Kees van der Knijff
God's work in the world has a distinct character. It often moves against all expectations. God chooses the younger brother. He gets into a covenant with a marginal tribe that is more often disobedient than not. He comes to earth as the son of a carpenter in a disadvantaged area. As the climax of it all, he dies a shameful death on a cross. All of it is utter foolishness in the eyes of the world, as Paul makes clear (1 Cor 1:18-25). Theologians have come up with different concepts to describe the distinct pattern of God's activity. Terms like cruciformity or Christoformity are quite common today. The key idea is the same: God's acting in the world takes place in the form of "power in weakness".
As evangelical Christians, we are willing to embrace this pattern on multiple levels. The cross is of central importance in our faith and spirituality. We do not believe in a prosperity gospel and are uncomfortable when Christianity is related too closely to earthly powers. Our church services are still mostly centered around the (humanly speaking) foolish act of preaching. Multiple other examples could be given. Yet, there is one area where we make a big exception: in our doctrine of Scripture.
What do I mean by that claim? Basically this: there is a strong tendency in evangelical theology to hold to a "high"' doctrine of Scripture. We want to be able to state full-heartedly that the Bible is the word of God. As a result, evangelical defenses of Scripture abound. We do whatever we can to bolster Scripture and defend it against its "liberal" attackers. In some circles, specific keywords (like inerrancy) even function as some kind of litmus test for real evangelicals.
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