What the Bible Really Teaches: A Challenge to Fundamentalists [Paperback]

(from the conclusion)

This is written as a polemical book, and is such by the author's own admission. It is an engaging, stimulating, and very well-aimed arrow aimed right at the heart of fundamentalist Christianity. Keith Ward describes himself as a born-again evangelical, and yet he relates how when he read his Bible he simply found it impossible to reconcile with some of the supposedly 'biblical' doctrines that as a conservative Christian he was supposed to believe. In short, he says, those 'Bible believing' Christians who claim that their particular set of beliefs are based upon a faithful 'plain sense' reading of scripture are quite simply wrong.

He begins by tracing a brief outline of the history of fundamentalism as it began at the end of the nineteenth century with its 'five fundamentals' of the verbal inerrancy of scripture, the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the substitutionary theory of the atonement, and the physical, bodily return of Jesus. These are rather odd doctrines to have as core beliefs, Ward notes, as the virgin birth is not really a core issue even in scripture, the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement is only one amongst many, and that the 'biblical' views of the return of Christ are often confused and incoherent in fundamentalist theology. Most oddly of all, Ward contends, is that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy to which fundamentalists hold is not only not taught anywhere in scripture, but that it is quite simply untenable.

Fundamentalism often accuses non-fundamentalist Christianity (not only those evil liberals) of being selective with the Bible and picking and choosing the bits of scripture from which they develop their doctrine, and 'watering down' the Gospel in so doing. Ward points out at great length throughout the rest of the book that this 'picking and choosing' is precisely what the fundamentalists themselves are guilty of with regards to scripture. The fundamentalist reading of scripture not only contradicts the Bible in many places, but it is very new on the scene in the history of the church and often pays no attention to more ancient and more widely-held Christian interpretations of the Bible. In short, Ward argues, fundamentalism has just the Bible plain wrong.

The book is essentially a rethinking of biblical theology by seeking to examine key doctrines (for example, resurrection, atonement, heaven and hell, the return of Christ, and so on) in the light of the whole of scripture. Ward is of course far too good a strategist to simply resort to fighting proof-texts with proof-texts. Instead he begins by examining the doctrine of biblical inerrancy and seeing how ideas change throughout the Bible, and how it is necessary to have a sound interpretive framework for reading the Bible. Fundamentalists, argues Ward, may be content to 'take God at his word' and read scripture as flatly and literally as possible, but this not only neglects the rich imagery that the biblical writers frequently employ, but it also frequently leads to contradictions and inconsistencies. How many fundamentalists really believe that when Jesus said 'I am the door', that he meant he was a large plank of wood with hinges for example? Or that when the Psalms speak of God hiding the Psalmist in the 'feathers of his wings' we are suppose to believe that God is literally some kind of giant bird? Ward's criticism of the hermeneutical naivety of fundamentalism and its subsequent theological immaturity is not meant to be cynical and derogatory, but rather it is done with the aim of encouraging fundamentalists to re-think some of their theology, because as far as Ward is concerned (with much justification), so much 'bible-believing' theology does not actually reflect biblical thought at all.

The book itself is quite accessible for those with little or no theological background and maintains a healthy balance of readability and theological depth. There is no mistaking that this book is highly polemical, and the fundamentalists at which it is aimed are unlikely to warm to it, though by confronting them on their own 'biblical' territory Ward does a good job in showing how often 'bible-believing' Christianity is actually anything but that. Ward describes himself as a 'born again evangelical' and the book is written for evangelicals and those who wish to take scripture seriously as a basis for faith but for whom fundamentalism is bewildering and both intellectually and biblically untenable, though it is likely to appeal to other Christian groups as well.

I highly recommend it to both those who are fundamentalist in their theology and to those who want to take scripture seriously without going to the extremes erratic dogmatism of Fundamentalism. There is of course much to disagree with in this book, but is a well thought out and engagingly written polemic aimed right at the heart of fundamentalist Biblicism, and though the small-scale impact of the book is hardly likely to deal fundamentalism a mortal blow, is does show that so much of their 'sound doctrine' is really neither sound nor biblical.

Read the full review at http://worldofsven.co.uk/theology