1 Response to Experimental Theology: Owning Your Protestantism: We Follow Our Conscience, Not the Bible

1. Len Vander Zee says:

   December 2, 2015 at 10:46 am

   This is a very interesting piece, and I hope people will follow up on it. It seems to me that we Protestants need to pay more attention to the sociological aspects of our hermeneutics. Molly Worthen addresses this same issue from the angle of authority in her book on Evangelicalism “Apostles of Reason.” The title says it all. Protestants cannot separate themselves from the Enlightenment, though they ignore the implications. Since the Enlightenment biblical interpretation is the work of reason that often excludes tradition and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.
   We are constantly searching for that authority on which to ground our theology, and for Evangelicals it’s the Bible. But, as this post shows, it ain’t so easy. It seems to me the search for grounding and authority has to somehow include the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church throughout the centuries, but that’s not so easy to pin down, especially on emerging issues, which have always been the challenge for the church, and especially for Protestants. These kinds of issues call for emerging consensus over the years, or, we could say, the discernment of the Spirit in the Word.

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