User:AKjeldsen/Handling Inerrancy

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(My notes on dealing with the Biblical Inerrancy stuff, stored here for convenience. Feel free to comment if you wish, but probably better ignored for the moment.)


Programme[edit]

  • Reduce focus on the Bible itself: Only serves to bog down the discussion in peripheral detail issues.
  • Focus instead on investigating the primary subject, the inerrantist "movement" (assuming such a thing exists and can be identified) and the way it argues/supports its viewpoints.
  • Research quotes and examples that show the inerrantist approach. Good places to start:
  • Differences among denominations
  • Refutations based on science, history, theology, etc.


Further Details[edit]

  • Important to distinguish between Biblical inerrancy, infallibility and literalism. Connected and overlapping, but separate concepts.


The Bible as a Source[edit]

  • No such thing as an uncomplicated historical source - Bible more complex than most
  • No such thing as a source at all until questions are asked.
  • Widespread problem with anti-inerrancy, e.g. Sceptic's Annotated Bible, attacks the source material itself, lowers to same level as those who exploit it, impose own/modern standards on the source.
  • Fairness doctrine in history. A historian should not be a judge, cf. Marc Bloch.


  • Brief introduction to the Bible.
    • Structure
    • Content
    • Origins - the Documentary Hypothesis, e.g. R. E. Friedmann
    • Use by later historical periods
      • Early Christianity: Apostolic writings, canon
      • Middle Ages: Auctoritas
      • Early Modern: Beginnings of critical biblical scholarship
      • Modern:
      • Contemporary:

Bibliography[edit]

Friedman, Richard Eliott: Who Wrote the Bible? (Harper: San Francisco, 1987) ISBN 0-06-063035-3