Review: Jesus, Interrupted

Jesus Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know About Them). By Bart Ehrman. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009. 304 pp.

Currently #6 on the best sellers list in religion and spirituality according to Amazon.com.

Like The God Delusion that we looked at yesterday, this is not a text I have read myself, so I will leave the thorough reviewing to people more qualified. I have interacted somewhat with Ehrman's previous work, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question - Why We Suffer. (If you are interested in this latter work, check out this blogalogue between Ehrman and N.T. Wright, who wrote a book on a similar topic).

I would characterize Ehrman's hermeneutic as essentially this: an underlying distrust of Scripture and an elevation of human reason and ability. For Ehrman the Scriptures hold no authority other than what we give to them. But for the Christian, the Scriptures should hold supreme authority in no way dependent upon our reason.

If you haven't read Alvin Plantinga's "Advice to Christian Philosophers," I would highly recommend that you do so. Though geared toward a specific group, his advice is applicable to all Christians, not just philosophers. He essentially argues that there are presuppositions a Christian brings to their work, and in fact should bring to their work. For instance, the statement 'God exists' should be understood as true, and Christians should feel no need to have to rationally prove this statement in order for the belief to be accepted as a reasonable one.

In today's society it is popular to claim that our studies should be completely objective, with no underlying motives, and we should follow the evidence wherever it leads. This is utter nonsense. Evidence never leads anywhere on its own; there are always, ALWAYS, motives and presuppositions that influence the results. For example in Ehrman's case, say you desire to study the Scriptures in way that you feel is objective and neutral, so you set aside the assumption that Scripture is inerrant. You haven't rid yourself of biases, you have just replaced one bias, that Scripture is inerrant, with another bias, that Scripture could be errant.

To think Christianly about the Scriptures, and really any subject we approach, there are certain presuppositions that we must have. Here I think is an essential list. This comes from Dallas Theological Seminary as the seven basic doctrines a student must affirm.

• The Trinity
• The full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ
• The spiritual lostness of the human race
• The substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Christ
• Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone
• The physical return of Christ
• The authority and inerrancy of Scripture
  

With that groundwork laid, I recommend that you check out the review of Jesus Interrupted by Dr. Darrell Bock. Dr. Bock is reviewing this work in stages, so look for us to revisit the topic again.