The Narnia 3 Blog

Peter Jennings and the New Testament

On April 5th ABC is going to commit three hours of prime time to Jesus and Paul a discussion of early Christianity and related themes. The panel is of particular note, as this list demonstrates.

The list, which includes the likes of Bishop Spong, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg is so thoroughly tilted to the left that any conclusions that may be presented are certainly going to be antithetical to Biblical Christianity. One must wonder if those who put together this panel have a particular agenda or if they are just entirely ignorant of the issues. Clearly this is a rhetorical question, there is an obvious agenda and the selected scholars appearing tip the hand quite clearly.

It seems that there are four basic positions in scholarly pursuits in relation to the Bible. Those are:

• Inerrantist: This view takes the Bible as literal and inerrant. It is the Word of God given by direct revelation, therefore it cannot err in any of its statement or conclusions. The ancillary disciplines are viewed through the text.
  
• Maximalist: This view takes the Bible at face value and concludes that for the most part, its statements related to history and culture are generally correct and must be given considerable weight in evaluating archaeological, cultural or historical conclusions. The text of Scripture is viewed through the ancillary disciplines.
  
• Conservative Minimalist: This view takes the Bible as generally an unreliable historical document, but still the text must at least be consulted for the bits and pieces of factual data that may have survived the process of dissemination.
  
• Radical Minimalist: This view regards the Bible as entirely unreliable as a source of information. The text is viewed as little more than religious, theological or moralistic fiction.
  

Of the group that ABC has assembled, none would consider themselves to be an inerrantist, perhaps five or so would want to be called maximalists and the rest would be minimalists or radical minimcalists in their view of Scripture.

N. T. Wright and Ben Witherington would probably have to be listed as the most "conservative" Biblical scholars in the group, although Wright and E. P. Sanders are the founding fathers of the "New Perspective on Paul" movement. The New Perspective postition, I would imagine, will get quite a deal of airing in this program.

The motivation for this much air time from ABC on a subject of Biblcial studies is clearly due to the success of The Passion movie and the perception that that these subjects will generate ratings. Since The Passion was widely regarded as "too literal" and too tied to the Biblical narrative, perhaps ABC views this presentation as "equal time."