As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider-the essence of our spiritual study. The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns's spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God's Word as it is actually written. Is this what God really requires? How could God's plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job-but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow.
Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to "protect" the Bible, Enns was conflicted. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction or accepted among the conservative evangelical community. Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion, teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. And that is what I mean by the “sin of certainty.The controversial Bible scholar and author of The Evolution of Adam recounts his transformative spiritual journey in which he discovered a new, more honest way to love and appreciate God's Word. Aligning faith in God and certainty about what we believe and needing to be right in order to maintain a healthy faith-these do not make for a healthy faith in God. But nothing could be further from the truth. Moving toward different ways of thinking, even just trying it on for a while to see how it fits, is perceived as a compromise to faith, or as giving up on faith altogether. A faith like that is stressful and tedious to maintain. It reduces the life of faith to sentry duty, a 24/7 task of pacing the ramparts and scanning the horizon to fend off incorrect thinking, in ourselves and others, too engrossed to come inside the halls and enjoy the banquet. Or perhaps just think of a skirmish you’ve had at church over a sermon, Sunday-school lesson, or which candidate to vote into public office.
How strongly do we hold on to the old ways of thinking? Just recall those history courses where we read about Christians killing other Christians over all sorts of disagreements about doctrines few can even articulate today. And who wants a dead or dying faith? So this fear of losing a handle on certainty leads to a preoccupation with correct thinking, making sure familiar beliefs are defended and supported at all costs. ( 1 Review) Write a Review Buy 72 or more for 11.87 each. By: Peter Enns HarperOne / 2015 / Paperback 5 out of 5 stars for The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending the Bible Has Made us Unable to Read It. Without it, we fear that faith is on life support at best, dead and buried at worst. The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending the Bible Has Made us Unable to Read It. “Correct thinking provides a sense of certainty.
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