It is exciting to see that, even in England, a debate is finally beginning concerning the nature and authority of Scripture.
For too long, we have been told by some evangelical scholars that such a debate would be unhelpful or divisive. Given that Scripture and its authority has always been one of the defining elements of what it is to be an evangelical, the debate is vital. It is especially time for those who believe the Scriptures to be utterly true and without error in all that it affirms, to speak out or they will see their position sidelined by a different consensus evangelicalism.
I have been specially pleased to see Dr. Alister McGrath, Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, beginning to take on the debate in some of his recent writings. He has referred to it as an 'important and potentially difficult debate' emerging within evangelicalism (A Passion for Truth, IVP, 1996, page 101; also Evangelical Anglicans, SPCK, 1993, page 33). N.T. Wright, J. Goldingay and others have also recently addressed the subject of the nature of Scripture in various ways. That this is beginning to happen is good and yet at least some of what is being said concerns me deeply. Here I raise just a few concerns in relation to McGrath's recent writings, although he reflects a position beginning to be adopted by a number of evangelical scholars.
