finitum non capax infiniti

I apologize for the lack of blogging for the past two weeks. I recently moved and it took a while for Comcast to get to my new apartment and set up the internet. If it wasn’t for my ability to check my email on my iPhone, I don’t know what I would have done. That’s kind of sad…moving right along.

Craig Allert’s new book is entitled A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon. Unlike Bruce’s staple The Canon of Scripture, Allert does not simply recount the history of the canonization of the New Testament. Rather, he focuses on the concepts of authority and inspiration continually throughout the book. When he does recount some historical events relating to the canon, he never does so without reflection on the implications for modern evangelicals. This is one of the reasons I found Allert’s book to be so helpful, almost like a breath of fresh air.

Allert begins his work with a brief recounting of the rise of evangelicalism. This is helpful in that it sets the rest of his work within a useful context. It is not simply dry history for the sake of impressing your friends that you know the date of Athanasius’ 39th Easter Letter, but it is history that is recounted in order to better understand pressing issues in the present.

What is refreshing about Allert’s work is that he is honest about the data that we have before us. Instead of reading our modern conceptions of Scripture, canon, or inspiration back onto the Church Fathers, Allert’s reading is fresh and, at points, provocative. If I had a crystal ball, I would see critiques from hard line fundamentalists in Allert’s future. But that does not change the data that is before us all. For instance, many people sight the aforementioned Easter Letter of Athanasius as proof for a 4th century date for the closing of the canon. Allert points out that “it is an interesting anomaly that evangelicals generally use Athanasius’s New Testament list for support on canonical issues but tend to ignore his Old Testament list, which includes apocryphal books. If he is authoritative for one, why is he not authoritative for the other?” (51, n39).

Throughout his work Allert focuses on the role of the church, the community of the Spirit, in the formation of Scripture. His insights are many, but this quote is especially helpful: “If the relationship between inspiration and canonicity is to be properly understood, it must be seen within the community that produced those Scriptures. The apostle Paul affirms this importance of the community when he states that the Spirit is given to the community for its common good (1 Cor. 12; cf. Acts 2:1-4). If it is the same Spirit that gives inspiration to Scripture, then one cannot dispense with the community and still hope to understand the inspiration of Scripture” (145).

It is a relatively short book, but an important book to read if you are interested in canonicity, inspiration, inerrancy, or the phenomena of Scripture. And if you don’t believe me, Peter Enns says, “this is a book that should be read by any who have a strong interest in issues pertaining to the nature of Scripture.”

Pete said it. I believe it. That settles it…or something like that.