The Future of IBS as Interpretive Method

Ken Schenck has some interesting thoughts on Inductive Bible Study (IBS), the "scientific" method of biblical interpretation which he and I both learned many moons ago at Asbury Theological Seminary. As a means of determining "the most probable original meaning" of a biblical text, IBS is quite effective. But Schenck raises some legitimate questions.

While IBS is the "preferred method" of evangelical scholars, Schenck raises the question of inconsistency between the methodology and practice of those scholars.

We can observe that evangelical scholars do not actually practice what they preach with regard to inductive method. They regularly go through the motions of the inductive method. But when the data approaches certain "boundaries" (pre-suppositions, Hays and Duvall would say), they shift from the most probable interpretation of the data to a possible interpretation that fits with their evangelical faith.

There is also the matter of the Protestant emphasis on Sola Scriptura, "Scripture alone," and the problem that arises when the interpretive method of the New Testament writers themselves is anything but inductive and hardly concerned with the "literal" meaning of Old Testament texts.

The Protestant drive to read "the Bible alone," led, in the modern era, to an emphasis on the original, historic, literal meaning of the Bible as the locus of God's word in the Bible. Ironically, however, attention to the literal meaning of the New Testament leads us to the realization that the New Testament authors themselves did not practice inductive Bible study method. Rather, the NT authors regularly read the OT texts to various degrees metaphorically, allegorically, in short, not in terms of what it actually meant originally.

Schenck concludes, finally, that IBS, while making an important contribution to the "flow of revelation," does not necessarily convey the most important or applicable meaning for evangelicals.

Reading the Bible as Scripture does involve a mind converted and oriented around Christian meanings, but there is no set rule as to what level of meaning it turns out to be. The IBS meaning is a valid meaning, and it is an important meaning in the "flow of revelation." But it is not necessarily the most important meaning for believers. This is a meaning that comes from a converted mind and the mind of the Spirit.

What is going on in the field of evangelical biblical interpretation reflects the larger crisis within the movement itself. Like all such movements which began in the spirit of the Reformation, there were logical inconsistencies embedded in many of its theological and interpretive presuppositions which were bound to be exposed over the course of time. Schenck, like many evangelical scholars today, is raising some of the important questions which evangelicals need to address honestly and with utmost seriousness.