Re: apologetics
michael farley (mifarley@indiana.edu)
Fri, 3 Nov 1995 08:49:08 -0500 (EST)JIm, I have a few questions concerning Bloesch's views on the historicity
and genre of Genesis. Do you (and Bloesch) accept ANY part of the book of
Genesis as being literal, journalistic (to use your term) history? Did
any of the Genesis accounts happen just as they are described in the
text? If so, then at what point in the text of Genesis does the TEXT
indicate that we should shift our hermeneutic from saga-history to
journalistic history? Does the genre change at some point? I can't
identify any such discernible break in the whole book. It seems to me
that the book of Genesis is a unit from the standpoint literary genre, so
it seems that if the stories about the patriarchs are literally true,
then the creation accounts must be read in the same manner (as literal
history.) This does not preclude taking into account the relevant
linguistic features of the text (I am not advocating a simplistic YEC
reading of the text). Does Bloesch give any kind of consistent framework
to deal with these questions? If not, then his neo-orthodox view, taken
to its logical conclusion, will have trouble affirming the historicity of
ANY biblical passages.
Yours in Christ,
Mike Farley
Indiana University