Showing posts with label Confessions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Confessions. Show all posts

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Hermeneutical Humility: The Complement to 'Augustinian Inerrancy'

Below I mentioned that Augustine was committed to the truthfulness of the Bible's teaching and, upon continuing on in his Confessions, I was impressed by his humility about biblical interpretation.  He acknowledges that he's fallible in interpreting Scripture and even prays for patience in dealing with those critics who are more sure of themselves than he.  Later, he asks that, if at some point his exegetical prowess is lacking, someone else would come along and shed light on the meaning of the biblical text in question.  

I'm convicted by the piece about letting others step in when we find ourselves unequal to the task at hand.  This is a valuable thought for thinkers, teachers, preachers, and Christian leaders of all stripes to meditate upon...

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Augustinian Inerrancy...

Endeavoring to uncover the meaning of Genesis 1, Augustine writes:

"I will have nothing to do with all those who think Moses could have said anything untrue."  (Confessions, 12.23.32)

I'm not convinced that the Christian tradition is without the doctrine of the truthfulness of all Holy Scripture until Old Princeton comes on the scene.  Thoughts?

Friday, October 9, 2009

Vying for Content

"[W]hen it happens to me that the music moves me more than the subject of the song, I confess myself to commit a sin deserving punishment, and then I would prefer not to have heard the singer."  (Augustine, Confessions, 10.33.50)

How might the worship of the local church be different if we aimed always to delight ourselves in the subject matter of our faith more than guitar riffs and goosebumps?