provides a list of various problems in the Bible: "At the very beginning, we are confronted with a six-day creation and begin to wonder how the world can have been created in so short a time... Then there is the long life span of the antediluvian patriarchs, who lived an average of 857 years... The Great Flood of Genesis is presented as if it engulfed the whole world in water, but we have to wonder if the purpose of that description was to have us seriously investigate the archaeological evidence for such a remarkable catastrophe... As is well known, the numbers in the versions of the census in Numbers are both confused and abnormally large...
"My point is not that there are no solutions to these difficulties... but simply that the overall impression is of a style of historical narration different from ours and not to be twisted against its will into conformity with ours... The same phenomena are found in the New Testament... Many questions occur to us. How often did Jesus go up to Jerusalem? On what day was he put to death?... In cases such as these, rather than force the material into an unnatural harmony, we ought simply to admit that these texts were not written to satisfy modern historians ... They were written to lead people to know and love God and on historiographical principles native to the ancient world." (Pg. 119-121)
Christians who favored Pinnock's 'A defense of Biblical Infallibility' may consider this book a "betrayal"; but everyone should consider the evidence and arguments he adduces for his change of perspective.
Clark H. Pinnock (1937--2010) was Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College, and author of books such as 'Reason Enough: A Case for the Christian Faith,' 'Set forth your case: Studies in Christian apologetics,' 'A Wideness in God's Mercy: The Finality Of Jesus Christ In A World Of Religions,' 'The Openness of God,' 'Most Moved Mover: A Theology of God's Openness,' 'The Grace of God and the Will of Man,' etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1984 book, "I have three aims in mind in writing this book. The primary aim is to present an understanding of the Scripture principle and the authority of the Bible in a positive, systematic, and relevant way... My second aim in the book is to speak out... in defense of the full authority and trustworthiness of the Bible... [as] the reliable deposit and canon of normative instruction... My third aim is to assist classical Christians who hold to the full authority of the Bible to move ahead in the understanding of their conviction... I will admit that I have not found this an easy book to write... My aim has not been so much to uncover new data as to produce a better understanding of what we know already."
He suggests, "What the coming of the Spirit does mean for our doctrine of revelation is that the norms given in the classical disclosure ... can be dynamically interpreted and freshly applied in ever-changing situations. It means that revelation is not locked in the past as a collection of inflexible rules but is a disclosure that comes alive today... It means that the Bible, for example, cannot be seen as simply a set of ancient propositions, but as a means of grace by which God is able to speak to us in new ways." (Pg. 13) He adds, "the Bible is our religious classic. It is preposterous to suppose that at this late date Christianity will be anything other than a scriptural religion." (Pg. 19) Later, he adds, "Revelation has not ceased. A phase of it has ceased, the phase that provided the gospel and its scriptural witness, but not revelation in every sense." (Pg. 163)
More controversially, he argues, "Because Jesus cites a psalm of David or a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah, it does not follow that he is placing his divine authority on the line for the precise literary authorship of those texts... The literary composition of Isaiah is an issue to be settled by Old Testament scholars weighing the evidence, not by spurious appeal to Jesus." (Pg. 39) He adds, "Even more crucial for the church is the question whether the decision... to make the set of writings we call the New Testament part of the Scripture principle was sound and appropriate... We often mask this issue by assuming that a claim like 2 Timothy 3:16 applies to the New Testament as well as the Old Testament, when, of course, it does not." (Pg. 45)
He admits, "Does the New Testament, did Jesus, teach the perfect errorlessness of the Scriptures? No, not in plain terms... Why, then, do scholars insist that the Bible does claim total inerrancy? I can only answer for myself, as one who argued in this way a few years ago. I claimed that the Bible taught total inerrancy because I hoped that it did---I wanted it to. How would it be possible to maintain a firm stand against religious liberalism unless one held firmly to total inerrancy?... Looking at the actual biblical evidence today, I have to conclude the case for total inerrancy just isn't there... In the last analysis, the inerrancy theory is a logical deduction not well supported exegetically." (Pg. 58)
He provides a list of various problems in the Bible: "At the very beginning, we are confronted with a six-day creation and begin to wonder how the world can have been created in so short a time... Then there is the long life span of the antediluvian patriarchs, who lived an average of 857 years... The Great Flood of Genesis is presented as if it engulfed the whole world in water, but we have to wonder if the purpose of that description was to have us seriously investigate the archaeological evidence for such a remarkable catastrophe... As is well known, the numbers in the versions of the census in Numbers are both confused and abnormally large...
"My point is not that there are no solutions to these difficulties... but simply that the overall impression is of a style of historical narration different from ours and not to be twisted against its will into conformity with ours... The same phenomena are found in the New Testament... Many questions occur to us. How often did Jesus go up to Jerusalem? On what day was he put to death?... In cases such as these, rather than force the material into an unnatural harmony, we ought simply to admit that these texts were not written to satisfy modern historians ... They were written to lead people to know and love God and on historiographical principles native to the ancient world." (Pg. 119-121)
Christians who favored Pinnock's 'A defense of Biblical Infallibility' may consider this book a "betrayal"; but everyone should consider the evidence and arguments he adduces for his change of perspective.
