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Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament by Peter Enns
juliasilge's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, I found this short book (written by an Old Testament academic but for a general audience) really interesting and really helpful. Enns advocates "a more open and curious posture toward the challenges contemporary readers of the Bible face" as he discusses three main issues: archaeological/literary evidence from ancient Near Eastern cultures, theological diversity within the Bible, and the way the New Testament uses the Old Testament. All of these make it difficult to hold a typical evangelical view of Scripture with anything approaching integrity, and Enns presents an alternative "incarnational" view of Scripture where the reader fully acknowledges and embraces the profound humanness of Scripture, in an analogy to the way Jesus is fully God and fully man.
I did not know much about the ancient Near East literary stuff, and that was fascinating and challenging. The other issues, theological diversity within the Bible and the weird way the NT authors use the OT, are things that I have struggled to understand as a modern reader of the Bible; the approach in this book is freeing for me. I would highly recommend this book to anybody who struggles to make sense of the Old Testament, and let's be honest-- that's probably everybody who has read it seriously.
I did not know much about the ancient Near East literary stuff, and that was fascinating and challenging. The other issues, theological diversity within the Bible and the weird way the NT authors use the OT, are things that I have struggled to understand as a modern reader of the Bible; the approach in this book is freeing for me. I would highly recommend this book to anybody who struggles to make sense of the Old Testament, and let's be honest-- that's probably everybody who has read it seriously.
adamrshields's review against another edition
4.0
Short Review: I think this is a useful book to read, especially with a group. I read this with some friends and had an email discussion about it. We each were struck by different parts. It will be controversial and some of the controversy is not necessary. A better editor and focus could have minimized some of the controversy, but certainly not all of it.
My full review and discussion (about 1100 words) is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/inspiration-and-incarnation/
My full review and discussion (about 1100 words) is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/inspiration-and-incarnation/
dwmclaurin3's review against another edition
3.0
Good questions asked and a good reason for asking them. The book is written at the popular level, which leaves his overall analysis something to be desired. At times he poses straw-man arguments or vague ones that I wish he would be more specific about. He doesn't present counter-arguments to his own. He seems to only present those that are easiest to debunk.
His conclusions do not always follow either. There are some logical leaps. For example, how do we go from the fact that the ten commandments are presented differently in Exodus and Deuteronomy. From this he concludes that God "is perfectly willing to have his law to be adjusted over time." (77) I am not sure that this is the only conclusion from the reappropriation of the law in Deuteronomy.Yet, in the flow of his argument comes back to the fact that there is wisdom in the the appropriation of the law. It is not just a black and white, keep this law always understanding. Why introduce the idea that God is willing to have his law adjusted over time and not just recognize that there are different expressions of law? The first statement does not follow from his evidence. The latter, at least, more plausibly does so.
His conclusions do not always follow either. There are some logical leaps. For example, how do we go from the fact that the ten commandments are presented differently in Exodus and Deuteronomy. From this he concludes that God "is perfectly willing to have his law to be adjusted over time." (77) I am not sure that this is the only conclusion from the reappropriation of the law in Deuteronomy.Yet, in the flow of his argument comes back to the fact that there is wisdom in the the appropriation of the law. It is not just a black and white, keep this law always understanding. Why introduce the idea that God is willing to have his law adjusted over time and not just recognize that there are different expressions of law? The first statement does not follow from his evidence. The latter, at least, more plausibly does so.
jlphelps's review against another edition
5.0
“I am saying that the primary purpose of Scripture is for the church to eat and drink its contents in order to understand better who God is, what He has done, and what it means to be His people, redeemed in the crucified and risen Son. Such an understanding of the purpose of Scripture - as a means of grace for the church - actually opens up possibilities of interpretation instead of closing them.”
“The path we walk may contain risks, unexpected bumps, twists, and turns. We do not always know what is coming around the corner …. It is always an option, I suppose, to halt the journey and stand still, or perhaps to turn around and walk back a few hundred yards, so as to stand at a safe distance from what lies ahead. We should continue the journey however, not because we are sure of our own footing, but because we have faith in God who placed us on this journey to begin with.”
“The path we walk may contain risks, unexpected bumps, twists, and turns. We do not always know what is coming around the corner …. It is always an option, I suppose, to halt the journey and stand still, or perhaps to turn around and walk back a few hundred yards, so as to stand at a safe distance from what lies ahead. We should continue the journey however, not because we are sure of our own footing, but because we have faith in God who placed us on this journey to begin with.”
tommyokeefe's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this read. I appreciate the idea of viewing the Bible as an incarnational text. It's a helpful metaphor for approaching this uniquely divine text that can be so challenging and wildly broad in the application it provides it's interpreters. The concept of a christotelic hermeneutic that leads to an ecclesiotelic hermeneutic are great. To center the text on Christ but then push into Christ embodied in the church is a welcome addition to the voices I've become accustomed to hearing in this discussion.
kmmart1n's review against another edition
5.0
As always, I appreciate Enns’ insights and thorough research. It’s a breath of fresh air to be able to read a different perspective on theological views.
mcsnide's review against another edition
2.0
I should have paid attention to the subtitle. Had I done so, I would probably not have been so disappointed by this book. In seeing just Inspiration and Incarnation, I assumed the book would defend those concepts. Needless to say, I was disappointed when the author announced in the introduction that he had no intention of defending either, but was simply assuming them. The idea that a book on this topic would not be apologetical in nature surprised me. So I was left to listen in on a discussion aimed at people with a world view dramatically different from my own.
