Who Am I?

Sola Scriptura 1 – Intertwined with the Modern Lens

Posted: August 17th, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Sola Scriptura | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

No, this isn’t going to be yet another one of those apologies for or arguments against the idea of Sola Scriptura that you find littered across the blogosphere and in print. I’ve read and listened to quite a few from a variety of perspectives over the years and found the majority of them … less than helpful. I didn’t really interact with this idea until well into my adult life, but as a member of an SBC church for a decade and a half, as someone who attended BSF for a pretty good number of years, and as someone who has participated in a variety of other evangelical bible studies, I feel I’ve pretty reasonably worked to inhabit the perspective as best I could for an extended period of time. I’m not really planning this series, but I expect it to be some short posts reflecting various aspects of the deconstruction of the idea of sola scriptura from my particular perspective and experience.

The particular idea of sola scriptura, of course, grew out of the Western modern cultural lens which in turn reflected the flowering of scholasticism in its Western medieval form. The core concept that a text, any text, somehow has an objective meaning which can be discerned by some means and which is somehow independent from any interpretation or interpreter of the text is intimately connected to the modern lens. It began as a modern Western idea and thrived within the modern context.

I don’t particularly care what you call the cultural, societal, and sociological shift which we began to undergo in the 20th century, which is in full swing now, and which will likely continue to work itself out over the next century or so. Whatever labels or terms you prefer to use, I am more formed by those forces than by the modern forces which birthed and sustained the various sola scriptura ideas. And I don’t see any way that the different sola scriptura lenses will be able to persist in anything like their various forms outside what is often called the modern cultural context or modernity. I’ll explore some of the reasons I believe that to be true in this series.


2 Comments on “Sola Scriptura 1 – Intertwined with the Modern Lens”

  1. 1 Old School said at 8:56 pm on August 17th, 2009:

    ….i was taught the old Pentecostal fundamentalist method of interpretation…..ie:God says what He means and means what He says..and if you need any help beyond that ..well…just pray through for wisdom……

  2. 2 Scott said at 10:44 pm on August 17th, 2009:

    I may or may not end up touching on that. I probably will, at least tangentially. But I’m not sure I truly grasp that particular perspective. Guess we’ll see.