Christianity Today has a piece on Martin Hengel entitled: "The Champion who Debunked Bultmann". It also links to an essay written by Martin Hengel entitled, "Raising the Bar: A daring proposal for the future of evangelical New Testament scholarship," (2001) that includes these quotes:
"Only by mastering these languages can we read and understand the necessary Jewish, Greco-Roman, and early Christian sources, especially the church fathers, who are the earliest exegetes of the whole Bible. To present the faith to the 21st-century world, we need to support young, gifted scholars who have excellent philological-historical training and possess a broad learning base as well as specialized expertise. The evangelical community needs to free up resources for our scholars."
Listen to this proposal:
"Allow me to make a daring proposal: Why not found an IBR-run institute of advanced studies at a traditional, renowned university center in the United States? The university would grant room to IBR on its campus, thus allowing IBR to develop a respectable evangelical presence at the university. Another plus of a renowned university location would be the scholars' access to a world-class library collection. Such a center would house evangelical doctoral students and postdoctoral students who could study alongside more seasoned professors during their sabbatical years. The institute would also attract the best scholars from overseas who are indebted to the truth of the gospel and love the Bible. The center would operate within a free atmosphere of scholarly discussion but with the confident assurance that Christ, "the truth and the way and the life" (John 14:6), will overcome all human misunderstandings and wrong ways."
Hengel concludes in the end:
"John 8:32 promises that "the truth will make you free." This is the ultimate aim of all true biblical scholarship. The search for truth unites us, and it is a task for which we remain always responsible. In a time of astonishing discoveries about the Bible, but also of deep errors and seducing deception, this task is more necessary than ever."
3 comments:
It sounds quite a lot like Tyndale House only in America.
Yes. In his article, Hengel refers to it as "An American Tyndale House."
Well, there you go. Maybe, since we already have Tyndale House, we could just work on giving it all the resources it needs to become an international centre of excellence, rather than feeling that America needs its own. Just a (wholly unbiassed) thought!
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