Reminder
The early Church had no Scripture of its own, and the Jews had no defined canon of Scripture; therefore, sola scriptura as the foundation for what Christians believed was absolutely impossible.
Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox
Any questions?
And so, sola scriptura got glossed
[I]n American religion, both scholars and rank-and-file evangelicals contend, sola scriptura has morphed from theological principle to exegetical method. Particularly in the nineteenth century, evangelical Protestants rejected other religious authorities and relied instead on a plain reading of scripture. After clearing away the rubble of history and abandoning the old wineskins of tradition, one was left with everything needed to do theology: common sense and the Bible. The effects of this sort of biblicism on the shape of American religion—and, indeed, American history writ large—are difficult to overstate. Or so the standard story goes. Claims of relying on “the Bible alone” become harder to sustain when biblicists find themselves disagreeing on the meaning of Christian scripture. … As it turns out, evangelical Protestants do not avoid tradition as much as the ideal of biblicism makes it seem. … Wylie was a “Covenanter,” who believed governments that did not support Reformed religion necessarily rejected divine authority. In 1800, Wylie became the first Covenanter ordained in the United States. Findley, in contrast, came from a long line of “Old Dissenting” Presbyterians, who generally opposed the state establishment of churches.
Paul J. Gutacker, The Old Faith in a New Nation (emphasis added). It bears repeating that I came upon this book via a podcast recommendation by a Southern Baptist luminary. Gutacker is no hack, but I soon will be reading Mark Noll’s, America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln to enrich my understanding.
The right way to read the Bible
I am very, very enthusiastic about How (and How Not) to Read the Bible, a podcast (transcript available) I’d been waiting for, unawares. I’ve long (but not always; I remember my unwarranted elation at cracking, I thought, some theological nuts) had a vague feeling that the kinds of Bible study I knew sought information about God when what we need is God.
I’m elated again. I was pointed in the right direction, but uncertain that it was right, or why it was right. This podcast bodes to be a key epiphany in my life (or maybe an apocalypse).
The podcast and transcript are long, and the podcasters are far too digressive for my tastes. I edited out their digressions as I read the transcript.
I’m too new to this insight to write about the ramifications, but I think I see in the Fathers of the Church, sermonizing on a pericope of scripture, an avoidance of “this is the point the Apostle was making” or anything equivalent to that. Stay tuned.
Religious ideas have the fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the world, are taken up by all sorts of instruments, some woefully coarse, feeble, or out of tune, until people are in danger of crying out that the melody itself is detestable.
George Elliot, Janet’s Repentance, via Alan Jacobs
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 