Ben Witherington on Le Donne-Gate

Ben Witherington chimes in on the Anthony Le Donne affair with some reflections on confessional theology and academic freedom as a prelude to a link to Larry Hurtado’s post. Ben writes:

The life of the believing scholar’s mind can be fragile, and more to the point a scholar needs to be able to pursue the evidence wherever it leads. If it leads somewhere that leaves him in a quandry, then things should be discussed. If it leads somewhere where the person thinks the faith statement is not well grounded in the Bible in some respect, then that should be discussed. But it is important that a scholar be allowed to explore various ideas and interpretations of things as he or she seeks to understand God’s Word better. Often some avenues of interpretation that at first look promising, are not. For the believing scholar in any case the search should be for what is true, not what is new, and when I say true I mean historically true, theologically true, ethically true. etc.