Towards A Confessional Hermeneutic
written at Saturday, October 8, 2011
Good
article, recommended read if you have the time. Short section from the article
below:
Confessions in themselves are no guarantee of
theological fidelity. We must be realistic about what confessions can and
cannot do. While often extraordinarily helpful, they are no substitute for
careful exegesis, theological reflection, and ongoing attention to the way
these are fleshed out in the life of the confessing community. Today, however,
unrealistic expectations of confessions abound. For example, some today seem to
view the church as constituted by its confession, and many regard confessions
as a "silver bullet" solution to the problem of doctrinal declension.
A danger here is that confessions may become an end in themselves and that the
resulting confessionalism may degenerate into bald appeals to authority for its
own sake. This, however, only signals the incipient death of a confessional
tradition.
But the church is
constituted by its Head, Jesus Christ. It is the body of Christ. Confessional
traditions exist, not as ends in themselves, but to point us to Christ and to
help us understand the richness of Scripture more fully. Each generation must
own the confession for itself if that confessional tradition is to remain vital
and relevant. Moreover, as I have suggested above, such ownership inevitably
involves a measure of contextualization. While we must be on guard against
explicit and implicit confessional revisions that subvert the teachings of
Scripture, at the same time we should welcome those that enable the
confessional tradition to speak to new situations and contexts.
- William B. Evans
Towards A Confessional Hermeneutic
written at Saturday, October 8, 2011
Good
article, recommended read if you have the time. Short section from the article
below:
Confessions in themselves are no guarantee of
theological fidelity. We must be realistic about what confessions can and
cannot do. While often extraordinarily helpful, they are no substitute for
careful exegesis, theological reflection, and ongoing attention to the way
these are fleshed out in the life of the confessing community. Today, however,
unrealistic expectations of confessions abound. For example, some today seem to
view the church as constituted by its confession, and many regard confessions
as a "silver bullet" solution to the problem of doctrinal declension.
A danger here is that confessions may become an end in themselves and that the
resulting confessionalism may degenerate into bald appeals to authority for its
own sake. This, however, only signals the incipient death of a confessional
tradition.
But the church is
constituted by its Head, Jesus Christ. It is the body of Christ. Confessional
traditions exist, not as ends in themselves, but to point us to Christ and to
help us understand the richness of Scripture more fully. Each generation must
own the confession for itself if that confessional tradition is to remain vital
and relevant. Moreover, as I have suggested above, such ownership inevitably
involves a measure of contextualization. While we must be on guard against
explicit and implicit confessional revisions that subvert the teachings of
Scripture, at the same time we should welcome those that enable the
confessional tradition to speak to new situations and contexts.
- William B. Evans
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Knowing
What matters supremely, therefore, is not
in the last analysis, the fact that I know God,
but the larger fact which underlies it --
the fact that He knows me.
J. I. Packer