Rather than being about inspiration (a word the author never actually defines), the book is actually about hermeneutics. The author argues that conservative methods of Biblical interpretation fail because they refuse to acknowledge the very real contradictions (or to use his preferred term, diversities) in the Biblical record. Conservatives also fail to acknowledge the dependence of the Biblical authors on their cultures and literary traditions. On the other hand, he says, liberal approaches fail because they acknowledge all these difficulties in the Bible and declare that they prove the Bible to be just the work of men and not God. This is wrong, in his view, because the Bible is so obviously written by God that he doesn't even have to defend the proposition.
Having now cleared the field of both conservative and liberal hermeneutics, he rushes into the breach with an analogy. The Bible, he says, is like Jesus, being both fully human and fully divine. He glories in its anachronisms and contradictions, as these show its human authorship. Also, it's totally divine, because, well, he doesn't actually say why. Why he thinks comparing inspiration to the incarnation is helpful is unclear, as even he admits it's not a good idea to use an analogy in which the comparison point is as complicated or more so than the thing being explained.
Next, he does some comparison between the Bible and ANE texts, points out the cultural influences on the way Biblical writers interpreted other Biblical passages, and generally drives home the point that a traditional view of inerrancy is difficult to square with the actual words of the Bible. This, in my opinion, is the strength of the book. It is encouraging to see an evangelical engage with reality rather than hide from it.
Once I got past his refusal to defend traditional Christian doctrine like inspiration and a closed canon, I thought the book still might be useful as an expression of a new hermeneutic that frees evangelicals from the strictures of "harmonization" and the other mental gymnastics required to defend the idea of inerrancy. Unfortunately, he never fleshes his hermeneutic out in any robust sense, so it's impossible to truly understand how he deals with the traditional Christian ideas of unalterable moral laws, opposition to relativism, etc. He does mention in a postscript that he tries to give a fuller example in The Evolution of Adam. So I suppose I'll have to read that to get an idea.
If you're an evangelical who is fully committed to the idea of inspiration, but struggle with how to reconcile your faith with the obvious difficulties found in Scripture, this book may very well be helpful to you. Just don't go in expecting to have your questions answered. Go in expecting to come away with even more questions.
Rather than being about inspiration (a word the author never actually defines), the book is actually about hermeneutics. The author argues that conservative methods of Biblical interpretation fail because they refuse to acknowledge the very real contradictions (or to use his preferred term, diversities) in the Biblical record. Conservatives also fail to acknowledge the dependence of the Biblical authors on their cultures and literary traditions. On the other hand, he says, liberal approaches fail because they acknowledge all these difficulties in the Bible and declare that they prove the Bible to be just the work of men and not God. This is wrong, in his view, because the Bible is so obviously written by God that he doesn't even have to defend the proposition.
Having now cleared the field of both conservative and liberal hermeneutics, he rushes into the breach with an analogy. The Bible, he says, is like Jesus, being both fully human and fully divine. He glories in its anachronisms and contradictions, as these show its human authorship. Also, it's totally divine, because, well, he doesn't actually say why. Why he thinks comparing inspiration to the incarnation is helpful is unclear, as even he admits it's not a good idea to use an analogy in which the comparison point is as complicated or more so than the thing being explained.
Next, he does some comparison between the Bible and ANE texts, points out the cultural influences on the way Biblical writers interpreted other Biblical passages, and generally drives home the point that a traditional view of inerrancy is difficult to square with the actual words of the Bible. This, in my opinion, is the strength of the book. It is encouraging to see an evangelical engage with reality rather than hide from it.
Once I got past his refusal to defend traditional Christian doctrine like inspiration and a closed canon, I thought the book still might be useful as an expression of a new hermeneutic that frees evangelicals from the strictures of "harmonization" and the other mental gymnastics required to defend the idea of inerrancy. Unfortunately, he never fleshes his hermeneutic out in any robust sense, so it's impossible to truly understand how he deals with the traditional Christian ideas of unalterable moral laws, opposition to relativism, etc. He does mention in a postscript that he tries to give a fuller example in The Evolution of Adam. So I suppose I'll have to read that to get an idea.
If you're an evangelical who is fully committed to the idea of inspiration, but struggle with how to reconcile your faith with the obvious difficulties found in Scripture, this book may very well be helpful to you. Just don't go in expecting to have your questions answered. Go in expecting to come away with even more questions.
aperelli13's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good book but the reading level was more of a college text book and it felt like it took me forever to finish it. I'm not afraid of big words but when there are so many I just feel a little overwhelmed. If you love reading text books though, jump right in
paganathiest's review against another edition
4.0
A great book that was formed earlier in Pete Enn's journey. Much of the information contained in the book has been discussed and represented (better in my opinion) in Pete's later books, though there were many ideas and concepts that were unique. If you had to pick a couple of Pete Enn's books to read, stick with How the Bible Actually Works and The Bible Tells Me So.