Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 52:1 (NA 2001)
Article: Reconstructing the Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture
Author: Timothy Ward

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TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 155

Reconstructing the Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture1

Timothy Ward

Although the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture has been a central doctrine in Protestant orthodox theology, it is, along with the general Reformation principle of sola Scriptura, and confessions of related attributes of Scripture (clarity, perfection and necessity), regularly treated superficially in both scholarly and popular contemporary writing. It is often rejected hastily, with little acknowledgement made of its fundamental place in Christian theology and belief both before and after the Reformation. It is often confessed unreflectively, without due recognition that it is a confession which must be argued for, and located carefully in relation to the fundamental trinitarian, christological and pneumatological doctrines of Christian theology.

This work aims to revisit the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, offering a contemporary reconstruction of its theological, hermeneutical and philosophical bases. This brings the doctrine, especially in its orthodox Protestant formulation, into creative discussion with some related topics in contemporary theology, hermeneutics, literary theory and the philosophy of language. Material for the reconstruction is found especially in the basic concepts of speech-act theory, as they have been developed by J.L. Austin, John Searle and Nicholas Wolterstorff, and as applied to the Bible by Wolterstorff, Anthony Thiselton and Kevin Vanhoozer.

An introductory chapter outlines the academic contexts within which the content of the thesis is located: the interpretation of the historical doctrine of Scripture, especially that of the post-Reformation Protestant orthodox; the influence of linguistic and literary theory on contemporary theology and biblical studies; the question of authority in theology and how God is to be ‘named’; the

TynBul 52:1 (2001) p. 156

broad question of how Christian theology may think of God’s action in light of modernity and post-modernity. A further academic context—Jacques Derrida’s concept of the inevitable ‘supplementation’ of written texts—relates specifically to the overall title, Word and Supplement. Derrida’s supplément is a concept aimed at revealing (by deconstructing) the radical insufficiency of any text. In addition, a variety of contemporary approaches to texts and theological views of Scripture can be described in terms of the ‘supplement’ which they provide, in order to account for how texts in general, and the Bible in particular, give rise to meaning. These include the author, the reader(s), the Holy Spirit, literary context, historical context—or none of these.

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