Faith Seeking Scholarship

Peter Enns is continuing his series entitled, "Aha Moments: Biblical Scholars Tell Their Stories." His latest interview is with Christopher Skinner. Chris and I contributed to the book, Jesus Is Lord Caesar is Not: Evaluating Empire Studies in the New Testament. It has been a pleasure getting to know him. Chris writes in his interview:

The assumption (and protection) of a unified, harmonious, problem-free reading of the Bible is endemic to the life of most evangelical Bible readers. However, the Bible we have-- as opposed to one we want or are often led to believe we have-- does not fall into line with that assumption.

When we ignore or explain away these problems, we do ourselves, our churches, and future generations of Bible readers a serious injustice.

I have come to think that defending the Bible as inerrant is more about maintaining an identity than it is about searching for truth. I like to tell my students that one of my goals is to help them "eschew the culture of easy-answerism." One of the best ways to do this is to study Scripture together without flinching and let them know that they have nothing to fear.

Chris is an excellent example of honest scholarship and deep Christian faith. Both are indeed possible.
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The entire interview can be read here.