Scholarship and evangelical modesty

Michael Kruger (president of Reformed Theological Seminary) and Ng Kam Weng (research director of Kairos Research Centre) have similarly cautioned evangelical scholars about their approach to seek for scholarly credibility and truth.

Although both Michael and Kam Weng are world apart, they are bound by the late Thomas Oden's conversion story, of how he turned from his liberal leaning. From Oden, they list out several "lessons" for evangelical scholars.

I agree with them, the lessons are important. The pursuit of truth, however, is multifaceted. Oden's lessons are too easily taken as endorsement of the conservative approach to theology.

Each of the lesson drawn from Oden by Michael and Kam Weng actually has its own opposite that is likewise essential for Christian scholars, not least the wider faithful community, to hold. As both scholars overlap in their points, I will highlight only Michael's which also covers Kam Weng's.

Lesson 1: Contemporary scholarly methods do not always lead one to truth.

The opposite: Past methods do not always lead one to truth too. Just not too long ago, Jonathan Edwards (hailed by many as one great Reformed theologian) able to produce justification for slavery and slave ownership from his exegesis of the Bible.

Lesson 2: Many of the questions raised by modern scholars have been addressed (long) before in the history of Christianity.

The opposite: Many of the questions raised by modern scholars are still not satisfactorily addressed in the history of Christianity. No one can denies that biblical scholarship and academic theology are like every other literary subjects that change according to new discovery, hypothesis and paradigm. For that, our theological knowledge is tentative, justified not by universal and certain facts but by faith in the best historical-situated arguments.

Lesson 3: The quest for originality and newness can be a dangerous one.

The opposite: The quest for originality and newness can also be most beneficial one. Think about Augustine of Hippo, whose idea of original sin, two cities, and others that have influenced much of Christian thinking until now. Martin Luther's 95 theses, which were widely considered deviant in his era. Think of N. T. Wright's cumulative arguments for Jesus' resurrection through seven mutations. These are all new thinking and paradigm-shifting in their own right. 

As Anthony Thiselton writes: "There is something wrong if our belief system has remained exactly the same over long years. The work of the Holy Spirit, an increased understanding of Scripture, and sometimes even experiences of doubt, critical reflection, and refinement all contribute to growth." (Systematic Theology, Eerdmans, 2015)

Lesson 4: Scholarly views can have serious social consequences.

Comment: True that scholarly views can have serious social consequences, whether the view is conservative or liberal or somewhere in between. As mentioned above, Jonathan Edwards's justification of slavery through theology is an example.

Lesson 5: The modern scholarly community is not tolerant like people think.

The opposite: The church is not tolerant like Christians leaders, educators, theologians want the world to believe. How many churches and denominations that exist today because Christians were intolerant against each other? How many Christian scholars who are demoted or given early retirement or asked to resign due to different views? Reformed Theological Seminary (before Michael was appointed the president) asked the well-known Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke to resign for airing his view on evolution in 2010.

Lesson 6: A faithful voice can have a significant impact.

The opposite: A faithful voice can also have significant negative impact. The academia has its own rules that are generally understood to pursue truth. Whether one's impact is positive or negative is therefore dependent on which side of the truth one stands, and what kind of truth is being accepted at a given point in time. Again, Jonathan Edwards is faithful but his impact on black-lives is profoundly dehumanising.

Lesson 7: Modern Ideologies will eventually collapse under their own weight.

The opposite: Old beliefs that were reckoned as truth, like flat-earth and indulgence, have collapsed like some modern ideologies.

It is true that the multicultural world can be intimidating and at times pressures Christians to re-consider their beliefs and practices. We can ignore and resist them, which will simply cultivate a paradoxical mentality with enclosed superiority, thinking that we have arrived at all truth and nothing else to learn, no new question can be explored.

If truth matters, perhaps what evangelicals need is modesty that is welcoming to those within (stop further fragmentation inside and among churches) and to those standing outside curious as well as like us, intimidated by those who are just different from us.