April 24, 2021
The Scripture Principle by Clark J. Pinnock and Barry L. Callen, argues that the “Scripture Principle” summarized as “The Bible can be fully trusted and is reliable” (page 11) is in “crises” today because of an “unraveling” of traditional Christian doctrine. They argue their case in hopes of overcoming this dilemma within the paradigm of a three dimensional framework: One, the inspiration and revelation of the Bible; two, the human character the Bible takes as the Word of God and third, the role of the Spirit as it relates to the Bible.
I believe that the Scripture principle was well defended by the authors and that they made an overwhelming case that the “Bible can be trusted to teach the truth in all that it affirms.”
I believe that the Scripture principle was well defended by the authors and that they made an overwhelming case that the “Bible can be trusted to teach the truth in all that it affirms.”
April 4, 2018
A must-read for anyone who wants to read the Bible with full authority and trustworthiness but are uncomfortable with the hoops people make it jump through.
September 20, 2015
I finally got around to reading this for my dissertation. It is a book that I have been neglecting reading for years, but am so glad I finally slugged through it.
A contemporary classic in the doctrine of Scripture, Clark Pinnock went from defending biblical inerrancy early in his career to being one of the most successful revisionists in this book. In it he argues that the Bible is inerrant in all that it teaches. Scripture's factual claims have to be understood through the kind of genre it is and the fact that the purpose of the Bible is not to offer a perfect historical account, but rather to offer something that equips for salvation and good works (2 Tim. 3:15-17)
With sweeping command of the secondary literature and stylistic eloquence, he points out the flaws in both liberal and conservative views of the Bible, upholding biblical authority while pointing out that the Bible's own account of inspiration cannot be used to support strict views of inerrancy. Strict inerrancy is, ironically, the refusal to listen closely to the Bible, glossing it with traditional or modern assumptions about authorship.
He gives wide room for critical scholarship that has disproved our previously held notions on authorship of certain books or whether certain passages are "historical" like Genesis 1-11, Jonah, or Job. While scholarship must be rejected that balks at the supernatural and refuses to come to an understanding of how a text is the Word of God, critical scholarship has actually shown us what the Bible is beyond the assumptions of conservatives. A method that produces a close reading of the text should be embraced, regardless of whether it challenges our assumptions.
The book discusses such a plethora of secondary literature that I can see that many would not be able to work through this book. There are some passages that I would have liked him to slowly go through, but the book covers a lot of ground.
Today, upon reading The Scripture Principle, I recall hearing the very conservatives that denounced this book repeating its arguments as if they discovered them. That is when you know a book was truly monumental.
A contemporary classic in the doctrine of Scripture, Clark Pinnock went from defending biblical inerrancy early in his career to being one of the most successful revisionists in this book. In it he argues that the Bible is inerrant in all that it teaches. Scripture's factual claims have to be understood through the kind of genre it is and the fact that the purpose of the Bible is not to offer a perfect historical account, but rather to offer something that equips for salvation and good works (2 Tim. 3:15-17)
With sweeping command of the secondary literature and stylistic eloquence, he points out the flaws in both liberal and conservative views of the Bible, upholding biblical authority while pointing out that the Bible's own account of inspiration cannot be used to support strict views of inerrancy. Strict inerrancy is, ironically, the refusal to listen closely to the Bible, glossing it with traditional or modern assumptions about authorship.
He gives wide room for critical scholarship that has disproved our previously held notions on authorship of certain books or whether certain passages are "historical" like Genesis 1-11, Jonah, or Job. While scholarship must be rejected that balks at the supernatural and refuses to come to an understanding of how a text is the Word of God, critical scholarship has actually shown us what the Bible is beyond the assumptions of conservatives. A method that produces a close reading of the text should be embraced, regardless of whether it challenges our assumptions.
The book discusses such a plethora of secondary literature that I can see that many would not be able to work through this book. There are some passages that I would have liked him to slowly go through, but the book covers a lot of ground.
Today, upon reading The Scripture Principle, I recall hearing the very conservatives that denounced this book repeating its arguments as if they discovered them. That is when you know a book was truly monumental.
October 14, 2014
In an attempt to toe a line between a fundamentalist literal reading of every word of the Bible and the liberal anything goes approach, the Authors end up with quite a muddled position on the question of what we are to make of scripture.
The appendix in the 2nd edition explains a lot of the Authors doubts and this book was a part of their 'journey' from penning and debating the early defence of inerrancy to an Annihilationist view of hell and open theism.
The book itself is well written. Great prose without the heavily academic tone but not too simplistic neither.
The appendix in the 2nd edition explains a lot of the Authors doubts and this book was a part of their 'journey' from penning and debating the early defence of inerrancy to an Annihilationist view of hell and open theism.
The book itself is well written. Great prose without the heavily academic tone but not too simplistic neither.
October 12, 2008
this book is heavy...and good. It talks about the importance of balancing the Objective Text with the Subjective Spirit-led Interpretation. read the conclusion chapter and you will get a very good gist of their principle. The rest of the book goes into tons of detail about how they reached their conclusion.
January 22, 2008
Great common-sense approach to scripture. Not too conservative, not too liberal. Just riiiiiiiiight.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews