<< Jim,
I trust you are not claiming that _no_ observational data has anything to
do with theology.>>
No. What happened was Glenn truncated my question. My full question was this:
<<Huh? The observational data has NOTHING to do with theology. If you think it
does, please demonstrate how that is. How, for example, does the earth's
crust tell me how to do hermeneutics?>>
The truncated version only quoted the first sentence, and that was misleading
if you haven't been up on all the messages. The discussion was about the
theology OF HERMENEUTICS, not about general theology, and not about what the
observational data has to do with the textual data.
My point is I think Glenn is taking a limited view of early Genesis, a
fundamentalist view, and I have been pointing out that I believe this view
ignores modern textual knowledge. Glenn's response was that I was now
"ignoring" the observational data--but I kept explaining that data is
irrelevant to the question of HOW one interprets sacred text.
No observed datum can tell us what rules of interpretation to use. That's
confusing two sciences--natural science, and the science of hermeneutics.
I gave an extensive quote from Ramm's book, Heremeneuitcs, where he makes this
same point, and in fact says the FIRST order of business is reacting to the
literary genre of Scripture (of which there are many). That step hasn't been
adequately taken, in my opinion.
I quoted Finlayson, who said:
"Reverence for the text of Scripture as inspired does not mean that
evangelicals are bound to a literal interpretation of it. The science of
heremeneutics developed freely within the premises of verbal inspiration, and
principles of interpretation--whether literal, allegorical or
typological--were determined on grounds *proper to the mode of revelation in
each case.*" ["Contemporary Ideas of Inspiration" in "Revelation and the
Bible," Carl Henry, ed., Baker, 1958]
That is what the issue is, what is "proper" to the mode of revelation. This is
important because Scripture says it is important: "Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and
who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Ti.2:15).
Jim