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Apologia Report 17:5 (1,097)
February 9, 2012
Subject: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - the magnum opus of Douglas Groothuis found outstanding
EHRMAN, BART D. - "heavy on rhetoric, light on facts"
ISLAM - academic thinking on the Koran's origins
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APOLOGETICS
Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, by Douglas Groothuis [1] -- as a fellow educator at Denver Seminary with Goothuis (though part-time), reviewer Robert Velarde uses this review to laud his colleague's latest book concluding that "no single volume of apologetics has, in recent years, approached the comprehensive qualities of Christian Apologetics.
"Intended by the author primarily for use in seminary-level apologetics courses ... a few portions may pose some challenges to the lay reader [but] on the whole Christian Apologetics offers an intermediate level of content that is both scholarly and accessible. "The approach is that of cumulative case apologetics (chap. 3), which Groothuis views as superior to fideism, presuppositionalism, Reformed epistemology, and evidentialist approaches. This, however, does not mean that Groothuis entirely dismisses competing apologetics approaches (fideism being the exception).... Cumulative case apologetics builds a case for the Christian worldview: 'Several lines of evidence converge on the hypothesis that Christian theism is the best-attested worldview. ...
"Christian Apologetics strives for a nonpolemical approach, but in a few instances it will invariably perturb some. ...
"The book is divided into three parts, Part One addresses 'Apologetic Preliminaries' such as methodology, the Christian worldview, and truth. Part Two, the lengthiest portion, offers 'The Case for Christian Theism,' in what may be described as a thorough 'systematic theology' of Christian apologetics. ... Part Three capably confronts three 'Objections to Christian Theism:' religious pluralism, Islam, and evil." Christian Research Journal, 34:6 - 2011, p53.
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EHRMAN, BART D.
Forged: Writing in the Name of God — Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, by Bart D. Ehrman [2] -- reviewer Daniel B. Wallace, New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, sees Ehrman as "the most recognized evangelical-turned-agnostic in the world today." Wallace explains that Ehrman "gives the impression" that the evidence he lays out proves that the writings of the NT are forgeries. However, when the smoke clears, Forged is seen to be "primarily about books *other* than the NT" with "extensive overlap between most of the chapters." Wallace regrets that the "sheer volume" of Ehrman's approach will too often be enough to fool the "undiscerning reader."
Wallace finds it interesting that Ehrman's approach "sides with evangelicals against most liberal theologians for his *main* thesis - that the ancient church decidedly rejected any documents written in someone else's name" - even though Ehrman never acknowledges it.
"Ehrman puts himself at risk [because] he has to back up his assertions with other arguments that certain writings are forgeries." In looking over Ehrman's effort, Wallace notes "major gaps in his presentation" and goes to work explaining them.
Wallace confirms that "the evidence is overwhelmingly in support of apostolic authorship: the unequivocal testimony of these ancient authors - some reaching back to the late first century - is that Paul wrote all thirteen NT letters that bear his name, Peter wrote 1 Peter, and John wrote 1 John."
It comes as no surprise that "Ehrman never mentions that the overwhelming majority of orthodox writings throughout church history were not forgeries, while the same cannot be said for heretical writings. Nor does he mention that it is the the orthodox who unmasked the forgeries of the both the orthodox and the heretics; as far as I am aware there is zero evidence of any heretical group admitting forgery for any of their *own* writings - despite the fact that heretical works allegedly by Thomas, Mary, Philip, Peter, and many other of Jesus' disciples have been found. ...
"The fact that Ehrman has put forth a *trade book* rather than a scholarly treatise ... allows him the luxury of not having to deal with counterevidence or peer review. ... To the unsuspecting layperson, Forged looks like a death knell to the NT canon. To those who labor in the discipline of NT studies, it looks like yet another sensationalist book from Ehrman that is heavy on rhetoric and light on facts." Christian Research Journal, 34:6 - 2011, p50-52.
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ISLAM
"In the Beginning Were the Words" (no byline) -- observes that the contemporary study of the Koran "is in some places increasingly daring. ... [W]hen it comes to holy writ, there is one big difference between Islam and most other text-based faiths. .... Muslims have mostly believed that the Koran is distinct from every other communication. As God's final revelation to man, it belongs not to earthly, created things but to an eternal realm. That is a bigger claim than other faiths usually make for their holy writings." (Though the expression is not explained further, it's evidently a reference to the mainstream Muslim belief that the Koran was written in heaven in Arabic by Allah and dictated to Muhammad word-by‐word by the archangel Gabriel, and that the text we possess today is the exact copy of the "uncreated" original.)
"The Koran may be interpreted but from a believer's viewpoint, nothing in it can be set aside. Yet, at least in the calm, superficially courteous wold of Western academia, debating the precise text of the Koran is increasingly common....
"What can be debated in most Muslim countries differs hugely from what is discussed in the West. ...
"Muslims ... who take a different view [than that of strict orthodoxy] face not only academic ostracism but physical danger. Egypt's leading advocate of a liberal reading of the Koran - Nasr Abu Zayd, who died in 2010 - was denounced as an apostate, forcibly divorced from his wife and had to spend his later life abroad. The rise of Islamism in Egypt offers no prospect of a friendlier climate.
"Meanwhile, scholars in Europe, stimulated by the manuscripts in great European libraries, are working hard to find out how and when the Koran's written form was standardised. In America more effort has gone into relating the Koran to what is known from other sources about political and social history. ...
"Most Muslim children are told that they need know only one thing about the Koran's origin: that it was revealed over a period of 23 years by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad. But Islam has more to say than that. A well-known narrative tells how the fourth ruler of the Muslims, Caliph Uthman, realised that several variants of God's revelation were circulating, and established a single version, ordering the destruction of all the others. Non-Muslim scholars, too, see signs of a conscious, but not wholly successful, effort to settle on a definitive form. The continuing variations are not all trivial. Dots over a single letter can change the tense or person of a verb...."
An accompanying brief article, "Believe it or not" (p44), which begins: "For most Christians, scholarship illuminates the Bible, rather than undermining its message" but based on the story, seems disingenuous. A chart at the bottom of the page lists the five major religions and compares them across several categories, one being "Scholarly critique."
Briefly summing up the sentiments of modern liberal academia, the New Testament is written off: "Gospel accounts clash, not all epistles by Paul;" for Judaism, the Tanakh: "Ahistorical, reflects early pagan influences;" and Islam: "Influenced by early Jewish and Christian texts." The Economist, Dec 31 '11, pp43-44.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, by Douglas Groothuis (IVP, 2011, hardcover, 752 pages)<www.tinyurl.com/85lyebg>
2 - Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, by Bart Ehrman (HarperOne, March 2011, hardcover, 320 pages) <www.j.mp/e2LCQB>
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