The Bible Made Impossible: Part Two - The Cure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This post is part of a three-part series on The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith\" \/>\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\/tonyjones\/2011\/12\/08\/the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bible Made Impossible: Part Two - The Cure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is part of a three-part series on The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/12\/08\/the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Theoblogy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-08T19:40:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T21:54:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=theoblogy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1587433036&camp=217145&creative=399373\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tony Jones\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/12\/08\/the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/12\/08\/the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible Made Impossible: Part Two - 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{"id":4402,"date":"2011-12-08T13:40:10","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T19:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:54:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:54:59","slug":"the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/12\/08\/the-bible-made-impossible-part-two-the-cure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible Made Impossible: Part Two – The Cure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This post is part of a three-part series on <\/em>The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture<\/a><\/em> by Christian Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ailment<\/a> \u2013 The Cure \u2013 The Fatal Flaw<\/strong><\/p>\n

This book is fatally flawed.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know, I wrote that yesterday, and you\u2019re going to have to wait until tomorrow for the payoff on that. \u00a0But I wanted to remind you that I think that before I today look at Christian Smith\u2019s solution to the problem of biblicism \u2014 a problem that I don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

Smith writes that biblicism is overcome by picking an interpretive framework \u2014 what you might call a hermeneutical lens. \u00a0Biblicists, of course, argue that this is not necessary. \u00a0\u201cThe Bible says what it says,\u201d they protest, \u201cJust stick with the plain meaning<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0But by this point in the book, Smith has utterly destroyed that posture as a chosen\u00a0na\u00efvet\u00e9. \u00a0Everyone\u2019s got a lens. \u00a0Just admit it and get on with your life.<\/p>\n

So then the question becomes, Which lens<\/em>? \u00a0To this question, Christian Smith goes with Karl Barth<\/a>: the best lens through which to read and study the Bible is a christological lens<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0With this I agree. \u00a0But it needs some nuance.<\/p>\n

Plus, many evangelicals will protest that\u2019s exactly what they already do. \u00a0In college, I was required by Campus Crusade to purchase a Bible<\/a> that had intros to every book that showed \u201cChrist in _____.\u201d \u00a0I remember, for instance, reading what it said about finding \u201cChrist in Esther\u201d \u2014 it was, as you can imagine, a bit of a stretch to find Christ in a book that doesn\u2019t even mention God.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t what Smith is driving at. \u00a0He\u2019s looking for a more robust christological hermeneutic. He\u2019s saying: the story of Israel, the God of the Old Testament, the letters of Paul, the Apocalypse of John \u2014 they only make sense as seen through the salvific acts of Christ. \u00a0In that way, this book is like the book we looked at last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is good, as far as it is. \u00a0Tomorrow, however, I will post about my ultimate disappointment with this book.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"