This book was not written for biblical scholars or for seminary-trained pastors.
Instead, it was written for “in the Pew” church members who have inquisitive minds and who have a desire to understand the Bible in a responsible way. It was also written for college students and seminarians who are neophytes as far as biblical studies are concerned. The discussion should help them find their way through the interpretive “mine field” which surrounds the Bible in some quarters today.
The purpose of the book is to grapple with the question: is the biblical inerrancy theory plausible? Does inerrancy make sense? It focuses on the “popular” or “folk” version of inerrancy. The popular version of inerrancy has been around for approximately a century. It was hammered out on the eastern seaboard by Princeton theologians and got to the heart of the folk-version of inerrancy. One inerrantist spokesman said “The Bible is void of errors, contradictions, or problematic passages. Every statement found therein is valid and is believable to modern man.”
Readers may inquire: why go to the trouble of asking if inerrancy makes sense? Broaching questions can clarify our thinking and can deliver us from half-truths. Questions have a capacity to liberate from false views which are used to manipulate the naive, the uninformed, the credulous. The posing of questions can lead to right understanding. A medieval theologian remarked “The first key to wisdom is constant and frequent questions. By doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.”
