Copyright © 2001 by C. Fred Smith
1
PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON INERRANCY
By C. Fred Smith
The Criswell College
Introduction
Behind every broad movement within Christianity, lies an understanding of what the
Bible is and how it functions in the community of faith. Scripture is determinative for where
one stands on a host of doctrinal and theological questions. This is especially true for
Evangelicals, who in the past have defended the Trinity, the Virgin Birth of Christ, the
Resurrection and the bodily return of Christ, doctrines which are revealed in the Bible. It has
been a commitment to the text of Scripture as God's revelation that has kept evangelicals on
solid ground on these and a host of other doctrines. Indeed, as Francis Schaeffer said,
"Evangelicalism is not consistently evangelical unless there is a line drawn between those
who take a full view of Scripture and those who do not."
1
Thus upholding inerrancy is a task
that evangelicals must continue if evangelicalism is continue to uphold truth. Philosophy of
Religion must make a contribution to this effort.
Historical Survey
The nature of Scripture has at times been a concern of philosophers of religion, but at
other times has been passed over. In the ninetheenth Century, it was treated often. William
Sanday dealt with it in his Bampton Lectures in 1893,
2
and earlier, John Bascom's A
Philosophy of Religion or the Rational Grounds of Religious Belief, published in 1876, gave
Scripture extensive attention.
3
Since the 1930s, Scripture has received much less attention in Philosophy of Religion.
A survey of the literature in the field over the past two or three generations will make this
clear. Emil Brunner in his book The Philosophy of Religion from the Standpoint of Protestant
Orthodoxy gave revelation central place, but rejected the idea of inerrancy, of seeing
revelation in terms of "a book," as "divinely revealed truth."
4
For Brunner, revelation had to
1
Francis Schaeffer, "Form and Freedom in the Church" in Let the Earth Hear His
Voice (Minneapolis MN: World Wide Publications), 364-65, cited in Richard Lovelace,
"Inerrancy: Some Historical Perspectives" in Inerrancy and Common Sense, eds. Roger
Nicole and J. Ramsey Michaels, 15-47 (Grand Rapids: Baker 1980).
2
William Sanday, Inspiration: Eight Lectures on the Early History and Origin of the
Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration, Bampton Lectures (New York: Longmans, Green, 1893).
3
John Bascom, A Philosophy of Religion or the Rational Grounds of Religious Belief
(New York: G. P Putnam's Sons, 1876), 203-312.
4
Emil Brunner, The Philosophy of Religion from the Standpoint of Protestant
Orthodoxy, trans. A. J. D. Farrer and Bertram Lee Woolf (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1937), 151.