Renewing the Evangelical mind: an interview with Peter Enns
In what follows, I had the immense privilege to interview Peter Enns (links), who is undoubtedly the leading progressive Evangelical theologian in the whole world.
Here are the topics we touched upon, albeit not necessarily in a chronological order.
1) Where Peter Enns comes from and how his thoughts evolved with time
2) How is evolution currently perceived among American Evangelicals?
b) Old Earth Creationism and Concordism
c) His own approach
3) What were likely the intentions of the original authors as they wrote the text?
4) One of the very foundation of Evangelicalism is the idea that God cursed us with a sinful nature, making misdeeds deserving an eternal punishment inevitable.
Can we find this concept in the very text of Genesis?
5) If Paul thought it was the case but the authors of Genesis 2 and 3 didn’t hold this view, what should we believe as modern Christians?
6) What is inerrancy and why is it viewed as the very foundation of Christianity by so many people?
7) What about God inerrantly gathering errant texts for His own purposes, as Professor Randal Rauser thinks it’s the case?
8) Many people say that if there is only a small mistake in one obscure book of the Old Testament, we can no longer trust the resurrection. What’s Peter’s response to this?
9) Problem of divine hideness:
Why would God not have given us an inerrant text rather than leaving us stabbing in the dark?
Why did He allow so many people to mistakenly assume its inerrancy?
10) What did God REALLY do during the history of Israel? Did He reveal Himself to a real Abraham and a real Mose?
11) Given the results of modern critical scholarship, what makes the Protestant Canon so special?
What does it mean to say that the imprecatory psalms were more inspired than books of C.S. Lewis on pain and love, and writings of Martin Luther King on non-violence?
12) Currently, there is a massive exodus from young people out of Conservative Christianity?
What are the causes of this?
For those interested by our conversation, I recommend the following resources:
Peter’s blog containing many insightful posts and Peter’s website full of great academic writings.
The following books are also worth looking:
The Evolution of Adam : What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins.
Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology).
Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament.
Telling God’s Story: A Parents’ Guide to Teaching the Bible (Telling God’s Story).
Ecclesiastes (Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary).
UPCOMING: The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It.
Thematic list of ALL posts on this blog (regularly updated)
My other blog on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)
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