When the Bible Isn’t Clear

Mark Grapengater via Compfight

Roger Olson wrote a post today entitled How to Solve a Theological Dilemma when Scripture Doesn’t Clearly Solve It: An Exercise in Theological Method. The title itself is provocative and problematic if you’re a fundamentalist, so Roger spends some time dealing with the mindset of fundamentalism. This is a really valuable read if you’re wrestling with a theological issue and trying to decide how to proceed.

A tiny peek at one of Roger’s points to whet your whistle:

8. Back to fundamentalism versus non-fundamentalism: A fundamentalist will reject this entire method of solving theological and doctrinal dilemmas because it admits ambiguity in the Bible about even some important theological and doctrinal issues which is impossible from a fundamentalist point of view.  Many non-fundamentalists will also reject this method for a very different reason: they are so comfortable with ambiguity (and perhaps afraid of fundamentalism) that they don’t feel any need to settle doctrinal and theological issues about which the Bible is not crystal clear.  Both approaches have problems, however.  The fundamentalist approach leads to numerous schisms and divisions to say nothing of imposing personal opinions on the Bible and making all doctrinal and theological issues equally important.  The opposite approach leads to warm, fuzzy spirituality devoid of cognitive content and leaves inquiring minds without satisfying answers.