“A close historical-critical examination of the Bible quickly demolishes any naive ideas about inerrancy. Looking historically at the origins of Scripture and the Christian faith can indeed be a crisis for many people. Evangelicals in the 20th century felt this crisis, and they reacted by retreating into the fortress. Consequently, American evangelicalism now more than ever embodies the anti-intellectualism that Noll diagnosed. Instead of struggling through these complexities of the faith and keeping their eyes open to the sins of the church, evangelicals prefer to shut out the evil “world” –“

“possibilities for bringing justice and mercy, genuine freedom and prosperity, to the whole world. Empires always carry that possibility. But, alas, empires always also, for the same reason, face the temptation to use their power for their own prestige and wealth, and it doesn’t take a Ph D in macroeconomics or political theory to see that this has been massively the case in the rise of the present global empire – an empire in which, of course, we share to quite an extent. The challenge now, and one of the central answers to ‘where is God in the War on Terror’, is this: to provide a critique of American empire”

“I think it’s due to a failure of the theological seminaries. They don’t tell students how what they learn in seminary carries over into their preaching, teaching, and general relationship to their local church. On a great number of issues the congregation is therefore kept ignorant-they know the issues as of the year 1750. They take this simple position: “The Bible is as it is, or else it’s destroyed by the higher critics.

Any evangelical approach to biblical criticism just isn’t known or understood. And I guess I’m surprised at so much continued hostility to evolution.”