The ‘plainly revealed' Word of God? Baptist hermeneutics in theory and practice.
Unfortunately, it's not an 'open invitation' - so if you're not invited, you can't come! But, if you're interested, you can read more about it, together with a list of abstracts, here.
The following recent exchange in the Baptist times, on that old chestnut evolution, demonstrates perfectly the problems we face when considering the topic of what it means to read the Bible as Baptists:
"Origen, Calvin and many other Christian scholars down the millennia have recognised that the Bible is a theological text in which the writers have been inspired by God to use many different literary forms, including metaphors and other figurative language, to express theological truth and that to read it as a source for scientific information is to misuse it." - Revd Dr Ernest Lucas, Bristol Baptist College. Baptist Times 25 December 2008.
"Instead of exegesis - reading out of Scripture what it plainly says - thsoe who would add evolution and millions of years to Genesis are guilty of eisegesis - imposing onto Scripture ideas that originate outside the Bibile, and attributing greater authority to the ever-changing theories of fallible humans than to the unchanging Word of the Almighty God!" - Jenny Yates, Yarmouth. Baptist Times 8 Jan 2009.
As Homer would say:
Hope it goes well Simon. Looks interesting.
ReplyDeleteHi Simon,
ReplyDeleteI too have been following that exchange in the Baptist Times with interest.
I've been lurking around on here now for a while - I really enjoy reading your blog and hope things will be available in published form from the colloquium!
Serena
Hi Serenasnape,
ReplyDeleteYes - we'll be publishing the collected papers with Mercer University Press, as part of their 'Baptist Series'