Engaging Biblical Authority

Is the Bible infallible as some churches claim? Is it a historical document or a piece of literature, as scholars suggest? This helpful new book offers a brief introduction to the question of biblical authority, using essays by sixteen scholars who use the Bible as the Word of God in their own religious tradition and scholarship. After William Brown introduces the basic issues of biblical authority, each scholar presents a different, but sympathetic, view from his or her own perspective. Included are traditional Reformed, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox views; recent conservative or evangelical positions; and critical African American, Asian American, Hispanic, feminist, and womanist perspectives.

Contributors include Marc Zvi Brettler, Michael Joseph Brown, Katie G. Cannon, Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi, Ellen F. Davis, Terence E. Fretheim, Robert W. Jenson, Luke Timothy Johnson, Serene Jones, Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Jacqueline E. Lapsley, Frank J. Matera, S. Dean McBride Jr., Peter Ochs, Allen Verhey, and Seung Ai Yang.