English Works on the Doctrine of Scripture (1)

Great battle is currently being waged in many Christian circles, denominations, and seminaries relative to the doctrine of Scripture. Particularly Scripture’s inerrancy has been challenged.

It behooves us to learn from this debate. We must be wel I-equipped to defend our historic view of the full inspiration and inerrancy of the precious Word of God. We ought not turn a blind eye to the war that is waging around us. Otherwise, such war will soon pierce our ranks unawares.

There is a problem, however, for the intelligent layman who wishes to be informed in order to defend the truth. So many English books have been written in recent decades on the question of the doctrine of Scripture that he may well find himself at a loss as to which volumes to buy and read as well as which volumes must be avoided.

This “Book Talk” on Scripture aims to guide the concerned layman in this regard. Books marked (*) are basically sound and may be recommended; books marked (t) present a watered-down approach to the doctrine of Scripture and hence are not recommended.(Significant articles on the subject will be appended to the listing of books and dissertations.) For the typical layman who may never have read a book on the doctrine of Scripture, I would suggest beginning with Edward J. Young, Thy Word is Truth. This volume is simple, clear, informative, orthodox, and edifying.

Forsake inerrancy, and ultimately Scripture becomes another book. Authority is lost. The church turns to heresy and becomes secularized. “Thus saith man” replaces “Thus saith the Lord.”

I trust this brief, annotated bibliography will be of assistance both to those who have written me regarding this problem of discernment in reading about the doctrine of Scripture, as well as instructive to those who wish to be well-informed on the watershed debate of our day. The need to preserve the historic doctrine of Scripture is paramount. Forsake inerrancy, and ultimately Scripture becomes another book. Authority is lost. The church turns to heresy and becomes secularized. “Thus saith man” replaces “Thus saith the Lord.”

May God grant us profound reverence for every word of His Word — from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. May He make us Bible-readers, Bible-lovers, Bible- “livers,” and Bible defenders by the power of His sovereign grace.

BOOKS AND DISSERTATIONS from ABRAHAM TO HENRY

Abraham, William J. The Divine Inspiration of Holy Scripture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Helpful explanation of the “deductive” and “inductive” approach, but weak on inerrancy.

Achtemeier, Paul J. The Inspiration of Scripture: Problems and Proposals. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1980.

Attempts to merge “liberal” and “constructive” views; insightful, but often raises more problems than resolves.

*Alexander, Archibald. Evidences of the Authenticity, Inspiration and Canonical Authority of the Holy Scriptures. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1836.

First professor of Princeton Theological Seminary; primarily of historical value.

Allison, Leon McDill. “The Doctrine of Scripture in the Theology of John Calvin and Francis Turretin.” M.A. Thesis, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1958.

Brief, but helpful.

Ashley, Clinton Matthew. “John Calvin’s Utilization of the Principle of Accommodation and Its Continuing Significance for an Understanding of Biblical Language.” Ph.D. dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1972.

Difficult to obtain; consult Battles’s succinct article (Interpretation 31 [1977]: 19–38).

Balmer, Randall H. “The Old Princeton Doctrine of Inspiration in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Theology: A Reappraisal.” M.A. thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1981.

Ably proves that the Princetonians were by no means alone in their belief that only the originals of Scripture were inerrant in the nineteenth-century milieu.

Helpful summary, albeit brief; weak bibliography.

*Bannerman, James. Inspiration: The Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1865. Outdated, but reliable and still worthwhile perusing. Note especially pp. 114–48 on history of doctrine.

Barr, James. The Bible in the Modern World. New York: Harper & Row, 1960; reprint ed., London: S.C.M. Press, 1973.

Barr, James. Fundamentalism. London: S.C.M. Press, 1977.

A full-scale attack on the evangelical view of Scripture and conservative theology in general, subsequently answered ably by James I. Packer (cf. his new edition of Fundamentalism and the Word of God).

Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God. 2 vols. (1:1; 1:2). Translated by G.T. Thomson and Harold Knight. Edinburgh: T.&T. Clark, 1936–56.

Barth’s definitive exposition of the prolegomena, the doctrines of the Word of God and revelation, and the proclamation of the church. The mainstay of neoorthodoxy, which teaches the dangerous notion that Scripture may become the Word of God when applied but is not inherently the Word of God in and of itself. To be avoided.

Bartlett, David L. The Shape of Scriptural Authority. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.

