Though the Bible presents a personal and relational God, popular modern worldviews portray an impersonal divine force in a purely material world. Readers influenced by this competing worldview hold assumptions about fundamental issues—like the nature of humanity, evil, and the purpose of life—that present profound obstacles to understanding the Bible. In Inerrancy and Worldview, Dr. Vern Poythress offers the first worldview-based defense of scriptural inerrancy, showing how worldview differences create or aggravate most perceived difficulties with the Bible. His positive case for biblical inerrancy implicitly critiques the worldview of theologians like Enns, Sparks, Allert, and McGowan. Poythress, who has researched and published in a variety of fields — including science, linguistics, and sociology — deals skillfully with the challenges presented in each of these disciplines. By directly addressing key examples in each field, Poythress shows that many difficulties can be resolved simply by exposing the influence of modern materialism. Inerrancy and Worldview’s positive response to current attempts to abandon or redefine inerrancy will enable Christians to respond well to modern challenges by employing a worldview that allows the Bible to speak on its own terms. ~ Product Description

Table of Contents

• Preface 13
• Introduction 15
• Part 1 Two Common Religious Difficulties
  • 1 How Can Only One Religion Be Right? 19
  • 2 Are Moral Rules a Straitjacket? 23
• Part 2 Challenges From Science and Materialism
  • 3 Worldviews and Materialism 27
  • 4 Modern Science 34
• Part 3 Challenges from History
  • 5 The Historical-Critical Tradition 45
  • 6 Responding to Historical Criticism 51
  • 7 The Change from History to Structure 56
• Part 4 Challenges About Language
  • 8 Challenges from Linguistics and Philosophy of Language 61
  • 9 Words and Meanings concerning Many “Gods” 71
  • 10 Growth in Understanding 79
  • 11 Contexts for Language 85
  • 12 The Idea of Closed Language 91
  • 13 Breaking Out of Closure in Language 95
  • 14 Analysis of Biblical Narratives 102
• Part 5 Challenges From Sociology and Anthropology
  • 15 Challenges from Sociology 107
  • 16 The Idea of Closure of Culture 114
  • 17 Breaking Out of Closure in Culture 118
  • 18 Marxism and Feminism 121
• Part 6 Challenges from Psychology
  • 19 Challenges concerning Cognition 129
  • 20 Interaction of Minds 134
  • 21 Thinking about the Inspiration of the Bible 140
• Part 7 Challenges from Examples
  • 22 Ordinary Life and Science 147
  • 23 Understanding an Alleged “Contradiction” 153
  • 24 Law in Cultural Context 158
  • 25 Proverbs in Cultural Context 168
  • 26 The Glory of Christ 173
• Part 8 Challenges from Our Attitudes
  • 27 Do We Need Help? 181
  • 28 Corruption in the Mind 187
  • 29 Counterfeiting the Truth 195
  • 30 Truth 199
  • 31 The Bible 205
  • 32 The Danger of Pride 212
• Part 9 Challenges From Corrupt Spirituality
  • 33 Religious Gullibility 219
  • 34 The Nature of Ultimate Commitments 226
  • 35 Why Are We So Gullible? 231
• Part 10 Conclusion
  • 36 Scripture and Worldviews 237
  • Appendix: Human Authors of the Bible 245
  • Bibliography 253
  • General Index 259
  • Scripture Index 266