Not inerrancy again

This coming February-March I will probably be giving a paper in Albrecht-Bengel-Haus,Tübingen, at the annual Doktoranden- und Habilitandenkolloquium of the Arbeitskreis für evangelikale Theologie (AfeT). I have not yet decided on a topic, but having just checked up on their Theologische Grundlage, I am thinking of providing a theological rationale for a restatement of biblical inerrancy based on Paul's reasoning in 1 Cor 8:1-11:1 concerning meat associated with idols. Yes, I know, that sounds a bit crazy, but somehow I think it works. At least it does somehow in my sick and twisted mind!

Speaking of inerrancy, I have found David Vinson's kind gift to me (Enns' Inspiration and Incarnation) very helpful (more about David again next week!). It has crystallised my thinking in a few important areas, and I will no doubt return to it again and again. However, I find myself struggling profoundly with such theologically insensitive comments as the following in Enns's work:

'The starting point for our discussion is the following: as Christ is both God and human, so is the Bible. In other words, we are to think of the Bible in the same way that Christians think about Jesus' (17)

While so much in this book is extremely helpful, thought-provoking and up-building, such that I will be using it to teach in church groups whenever possible, I couldn't disagree more with the above. The Bible is not God in the same way Christ is. Obviously, Enns merely wants to employ the language of incarnation as an analogy, to help us conceptualise the humanity and divine inspiration of the scriptural texts. But such language needs to be handled very carefully, and some of his rhetoric, in my view, simply goes too far. I ought to add that such clumsy verbal stomping on holy ground is very much the exception in this book.