From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 30 1995 - 21:15:54 EDT
At 6:51 PM 8/30/95, David Moore wrote:
> To more directly address what Edgar has said: everyone's
>presuppositions matter. Whoever thinks that what he believes doesn't
>affect how he interprets Scripture, is, IMO, fooling himself.
>Acknowledging our positions openly can keep us from thinking that only
>those who disagree with us are the ones with presuppositions. We are here
>to dialogue - to convince and to be convinced of the truth and correctness
>of different interpretations. Being willing to let our own fundamental
>convictions be known, IMO, facilitates that dialogue and frees us from
>false posturing.
Presuppositions certainly do matter; I've tried to be open about mine,
especially where I suspect that some others may not share mine and I want
to be clear about where "I'm coming from." We are here to dialogue, yes,
but to dialogue fundamentally about the meaning of the Greek text of the
Bible, primarily the NT, not primarily about matters of personal faith, and
certainly not for the purpose of evangelizing each other. I think it is
appropriate to state, as Bruce Terry does, for instance, that one starts
out with the assumption that the received text (not the textus receptus) is
essentially sound and historical; I am a bit more skeptical than that,
although I will make a claim to be a believer and to find the canonical
text inspired. I think what we really object to is the posing of questions
to a poster who has expressed what we may consider a heretical notion such
as, "Are you really confident about the state of your own soul?" I don't
really think that I'm in any disagreement with David Moore on this
question, and I really have no qualms with making my own convictions clear
where they bear upon a text (and preferably a Greek text) under discussion,
but I really don't want to be reading statements that are little more than
testimonials on this forum. Is that unreasonable?
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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