[Note: This is one post in a series on David Gushee’s book After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
Chapter 2: Scripture: From Inerrancy to the Church’s Book
In the second chapter, David Gushee tackles what he sees as evangelical’s problematic relationship to the Bible. His primary concern relates to the evangelical doctrine of inerrancy. (FYI you can read “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” to understand what Gushee is addressing.) Gushee argues that the evangelical conception of the Bible cannot be sustained. He points out that most introductory courses to the Bible present problems with this theory.
He offers two approaches to the Bible he thinks are more helpful than the evangelical approach. First, Gushee argues that Judaism’s relationship to the Bible after Jesus’s life and death offers an important conversation partner for Christians. They treat the Bible as a text to be questioned and explored. Second, Gushee suggests that evangelicals should learn from the Catholic church how to treat the Bible as Sacred Scripture. The Catholic church sets a schedule to ensure the Church works through the Bible over the course of several years. The result is Catholic Masses where the Bible plays a more central role than many protestant services.
Intriguing Quote
“One way to say it is that despite its profound meaning and historic role, the Bible cannot bear the weight that evangelicals expect it to bear” (Gushee, 30).
“Hints offered in 2 Timothy, as well as what we know of the canonization process, give us another way to hold the Bible as sacred—a way that does not require a brittle dogma of inerrancy. This way is to recognize that the Bible is and always has been the church’s book. Ever since the canonization decisions were made by the church, the Bible has, with the help of the Holy Spirit, been continually forming the church that itself canonized these texts. It is a loop between church, Spirit, and Bible, and it is enough” (Gushee, 38).
Conversation Starters
What do you (or your church) think about the Bible’s inspiration?
What could our understanding of the Bible gain from Jewish and Catholic approaches to the bible?
What would happen if you completely reimagined your view of the bible in the ways Gushee suggests?