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The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

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36 IMPACT OF SCROLLS ON TEXT AND CANON<br />

My personal proposal is that we in <strong>the</strong> guild of Renaissance-derived<br />

study of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Bible</strong> keep one foot solidly in <strong>the</strong> modern period of quest for<br />

facts, <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r foot in <strong>the</strong> postmodern period of indeterminacy <strong>and</strong><br />

human humility in <strong>the</strong> quest for truth. 35 <strong>The</strong>re is no need for deconstructing<br />

every stage of advancement we have made since <strong>the</strong><br />

Renaissance in underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>the</strong> history of formation of <strong>the</strong> biblical text.<br />

But <strong>the</strong>re is need for deconstructing human overconfidence in that quest,<br />

as well as need for <strong>the</strong> willingness to acknowledge that <strong>the</strong> observer is an<br />

integral part of <strong>the</strong> observed, <strong>and</strong> that objectivity is but subjectivity under<br />

effective constraints. Clearly, <strong>the</strong> most effective constraint in research is<br />

dialogue—dialogue between differing confessional <strong>and</strong> professional points<br />

of view <strong>and</strong> between differing hermeneutics addressing <strong>the</strong> same issues.<br />

Critique of one position by ano<strong>the</strong>r should have as its purpose not to<br />

demolish <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r, but to correct <strong>and</strong> streng<strong>the</strong>n it for <strong>the</strong> sake of dialogue,<br />

<strong>the</strong> kind of dialogue that is now essential more than ever before to<br />

<strong>the</strong> success of <strong>the</strong> human enterprise. We need each o<strong>the</strong>r.<br />

35. See <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>me advanced by <strong>the</strong> essays in A Gift of God in Due <strong>Sea</strong>son: Essays on<br />

Scripture <strong>and</strong> Community in Honor of James A. S<strong>and</strong>ers (ed. R. D. Weis <strong>and</strong> D. M. Carr;<br />

JSOTSup 225; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996).

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