The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan

Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)

Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)

The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

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Bible: Solving Disputes

Smith again: Step #3 is to “notice the Bible’s inability to settle matters in dispute.”  He points to “the women’s issue,” war and pacifism, creation, the millennium, mode of baptism, etc.

Several responses.  On the surface, he’s right.  The church has had trouble settling disputes for centuries now.  But I don’t think that’s due to reliance on Scripture.  I’d place the blame more on the fact that we ignore essential teachings of Scripture, particularly its teaching about the unity of the church.  We suffer “pneumatic deprivation” because we grieve the Spirit with our divisions, and that deprivation only deepens our divisions.  I also suspect that the issue is not altogether to do with the question of what Scripture says, as with the question of whether we want to follow Scripture.  It seems to me there’s less dispute about what Paul actually says about women than there is about whether we’re bound by it.  Even some evangelicals regard the Bible as a book that reflects the primitive prejudices of its time.

Some historical perspective helps, though.  Evangelicals have been unable to come to one mind about sex roles, but we have been debating this for how long?  It took most of the fourth century for the church to come to one mind on so essential a point as the deity of Christ, and the church never really did come to a single mind about the divine and human in Christ, Chalcedon notwithstanding.  A Catholic like Smith should show more patience: It wasn’t until the thirteenth century that a council of the Catholic Church affirmed transubstantiation, and it wasn’t until Trent that the Catholic Church formulated an authoritative dogma on justification.  Give us another half-millennium, and we’ll get “the women’s issue” sorted out.