Workshop: The Bible Alone: The Sola Scriptura Problem in the Study of American Evangelicalism
3401 Dwinelle Hall
Molly Worthen, Assistant Professor of History, University of North, Chapel Hill
All evangelicals say that their primary — if not sole — source of religious authority is the Bible. Yet their inability to agree on what, precisely, the Bible means tells us that evangelical engagement with this text is not uniform or simple. A host of mediating influences and authorities intervene: scriptura is never, truly, sola. In recent years, scholars of American evangelicalism have focused on this question of what is really happening when their subjects say that they simply “believe the Bible.” (Worthen)
Response by David Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Berkeley.
Workshop participants are asked to read Professor Worthen’s paper, “The Bible Alone: The Sola Scriptura Problem in the Study of American Evangelicalism.” To receive the paper, please contact info.bcsr@berkeley.edu by Wednesday, April 16.
The Berkeley Public Forum on Religion is a program of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion (BCSR). Co-presented by the History Department’s New Voices in American History Series.