Book critique of the Scripture principle

Scripture Principle

In 2006, the second edition of Clark Pinnock's the Scripture Principle: Reclaiming the Full Authority of the Bible was published, this time co-authored with Barry Callen. The book was published by Baker Academic, and the text continues to serve the same purpose in its new edition as it did in its previous version, first published in 1984. The authors' primary argument in this book is that modern interpretations of faith and of the Bible specifically have tended to err too far towards the extremes, with liberalist readings of the scriptures seeing them as purely allegorical or symbolic and thus not retaining the divine authority with which they were traditionally endowed, while on the other hand the doctrine of inerrancy has been leading to increasing fundamentalist practices, where the Bible is taken as the literal truth in scientific and political matters in addition to natters of faith.

Summary

This basic point is made very clear by the authors of the Scripture Principle very early on in the work, and continues to be made throughout each subsequent section. As the full title of this volume suggests, Pinnock and Callen are concerned with reclaiming the real truth of the Bible, and they methodically illuminate and elucidate various concepts as they are discussed in the scriptures, finding a middle ground of interpretation that does not deny the inerrancy of the Bible, but that places it in its proper context. Each individual concept is dealt with not simply by quoting pithy passages, but by deeply exploring the whole of the scriptures to come to an understanding of the truth.

The pattern of revelation is subject of the first major section of the book, followed by a discussion of what the authors term the "Biblical Witness." Both of these sections have as much to do with how the Bible is interpreted as a whole as they do with specific readings of scripture, and this helps to set the tone and the train of thought for the rest of the book. The next section of the book, Inspiration and Authority, looks at the way the scriptures handle the appearance of the divine in human life, and how they serve as a conduit for this purpose as well. It is here that the importance of the middle-ground interpretation that the authors use becomes quite clearly and its importance more obvious. Incarnation and Accommodation is the next section, followed by a discussion of the Human Dimension, and they continue along largely the same lines as the previous section yet with different foci. Finally, the authors address the issue of Biblical Criticism, insisting that it can serve a very useful and even necessary purpose without eroding scriptural authority.

Review and Evaluation

Clark Pinnock has been a theologian and apologist for many decades, and was the Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at McMaster Divinity College, while Barry Callen spent forty years at the Anderson University School of Theology as a professor, college dean, and seminary dean. Clearly, these men are both quite qualified to make the investigations and observations that they do in the Scripture Principle, with Pinnock's apologist background especially relevant in this area. This definitely lends credibility to their conclusions, as well.

Pinnock and Callen gather evidence directly form the scriptures, as well as from numerous other theologians both modern and historic, in developing their conclusions. Their methods also include a great deal of logical reasoning as well as faith-based interpretation, all of which are appropriate means of engaging in investigations and forming conclusions in relation to scripture. The evidence that the authors used also seemed to be fairly accurate, insofar as it was verifiable; the Biblical passages cited were definitely on point, and many interpretations and criticisms that the authors cited seemed familiar and reliable. The fact that much of the book is argumentative and based on logical conclusions adds to the appearance of accuracy in the text, and the authors unquestionably manage to convince the readers of their conclusions. The evidence itself highly supports the author's conclusions, but it is more so the way in which this evidence is presented to the reader and the degree of logical certainty that seems an inherent part of their argument that is especially convincing, as the evidence itself is largely a matter of scriptural interpretation.

The argument that the authors build is highly logical, and in fact logic is the foundation of what they present to the reader. This makes their interpretation of the scripture and of matters of faith easily understandable and highly reliable. There are certainly other possible interpretations that would support clear counterarguments to the points that the authors make, but the Pinnock and Callen use the Scripture Principle specifically to address many of these arguments, and they have compelling rationales for their dismissal.