Modernism’s Christian Twins

Enlightenment thinking came to dominate the Church during the 19th Century. One of its legacies was higher criticism. Bible scholars placed themselves above and outside of Scripture. What did not conform to their rationalistic, scientific assumptions was discarded. By the mid-Twentieth Century, Scripture had largely been stripped of its authority and mystery.

Meanwhile, “defenders of Scripture” fundamentalists arose in response. In retrospect, their reaction was a peculiar one. Rather than undercutting the assumptions of the Modernists, they embraced them! The fundamentalist project becomes one of showing how the Bible is entirely rational and has no vagaries. Scripture and faith became an air-tight, thoroughly rational system. (Or so they thought.) All of this is with a message that has as its cornerstone things like the trinity, “fully-human, fully God,” “born of a virgin,” and “lose your life to save it.” Like the Modernists, the Fundamentalists unwittingly gutted the Word of mystery and reduced its authority to a system that stood or fell based on rational coherence.

Higher criticism and fundamentalism were twin children of the Enlightenment-Modernist era. Science and rational exploration began as projects to bring us closer to the mind of God. But science became the one that would ultimately answer every human question and be the final arbitrator of disputes, even in matters of spirituality. I call this “omniscience.” Omniscience has collapsed and has all but taken liberal Christianity with it. Curiously, because Fundamentalist scholars are so over-identified with rationalistic models, the more conservative Church now finds itself substantially discredited as well.

There has been a rediscovery of Scripture as a narrative over the last quarter century. With it has come a renewed appreciation for its mystery and authority. We are now returning to seeking the One behind the Scripture. I believe that Scripture was divinely inspired. As a mere collection of interesting human documents, Scripture requires more faith than I can muster. But neither is Scripture a systematic theology text or an instruction manual. It is divinely inspired and preserved testimony (testaments) about the living God. Its central purpose is to draw us into an authentic relationship with the One about whom the documents give testimony.