@Vinnie, it would be good if you could give some feedback on the thread that I linked to about determining the authorship of the Epistles. You’re clearly quite knowledgeable about Biblical scholarship, and some of what you have to say is quite helpful, but you’re mixing it up with a lot of rhetoric that is rather off-putting. In that thread, I and others raised some specific concerns about the methods used by modern critical Bible scholarship – in particular, it was pointed out that if you applied those same methods to modern texts whose authorship is beyond reasonable doubt (e.g. CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Roald Dahl) they would lead to demonstrably incorrect conclusions. These specific concerns require specific responses, and to attack them with insults about them being “theological fabric softener” or “questionable … methodology of conservative exegetes … through mental gymnastics” or “misrepresent[ing] critical scholarship and dismiss[ing] caricatures” while describing the whole Bible with sweeping statements about it being “religious propaganda,” just comes across as shouting. But if you can point out specific facts that they aren’t getting straight, or specific fallacies that are involved, on those specific questions, that would be much more constructive.
4 Likes