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Evangelicals, Inerrancy, and the Quest for Certainty: Making Sense of Our Battles for the Bible

Hentschel, Jason Ashley
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2058-4843
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1446479845

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, Theology.
This dissertation seeks to understand and evaluate the hermeneutical logic and apologetic mentality behind American evangelicalism’s appeal to biblical inerrancy during its twentieth- and twenty-first-century battles for the Bible. In nuanced agreement with Christian Smith’s charge that evangelicalism’s pervasive interpretive pluralism renders appeals to biblical inerrancy meaningless, I argue that what drives the perpetuation of such appeals is a fundamental desire for epistemic certainty in the face of what is perceived to be a devastating subjectivism. This is a certainty said to be obtained and maintained by an oversimplified conception of sola scriptura and a biblical hermeneutic replete with modernistic assumptions about textual objectivity and the effects of history and tradition upon interpretation. After attending to the intersection of the hermeneutical theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer with those of high-profile evangelicals James Packer and Clark Pinnock, I propose the adoption of a more community-centered conception of biblical authority alongside a rehabilitation of faith as trust in God’s own faithfulness.
William Trollinger, Jr. (Advisor)
Brad Kallenberg (Committee Member)
William Portier (Committee Member)
Anthony Smith (Committee Member)
Peter Thuesen (Committee Member)
273 p.
History; Modern History; Religion; Religious History; Theology
Evangelicalism; inerrancy; certainty; sola scriptura; biblical hermeneutics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hentschel, J. A. (2015). Evangelicals, Inerrancy, and the Quest for Certainty: Making Sense of Our Battles for the Bible [Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1446479845

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hentschel, Jason. Evangelicals, Inerrancy, and the Quest for Certainty: Making Sense of Our Battles for the Bible. 2015. University of Dayton, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1446479845.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hentschel, Jason. "Evangelicals, Inerrancy, and the Quest for Certainty: Making Sense of Our Battles for the Bible." Doctoral dissertation, University of Dayton, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1446479845

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

dayton1446479845
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© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Dayton and OhioLINK.