No Easy Task

I was at the first lunch time lecture of the year at the Evangelical Library today (in fact I was chairing). It was gratifying to be among over 30 people who had gathered to hear trustee Professor Paul Helm speak on the subject No easy task - Charles Hodge and Theology. Focusing on the first 17 pages of Hodge's Systematic Theology (see here for an online edition of Hodge) Dr Helm sought to do two things. Firstly, to defend Hodge against accusations of naivete and a perceived over-emphasis on propositions and secondly to stress the importnace of his material for today.
1. Professor Helm accused some modern scholars of failing to read Hodge properly and spoke of a veritable 'Hodge derision' industry. Kevin Van Hoozer was one cited by name. Hodge certainly believed in the inductive method of approaching Scripture - taking the data of Scripture and using the human mind to draw conclusions but people today often throw their hands up in horror at such a method.
Hodge in fact was not naive but recognised the difficulties in his task. (He himself uses the phrase 'no easy task').

Of course, the Bible is not a higgledy-piggledy collection of facts that can be arranged as suits the individual. Even in Scripture there is evidence of systematisation and order (not only in Paul but in John and perhaps in other places too). The bible's own self-interprettion is a help for those who would systematise.
He speaks too of dogmatic and speculative difficulties that we bring to Scripture when we either come to it with our minds already made up about things or fall into mysticism, on one hand, or philosophising on the other.
2. Professor Helm's plea then was for a reaffirmation of the fact that the Bible is objectively true. Though for sociological purposes the government and others may consider evangelicals to be a sect we are in fact people who stand on the objective truth of Scripture. It is a mistake to think that if a thing is objectively true it must be provable. Some things are not of that nature. We need to remember the Reformation view that 'councils have erred' and recognise our own fallibility without surrendering the idea that Scripture itself is infallible and inerrant. We are always 'on the way' as Hodge recognised but we do have the truth.
In his closing remarks Dr Helm urged us to check out what peole really say and not rely too much on secondary sources. When we find a scholar misrepresenting his source we should ask where he is really getting his ideas from. We need to recognise that in Scripture we find truth not just opinions. We must be determined to make a disciplined study of it.
A helpful brief time of discussion followed. It was nice to meet old friends and others including a young American man studying in Brighton present with his wife and baby son. There is another lecture on Feb 26 at the Library when Mostyn Roberts will be looking at Francis Schaeffer.

Professor Helm's blog Evangelical Library