THE BIBLE MADE IMPOSSIBLE

Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture

with a new afterword

CHRISTIAN SMITH

BrazosPress

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2011, 2012 by Christian Smith

Published by Brazos Press

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.brazospress.com

Paperback edition with afterword published 2012

ISBN 978-1-58743-329-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Smith, Christian, 1960–

The Bible made impossible: why biblicism is not a truly evangelical reading of Scripture / Christian Smith.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.

ISBN 978-1-58743-303-0 (cloth)

1. Bible—Evidences, authority, etc. 2. Bible—Hermeneutics. 3. Evangelicalism. I. Title.

BS480.S569 2011

220.1—dc22

2011004345

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Contents

Introduction

Part 1: The Impossibility of Biblicism

1. Biblicism and the Problem of Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism

2. The Extent and Source of Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism

3. Some Relevant History, Sociology, and Psychology

4. Subsidiary Problems with Biblicism

Part 2: Toward a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture

5. The Christocentric Hermeneutical Key

6. Accepting Complexity and Ambiguity

7. Rethinking Human Knowledge, Authority, and Understanding

Conclusion

Afterword

Index

Introduction

This book addresses Christians, especially evangelicals, who believe that the Bible is a divine word of truth that should function as an authority for Christian faith and practice, and who want to espouse a coherent position that justifies and defends that belief. My contention here is that the American evangelical commitment to “biblicism,” which I will define and describe in detail below, is an untenable position that ought to be abandoned in favor of a better approach to Christian truth and authority.

What follows is not an attack on Christian authority or the Bible. It is rather a critical interrogation of certain aspects of one specific account of biblical authority that I think reason and evidence show is impossible to defend and employ with integrity. The kinds of reason and evidence I bring to bear here are not those of the irreligious, skeptical unbeliever; rather, they are the sort of considerations Christians need to engage. The goal of this book is not to detract from the plausibility, reliability, or authority of the Christian faith or from scripture. The goal is to persuade readers that one particular ...