Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 08:1 (May 2010)
Article: Book Review: God’s Words in Human Words
Author: Mark A. Pierson

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Book Review: God’s Words in Human Words

Mark A. Pierson

M.A., seminarian in Ph.D. program,
Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN.

Sparks, Kenton L. God’s Words in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. Paper. 415 pages.

Overview

Both the impetus behind Kenton Sparks composing God’s Words in Human Words, and his attempt therein to assist Christians who are wrestling with problems pertaining to Scripture, may appear admirable, at least on the surface. “[W]hat is sorely needed in every age—for the sake of believers and unbelievers alike—is a church that knows how to thoughtfully consider and assimilate the fruits of academic endeavors to its faith in Christ” (18). Faith and scholarship, he argues, ought to be bedfellows rather than adversaries; otherwise, Christians will likely have very little to say to those not sealed off from academic inquiry. Consequently, agnostics will continue to be made out of believers, and skeptics will persist in feeling justified about their unbelief. Sparks wishes to counter this trend, and to rescue the church—specifically the evangelical wing of the church—from what he considers to be a naïve and outdated approach to the Bible. Believers rely too often on the ineffective tactic of beating the fundamentalist drum louder when threatened with the findings of modern scholarship. Instead, challenges to Scripture ought to be acknowledged and confronted. By a healthy integration of faith and critical study, he deduces that Christians’ confidence in God’s truth will remain intact, and even be strengthened.

What could be mistaken, however, for a vigorous denouncing of the anti-intellectualism which plagues much of evangelicalism today, or for a robust apologetic that exhibits the reliability of the biblical manuscripts, turns out to be a capitulation on the crucial issue of Scripture’s inerrancy. In Sparks’s judgment, the problem lies not with the presuppositions and methods of modern historical criticism. Rather, the culprits are Christians who retain an inveterate understanding of their sacred text. Though he denounces approaches to Scripture that are either strictly “secular,” viewing it as a purely human product, or myopically “traditional,” defending its presumed inspiration and infallibility, it is clearly the latter view which is under fire here. As a solution, Sparks admonishes the church to embrace the findings of historical criticism while simultaneously adhering to the Bible’s doctrinal truths. He calls this reassessment the “constructive” approach, or “believing criticism.”

He opens with an examination of how epistemology and hermeneutics have been understood by Christians during the pre-modern, modern...

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