Category: Peter Enns

Enns on the Evolution of the Pentateuch

Peter Enns has written a short essay providing a “descriptive historical survey” on the evolution of the Pentateuch titled “When was Genesis Written and Why Does It Matter?”. You can access it from the BioLogos website here. The thesis is as follows:

“The Pentateuch as we know it was not authored out of whole cloth by a second millennium Moses, but is the end product of a complex literary process—written, oral, or both—that did not come to a close until sometimes after the return from exile.”

Enns makes some good observations (nothing radically new, hence a “historical survey”). I think it is a worthwhile read and I’d be interested to hear the opinion of any student of the Old Testament who has read it.

Wednesdays with Wright: The Danger of the “Slippery Slope”?

The BioLogos Foundation has posted another video from the interview between Peter Enns and N.T. Wright. This time Wright addresses the problem of the “slippery slope” to “the left” amongst evangelicals in the United States and how this may be approached:

Also: T.C. Robinson is writing a “Wednesdays with Wright” as well. See here.

Ten Books That You Wouldn’t Think Would Influence Me That Did

There are some books that I have read that have influenced my thinking on various matters that you may not expect to have done so. This is made evident by how often I find myself thinking in terminology and categories that I would not have encounter otherwise. This is my list of those books:

10. Peter Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation

While many evangelicals denounced Enns because of this book–especially the further right side of the movement–I found it very helpful. I appreciated his emphasis on inspiration occurring in the language and world-view of the time in which Scripture was written because if God waited for human knowledge to reach its pinnacle before revealing anything there would have been no revelation. Also, he was very helpful when it comes to reading Old Testament quotations in the New Testament. I admit that to this day I think Westminster Theological Seminary embarrassed evangelicals by making such a fuss over such a helpful little book that was well within the circle of orthodoxy.

09. Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies

I was raised around the type of Christianity that was essentially equated with Republican politics. While there is much in this book with which I disagreed it was helpful to hear the voice of a female on the other side of evangelicalism speak from a vantage point of faith that differed so much from my own. I met her in San Francisco some time later and I have always said I think she would be an awesome aunt to discuss theology with at a family reunion.

08. Ravi Zacharias, Recapture the Wonder

While my interest in philosophy and apologetics was short lived this was one book that has impacted me even to today. In fact, it may be one reason why I don’t feel obligated to have follow the epistemological rabbit trail ad nauseam. It allowed me to embrace the fact that there are some things I will never know, some thing I don’t even have the capacity to understand, and some things I simply don’t have time to try to figure out if I am going to actually live life.

07. Peter Rollins, How (Not) to Speak of God

This is the balance to my enjoyment of the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers. While I rather read Athanasius than Rollins any day, and I have not read anything Rollins has written since, this book allowed me to embrace the beauty of apophatic theology to some extent. One thing that I gained from this was the importance of orthopraxy. I think Rollins under appreciates the need for orthodoxy at times, but I learned that to think about the many believers whose Christianity is valued by how it is lived because the type of education that has been made available to someone like me is not available to everyone. If their “knowledge” of orthodoxy was an end all many of my brothers and sisters in Christ would not be able to fully know Christ. Thankfully our knowledge of God goes beyond doctrinal facts.

06. Harvey Cox, Fire From Heaven

I have had a love-hate relationship with the Pentecostalism of my youth for years now. I love what I think it could become but sometimes hate what it is. One thing Harvey Cox’s book allowed me to do is appreciate the global significance of the movement. It allowed me to see how valuable it has been as a form of Christianity for so many people in the world. It opened my eyes to the fact that my own experience with the movement is not the full extent of the movement while also showing me there may be some forms that are even worse than what I experienced!

05. Craig Koester, Revelation and the End of All Things

The Book of Revelation has been very confusing to me for a very long time. For many years I was taught eschatology from the “Bible in one hand; newspaper in the other” approach. When I picked up Koester’s book it was a breath of fresh air. I read through it in a single day. While there are some things he wrote that I didn’t adopt it was an eye opening read.

04. Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder

Oddly enough the one book on Revelation that I enjoyed even more than Koester’s was Eugene Petersons’. He focuses upon “last” themes like worship, politics, and evil that show how this apocalyptic book envisions the end. It captivated me by allowing me to focus on the big picture without getting too lost in the often confusing imagery.

03. Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy

I know of people from the Reformed tradition that think Catholics are a disgrace to the name of Christ; Anglicans that think Baptist are too back-wood; and so forth and so on. One thing McLaren’s book did was help me value each denominations contribution to the church. I didn’t like his dealing with Pentecostals and Charismatics since it sounded  too much like the snobbery he was criticizing. Nevertheless, one thing I did gain was the realization that any denomination who thinks they have it altogether is cute, but misguided (even Rome; sorry Benedict).

02. Leland Ryken, Words of Delight

After graduating from Bible college my approach to Scripture was mostly about doctrinal proof-texting. During my first year of seminary Dr. Gary Tuck had us read this book in our hermeneutics class on the literary approach to Scripture. I knew I should read an epistle like and epistle, a gospel like a gospel, and so forth and so on. This book made that assertion make sense. I started paying attention to themes, characters, motifs, literary structures. It changed everything and it enriched my reading of Scripture.

01. Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book

Another book Dr. Tuck has us read was titled How to Read a Book. I know this sounds funny, but it is the best book I have ever read on how to get the most out of books. It improved my reading of Scripture as well as my ability to do research using other books. Now that I think about it that hermeneutics class was really important to my formation.

The Evolution of Bruce Waltke

There has been a lot said around the blogosphere regarding the departure (resignation) of Bruce Waltke from Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) because of a video in which he supports evolution. Rather than add another voice I thought I would provide a starting point for those who want to read through some of the various perspectives on this matter.

First, it appears that the video is no longer available because The Biologos Foundation had come to agreement to take it down (here). The reasons for its removal can be found here and a joint statement on the matter from Waltke and Darrel Falk, the President of The Biologos Foundation, can be found here.

Second, the news on this controversy has spread quickly. The story written by USA Today can be found here. The coverage provided by Christianity Today can be found here. I am sure there are a dozen more outlets.

Third, around the blogosphere there are reflections by J.R.D. Kirk (here) which mentions that Tremper Longman III has been uninvited from his adjunct gig at RTS for a video where he questions the historicity of Adam (here). Michael Bird sees this situation as being evidence that the future for Old Testament professors in Reformed theological circles in the United States is bleak (here) alluding to the Peter Enns/Wesminster Theological Seminary fiasco last year and some of the recent criticism being leveled at John Walton. Scot McKnight expresses his concern here. Rod Dreher gives his thoughts here.

Rick Philips at Reformation 21 also compares this situation to the one with Peter Enns and Westminster Seminary last year while being critical of both Enns and Waltke (here). Doug Wilson has some critical things to say what he sees as a compromise by Waltke for the sake of relevance (here). Justin Taylor provides a chronology of this saga which states that, “Dr. Waltke tendered his resignation at RTS, which was apparently rejected at first—or at least not initially accepted.” Thus far his story line (here) is the first one that I have seen that implies that Waltke initiated the split with RTS. Taylor derived his outline from the story written by Scott Jasschik for Inside Higher Ed (here).

I am sure there is much more on this subject this should serve as a sufficient starting point.

Bruce Waltke and Peter Enns Discuss ‘Inspiration and Incarnation’

If you have read Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns you may be interested in reading the discussion between Enns and fellow evangelical, Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke, on Enns book. On the back of the book there is a blurb by Enns that is very favorable to the book, but Enns writes that “Waltke has had a change of heart after a second reading.”

On Enns website there are pdf. documents you can view that were taken from the Westminster Theological Journal. The first article is by Waltke, “Revisiting Inspiration and Incarnation’. The second article is Enns response, “Response to Bruce Waltke”. I have yet to read the articles but I am interested to see why Waltke has done an about-face on this book.

To access these articles, click here.

Also see my short review on Inspirtation and Incarnation here.

Book Review: Peter Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation


Enns, Peter. Inspiration and Incarnation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

The hype has come and gone regarding Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament,the book that many see as being the the reason for the parting of ways between the author, Peter Enns, and Westminster Theological Seminary, yet the impact it will have on future evangelical thought may have only just begun. This is not to say that Enns says anything so new or outrageous. It is to say that people have now seen through Enns that you can be wholly evangelical while maintaining the ability to participate in critical thinking exercises.

The purpose of Enns’ work is to “bring an evangelical doctrine of Scripture into conversation with the implications generated by some important themes in modern biblical scholarship–particularly Old Testament scholarship–over the past 150 years” [p.13] Enns suggest that there are three areas that evangelicals have not handled very well: (1) The Old Testament and other literature from the ancient world. (2)Theological diversity in the Old Testament. (3) The way in which New Testament authors handle the Old Testament. [p. 15-16] In order for the evangelical view of Scripture (a high view maintaining inspiration, and often inerrancy) to interact with the developments of modern scholarship in the aforementioned areas it is suggested that we understand the Scriptures, as the Word of God, much like we understand Jesus, as the Word of God made flesh. [p. 17] In other words, Jesus was limited to human reality, although being God-incarnate.

Scripture also must therefore be seen in this framework. While the Spirit did inspire the Scriptures, and while we can accept that it is true in all it teaches, we should accept that this revelation is tucked inside the jargon, the idioms, and the worldviews of those who first received these texts. Thus it is not a problem for Enns that Genesis 1 reflects Babylonian creation myths such as Enuma Elish. The truth that the God of Israel is the creator of all things is found within language reflecting common ideas regarding origins that may not meet modern sensibilities.

This plays out intertextually within the Old Testament as diverse perspectives on reality and God come together to form a canon (think of the perspectives of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes). It also appears when New Testament authors such as the Apostle Paul or the Evangelist quote the Old Testament using methods that would have been very familiar to the hermeneutics of the day, but that appear to clash with our own grammatical-historical approach. The Spirit used the people and the culture of the day to declare eternal truth to the people of God. We should not be upset that the text do not appear as we would have written them today; we should realize that God has always been patient with humanity as He revealed Himself to us where we were and to the extent that we could handle.

While Enns does not answer all, of even most, of the questions that his book asks, he does allow evangelicals the freedom to hold to our commitment to the Scriptures as the revealed Word of God without resorting to blind apologetics when the text does not seem be as tidy as we might imagine a book “breathed” by God to be. At the very least this work allows for the perspectives of others, like Brevard Childs or John Sailhamer, to have a contrasting voice for us to listen to and glean from.