Third Way and Scripture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A friend of mine recently said that theologians can say just about anything about anything about Jesus but to say something fresh or innovative or out of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Third Way and Scripture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A friend of mine recently said that theologians can say just about anything about anything about Jesus but to say something fresh or innovative or out of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-17T05:30:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2008\/12\/Hamilton-thumb-200x166-thumb-200x166.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/\",\"name\":\"Third Way and Scripture\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-17T05:30:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-17T05:30:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"A friend of mine recently said that theologians can say just about anything about anything about Jesus but to say something fresh or innovative or out of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Third Way and Scripture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":5041,"date":"2008-12-17T00:30:01","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T05:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/"},"modified":"2008-12-17T00:30:01","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T05:30:01","slug":"third-way-and-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/third-way-and-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Way and Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n $\"Thumbnail$ <\/a><\/span> The question pastor Adam Hamilton asks is \u201cWhat is the Bible?\u201d He begins to map the options right away: is it a collection of documents that describe the faith of ancient Israelites and the early Christians? Is it the Word of God, with every word chosen by God \u2014 with the implication at some level that the authors were God\u2019s secretaries? Another question: Is all of the Bible marked by culture? Is only some of it marked by culture? Is it all marked by culture but still capable to rendering God\u2019s will for us today? One of my own ways of putting this is to ask if it is best to talk about the Bible as \u201ctimeless\u201d truth or \u201ctimely\u201d truth?<\/p>\n

Hamilton sketches the American history with the Bible \u2014 marked as it is by the huge fight between the modernists and their use of \u201chigher criticism\u201d and the fundamentalists and their appeal to inspiration and inerrancy (or infallibility). Today\u2019s culture wars is marked by this debate to this day. Fundamentalists constantly worry about a slippery slope into liberalism and liberals worry constantly that if they start preaching about the need for personal salvation and the authority of the Bible that they\u2019ll end up losing credibility with culture. (It\u2019s more complex than this, yes, but these factors are at work to this day.)<\/p>\n

Hamilton speaks of conservatives for whom the authorship of the books of the Bible \u2014 even when not in the text (like Matthew \u2014 the text itself does not say Matthew wrote the Gospel) \u2014 is worth going to the mat for. They will also defend Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch as if it is central to Christian orthodoxy. On the other hand, I\u2019m personally astonished how easily many are convinced that a biblical author, say James, didn\u2019t write James when the evidence for this kind of conclusion is so flimsy. Far better, I say to myself often, to admit that there\u2019s not enough evidence to draw a firm conclusion. Anyway, this stuff gets caught up in rigid debates and folks take sides \u2014 and it has become political.<\/p>\n

Liberals, Hamilton observes, focus on the humanity of Scripture; conservatives on the divine authorship. <\/p>\n

Hamilton comes to this conclusion: The Bible \u201cis a book written by people who lived in ancient times, with their own biases and limitations in knowledge, who had great insights and experiences of God \u2026 And<\/i> it is a book through which God has spoken and still speaks, one that is \u2018living and active\u2019 and through which God comforts, challenges, and inspires, the very reading of which has the power to change lives\u201d (68).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"