*Bavinck, Herman. Our Reasonable Faith. Translated by Henry Zylstra. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956; reprint ed., Baker Book House, 1977, chaps. 1–8.

A condensation of Bavinck’s 4-volume Gereformeerde Dogmatiek, of which volume 1 is “must” reading for a provocative working out of “Introduction to Systematic Theology” from a Reformed perspective. The proximate work available in English, albeit seriously condensed in length and depth, is Berkhof’s Introduction to Systematic Theology, which is explicitly patterned after volume 1 of Bavinck’s magnum opus in both outline and content.

Bavinck, Herman. The Philosophy of Revelation. Reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979.

Beegle, Dewey M. Scripture, Tradition, and Infallibility. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1973.

Expansion/revision of Beegle’s first assault (The Inspiration of Scripture, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963) on fundamentalists and evangelicals who subscribe to an inerrant Bible. In The Inspiration of Scripture, Beegle set forth the thesis that Scripture is authoritative but errant, and questioned the value of some canonical books. A decade later, his newer edition, Scripture, Tradition, and Infallibility, prefaced by F.F. Bruce, updates recent trends in Roman Catholic and evangelical thought. Here his emphasis focuses on distinguishing between primary and secondary revelation and implicity involves a denial of the authority of Scripture. Beegle contends that infallibility and inerrancy apply exclusively to God and Christ, and not to Scripture. To be avoided.

Berkhof, Louis. Introduction to Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1932; reprint ed., Baker Book House, 1979. Standard text from Dutch Reformed perspective, patterned after Bavinck. Spotty in places, and repetitious in others. Its shortcomings —recurrent datedness inclusive, point to the need for a contemporary text of Reformed prolegomena.

Berkouwer, Gerrit Cornells. Holy Scripture. Translated by Jack B. Rogers. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1975.

Berkouwer opts for qualifying inerrancy by disassociating it from historical and scientific exactness. He posits that in confessing Scripture to be the Word of God its character as human witness to Christ must be analyzed more closely than conservative Protestantism has been prone to do. Hence, Berkouwer views any stress on formal biblical inerrancy as a needless obstacle. He neglects to spell out the consequences of his thinking and fails to address the dangerous theology of tolerating “arbitrary rejection” of scriptural portions. Despite his weakness on inerrancy, Berkouwer fleshes out many fine insights, particularly in his section on the witness of the Spirit and the canon. Translation seriously abridged (by 1/3) from the original two volume work, De Heilige Schrift.

Boettner, Loraine. Studies in Theology. Presbyterian and Reformed, 1975, chapter 1. May serve as introductory reading for a conservative position on inspiration and inerrancy, but lacks depth of treatment. (The bulk of chapter 1 relating to special revelation was first published separately as The Inspiration of the Scriptures by Wm. B. Eerdmans in 1937.)

*Boice, lames M., ed. The Foundation of Biblical Authority. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978. The first scholarly production of International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI), founded in 1977. In addition to Boice, includes excellent articles by Francis Schaeffer, John Gerstner, James Packer, Gleason Archer, R.C Sproul, and Kenneth Kantzer.

*Boice, James M., ed. The Sovereign God. Volume I, Foundations of the Christian Faith. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1978. Consult especially part II on “The Word of God.”

Briggs, Charles Augustus. The Bible, the Church and the Reason. New York: Scribner, 1892. Briggs’s views on inerrancy and higher criticism led to his trial for heresy in the Presbyterian church.

*Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Volume XX of The Library of Christian Classics. Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, pp. liii-lvii, 35–99.

The all-time classic in Protestant theology. This McNeill/Battles edition is far and away the best available in English; includes invaluable indices.

*Carson, D.A, and Woodbridge, John D., eds. Scripture and Truth. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983.

Superior series of Biblical, historical, and theological essays. In addition to the editors, includes essays by Grudem, Longenecker, Silva, Hughes, Bromiley, Godfrey, Balmer, Nicole, Helm, and Packer.

Clark, Gordon H. God’s Hammer: The Bible and Its Critics. Jefferson, MD: Trinity Foundation, 1982.

Helpful essays gathered and reprinted from various sources.

Custer, Stewart. Does Inspiration Demand Innerancy? Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1968.

A straightforward, informative defense of the Biblical doctrine of inspiration in the light of inerrancy.

*Cunningham, William. Theological Lectures. London: Nisbet, 1878.

Despite datedness, the diligent reader reaps untold reward from Cunningham. Pages 269–469 discuss inspiration and canonicity.

