An interesting conversation between Tom Thatcher, professor at Cincinnati Christian University, and Tyler McKenzie, teaching pastor at Northeast Christian Church. Whatever you think of some of the details of the conversation, it reflects a dialectic approach that progressive Christians can embrace: On the one hand, recognizing that doubting and even disbelieving the Bible is not only acceptable but part of a normal, healthy response to the Bible that takes its contents seriously (i.e. in a way that Al Mohler doesn’t). On the other hand, keeping the Bible as a conversation-partner (in fact, multiple conversation partners!) in an effort to jolt oneself into reflecting on whether we adopt the views and conclusions that we do because the evidence has driven us there, or because we prefer what our own worldview offers to some alternatives. If we cannot treat the assumptions of the Biblical authors about the cosmos as essential, we need something that forces us to ask whether our own assumptions are better, and if so why.

On related subjects, see Fred Clark on the “biblical worldview,” Kendall Beachey on culturally relevant imagery, and Bruce Gerencser on Satan’s Alexandrian manuscripts.