Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals. Carlos R. Bovell

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Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals - Carlos R. Bovell


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evil.” Compare the Midrash of the Song of Songs: “God saith of the Israelites: Towards me they are as sincere as doves, but towards the Gentiles they are as serpents.”23 The most familiar expression of the saying is, of course, found in Matt 10.16: “Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.” Note the difference amongst the three but especially that feature which sets Jesus’ words apart from the others. The former two establish that one can be “simple” with respect to one thing and “wise” with respect to another. The Jesus saying insinuates that it is possible and desirable to be both simple and wise with respect to the same thing simultaneously. I suggest that this can serve as an illustration of the indicative plurality that believers are to assume as they engage the world.

      Virtually every Matthean commentary harmonizes the serpent and dove perspectives under some grand schema. Let us, however, resist that temptation by positing semantic approximates for the two. Let us, for the sake of the present discussion, allow “wise as a serpent” to mean “critical as a skeptic” and let us say that “simple as a dove” means “naïve as a trusting believer.” This way whether one takes the metaphors to touch upon political outlooks, military and non-military stances, or some other range of activity or relationship we can still emphasize the diametric involved.

      Not a few scholars have commented upon the stress that is caused by the dual responsibility of both maintaining a critical mind and preserving a sympathetic naivety when they study Scripture, construct theology, interact with others, etc. Crosby, for example, inquires of similar tensions when, in a review of a recent work, he asks:

      Familiar to all is a situation wherein a writer is grating toward “outsiders” and gratulatory to “insiders,” but remarkable and scarce is the person who is truly both to both.

      III. Synthesis


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