authority

• Evangelical Protestants of authority of the Bible = fundamentalist view

  • Bible = infallible word of God
  • authors were directly inspired by God
  • any contradictions in content are due to the limitations of human intellect
  • "all scripture is inspired by God + profitable for teaching"
• 2 approaches to Genesis 1 by fundamentalists:

  • young earth creationists: creation occurred c. 6000 years ago; literalist understanding of the text; creation in LITERALLY 6 days
  • old earth creationists: scientific date of inception c. 13.8bn years ago; not literalist e.g. Hebrew word for 'day' could mean different things translated; creation in 6 stages not days
• Catholic view of the authority of the Bible:

  • Bible = inspired by God but written by humans
  • the Bible is not self-authenticating - a reader requires the knowledge + influence of the Church in order to fully understand its meaning + message, therefore Catholics cannot turn solely to the Bible for moral guidance
  • Genesis 1 was never intended as a scientific or factual account of the origin of the universe
• neo-orthodox view of the authority of the Bible: (ideas from Karl Barth)

  the Bible:

  • is not the word of God, but contains the word of God
  • is the way through which humans may experience God
  • is not faultless regarding science, history + religion - writers must be considered in context + were subject to limitations of intellect
• liberal views of the authority of the Bible: (pt1)

  • some suggest that those who wrote the texts were guided by God - others hold that the Bible is an entirely human document, containing what the writers believed about God
  • the writings of individual authors were a product of the culture + context in which each lived
  • the Bible is not inspired, but may be inspiring
  • Jesus’ statement, “he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword” - may inspire some Christians to adopt a pacifist approach to war
• liberal view of the authority of the Bible: (pt2)

  • Sea of Faith Network: claims faith is a purely human creation, therefore the Bible has no authority apart from that which individuals choose to give it
  • Social Gospel Movement: the Bible is authoritative in recommending how we should live
  • Process Theology: God is not the creator; God is not omnipotent; God cannot intervene as he exists panentheistically with the universe - the Bible is an entirely human document