A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
Editor’s Note: Today we continue our series of “bonus” summaries covering all thirty-six chapters of the monumental volume, The Enduring Authority of the Christian Scriptures (D.A. Carson, ed.).
Chapter 19: Biblical Authority and Diverse Literary Genres
by Barry G. Webb
(Summarized by Brian Trapp)
Confessional Christians hold that the Bible is the divinely inspired and authoritative message of God to humanity. However, the Bible is also a book of literary and historical diversity, written by numerous authors over hundreds of years using a variety of genres. While discussions about the authority of scripture have been limited to confessional communities, studies of the various genres of the Bible have been dominated by the academy.
Webb raises a simple question: Given the variety of genres present in the canon, how can the Bible be said to be the authoritative word of God to human beings? After all, books like the epistles of Paul are letters written by people to other people, while the Psalms include laments and challenges from human beings to their Creator. Unlike the Koran, which does not contain multiple genres and purports to be the direct words of God to man, the Christian canon’s diversity seems. . .
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