Philip Taylor

“We don’t have to fit in or form community because we will soon be leaving. As long as it doesn’t personally impact us, we are not concerned with understanding the cultural story or social, political, and economic life of our neighbors. Ultimately, this “just visiting” mentality has allowed Christians to avoid their calling. In the “just visiting” mentality, we focus on texts that tell us our citizenship is in heaven, that we are not “of this world,” but conveniently forget the requirements of that citizenship—namely, to be God’s representatives for and in the world.”
― Paul S. Williams, Exiles on Mission: How Christians Can Thrive in a Post-Christian World

“As a clue to contextual relevance, we might ask to what use did later Old Testament interpreters put Gen 1?”
― John W. Hilber, Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation: A Relevance Theory Approach

“Following from this, it is not accurate to say that until the Enlightenment, there was an untroubled consensus to read Gen 1 as six ordinary days. An unbroken stream of pre-Enlightenment exegesis of Gen 1 felt free to interpret the days as other than normal (although “day-age” models, strictly speaking, did not emerge until the age of science). It may not have been the majority opinion, but an important minority of influential theologians throughout the ancient and medieval period deviated from literal interpretation. Therefore, attributing nonliteral exegesis simply to the church’s compromise with Enlightenment science does an injustice to complexities in the history of interpretation.”
― John W. Hilber, Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation: A Relevance Theory Approach

“Luther and Calvin were explicit that the intent of Scripture was not to teach natural science, and their employment of accommodation served to relieve Scripture of that task. But beginning in the seventeenth century, scholars expected Scripture to serve as a framework for comprehensive knowledge of the world, including the interests of natural science. Demonstrating scientific concord became a necessary task to prove the validity of the Bible. By the time of Old Princeton, an old earth was commonly accepted among educated conservatives, who continued the tradition of scientific concordism.”
― John W. Hilber, Old Testament Cosmology and Divine Accommodation: A Relevance Theory Approach