The relevance and authority of scripture from three different viewpoints first evangelical with its strong emphasis on the Word of God it left little room to advance with the ever changing culture. Second the Liberal movement was all about cultural relevance and used only as a record of history. Each holds a valid argument Neo-Orthodox however is a good blend of both cultural relevance and scriptural foundation.
The Issues
Evangelical
Evangelicalism carried a strong emphasis on the Word of God. Which is in its own right a positive to the movement. Bible is used as the center of the Christian faith, however where they went wrong was saying that God is not moving anymore and what we have in this book is all that there is. There is no need for any more revelation because the Bible is complete. Actions will be based on the foundations of the Scriptures and things that do not directly align with this scriptures will not be tolerated. The evangelical movement held to the truth that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God. However, aloud no room for experiential or cultural relevance of the Bible. They did believe that the Bible was “the only infallible, authoritative Word of God” (qtd. in “Church History”) the evangelical movement joined people together out of other random religions and formed a cohesive bond between churches.
Liberal
Friedrich Schleiermacher believed that a person’s private revelations of God took precedence over their revelations from Scripture. Schleiermacher claimed the Bible was nothing more than a record of others’ religious experiences, as opposed to the inspired Word of God (Lane 238) He taught that one’s experiences and feelings brought about the religious aspects of today. There external sources employe...
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...ationship with God I can say that I lean more to the Neo-Orthodox movement. God gives us the ability to think and make choices, hi gives us His word to be a guide on how to live life. I believe that there is a place for modern thinking and ideas however under no circumstances should the authority of the scriptures be denied as in Liberalism. Nor the cultural relevance of the bible in evangelical thinking.
Works Cited
“Church History and Christian Thought: Lesson 132.” Introduction to Christian History and
Thought. Regent University. Virginia, Virginia Beach. Lecture.
Lane, Tony. A Concise History of Christian Thought. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
Print.
The Holy Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996. Print.
Houdmann, Michael S. "What Is Neo-orthodoxy?" GotQuestions.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. .
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