Update on Dr. Peter Enns and the Westminster Controversy
Readers of this blog may recall some of my posts awhile back (e.g., click here) on Dr. Peter Enns, a fine professor of Old Testament at Westminister Theological Seminary. Well, because of his controversial book, Inspiration and Incarnation, WTS has voted to suspend Peter, even though he is tenured!, effective now as this current spring semester closed. A recent article in Christianity Today summarizes the basic situation (click here). An excerpt from this article reads: "New Testament professor [at WTS] Steve Taylor said...the seminary is too restrictive in its reading of the Westminster Confession. He and other professors feel that the faculty vote was completely disregarded in the board meeting. 'For the 12 [who voted for Enns], it's very frustrating, because either our competency or our orthodoxy has been called into question. This is why we're demoralized,' Taylor said." Brandon Withrow's blog has thorough updates on the controversy, and links to key documents, audio files, blogs, and reviews (click here). On his own blog today Peter proposes to start posting some distillations from the 38-page paper he recently wrote for the WTS faculty and board clarifying his thinking in his book, Inspiration and Incarnation. Please keep Peter in your prayers; WTS is lucky to have him on their faculty.
posted by S and C at 8:31 PM
3 Comments:
it sounds awful.
but this is what WTS was founded for, so i can't say i'm entirely surprised. but it's very sad.
Yes, but it's interesting to wonder why this has come to a head now, when Peter's thinking appears to be well within an established trajectory within the OT dept at WTS: click here. ---S.
very interesting!
i guess my reaction is to wonder, isn't this the kind of thing which led to the secession of wts from pts? it's not as if pts suddenly changed one day--it was a growing dissatisfaction over a long period.
Enns achieved (accidental) prominence and notoriety, but my own reaction is that the habit of assured confessional orthodoxies is to ever-narrow.
in a certain sense, in my mind (and maybe this is inaccurate thinking), wts stands for the proposition that you must demonstrate your commitment to the confessional standard by periodic purges or secessions
Post a Comment
<< Home