Davies, Rupert Eric. The Problem of Authority in the Continental Reformers: A Study in Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. London: Epworth Press, 1946.

Davis, Stephen T. The Debate About the Bible: Inerrancy versus Infallibility. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977.

Scans contemporary debate and unsuccessfully attempts to negotiate between infallibility and inerrancy, advocating that “infallibility in faith and practice” ought to be the evangelical stance rather than inerrancy. This mediation road leads Davis to adopt internal inconsistency on several fronts, e.g., infallibility is first defined as “in matters of faith and practice [the Biblel does not mislead us” (p. 16), but is later redefined to include only “matters that are crucially revelant to Christian faith and practice” (p. 118).

Dodd, C. H. The Authority of the Bible. New York: Harper, 1929.

Liberal Protestant view that Scripture is authoritative because the Spirit utilizes it “in inducing in us a religious attitude and outlook.”

Downs, Harry L. The Distinction Between “Power-Word” and “Text-Word” in Recent Reformed Thought. Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1974.

Examines the view of Scripture set forth by some representatives of “The Philosophy of the Law-Idea”— more specifically, leaders of the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS) based in Toronto.

“Edwards, Brian H. Nothing but the Truth. Welwyn, England: Evangelical Press, 1978. Written on a popular level; contains good introductory material on the inspiration and authority of Scripture for those unfamiliar with doctrinal terminology and debate.

Forstman, Henry Jackson. Calvin’s Doctrine of Biblical Authority. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962.

Includes helpful epilogue on “Calvin, Later Calvinism, and the Contemporary Situation.” Good bibliography.

Fosdick, Harry E. The Modern Use of the Bible. New York: MacMillan, 1924.

Fosdick, pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, was a modernist leader in the modernist-fundamentalist controversy.

Gasque, W. Ward, and Lasor, William Sanford, eds. Scripture, Tradition, and Interpretation.

Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978. Festschrift for Everett Harrison. Includes Jack Rogers’s “A Third Alternative: Scripture, Tradition, and Interpretation in the Theology of G. C. Berkouwer,” (pp. 70–91), as well as articles by Bromiley, Ladd, and Schoonhoven. Inerrancy implicitly denied.

“Gaussen, Louis. The Divine Inspiration of the Bible. Translated by David D. Scott. Reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1971.

A classic defense of the conservative view on scriptural authority and inspiration first published in 1840. Still worthwhile consulting; indexed well.

“Geisler, Norman L., ed. Inerrancy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980.

An array of laudable essays, the last three of which contain particularly valuable historical theology material: “The View of the Bible Held by the Church: The Early Church Through Luther,” Robert D. Preus; “The View of the Bible Held by the Church: Calvin and the Westminster Divines,” John H. Cerstner; and “B.B. Warfield versus G.C. Berkouwer on Scripture,” Henry Kabbendam.

*Gerstner, John H. Bible Inerrancy Primer.

Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965.

A brief, nontechnical presentation supporting Biblical inerrancy.

*Girardeau, John L. Discussions of Theological Questions. Richmond, VA: The Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1905.

Helpful dicussion on the inspiration and authority of Scripture (pp. 273–392).

Gordon, Cecil Earle. “A Critical and Comparative Examination of the Idea of Revelation in the Theology of John Calvin and Karl Barth.” M. A. thesis, Union Seminary, 1939.

*Hannah, John D., ed. Inerrancy and the Church. Chicago: Moody Press, 1984. Inerrancy supported from the historical perspective in a series of superior essays (ICCBI). Examination is made of the views of the early church, Augustine, scholastic theology, Luther, Calvin, Owen, Wesley, Edwards, the Baptists, and Berkouwer. Note especially Dr. D. Clair Davis’s “Princeton and Inerrancy: The Nineteenth-Century Philosophical Background of Contemporary Concerns.” Authors include Gerstner, Packer, Preus, Spear, Bogue, et al.

*Harris, R. Laird. Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1957. Argues lucidly that inspiration is the principle of canonicity.

Henry, Carl F. H. God, Revelation and Authority. 4 vols. Waco, Tx.: Word Books, 1976–79. Interacts extensively with contemporary thought; stresses cognitive element of revelation. Volume 4 is a massive treatment of the doctrine of biblical authority and includes a worthy discussion of innerancy.

Questions on religious books may be addressed to 2115 Romence St. N.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503.

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