Thursday, October 04, 2007

A Brief Challenge to Orthodox

Dear Orthodox,

You've been providing a lot of comments to this blog recently, most of them in disagreement with things I've offered.

How about we formalize the disagreement in the form of a debate?

I would happy to defend the thesis: "Resolved: 'It is tradition, look no further' is less workable as applied to the theological content of the Westminster Confession of Faith than 'The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.'"

You'll recognize that the former mantra is attributed to an early Greek father, and the latter mantra is attributed to "fundamentalist" adherents to Sola Scriptura.

I'm open to counterproposals as well.

-Turretinfan

11 comments:

orthodox said...

I'm not sure if I understand or not. Are you saying that sola scriptura is more workable but only as it pertains to the issues addressed in the westminster confession?

Turretinfan said...

I'm think of the WCF as a "for instance."

Please don't try to look for things beneath and behind what I've written - I'm usually not that nuanced.

-Turretinfan

TheoJunkie said...

TF,

I recommend changing the latter mantra to "The Bible says it, that settles it, I believe it."

:)

(No implications on your personal nuances)

orthodox said...

What do you have in mind when you say "workable"? How would we know from your point of view if it was "working"?

Turretinfan said...

I just meant the ordinary sense, as can be seen here: (link) (especially the second definition).

If you'd like more clarification, I mean that the former mantra does not work as well as (it's not as practical, as feasible, or as handy as) the second mantra when it comes to discussing theology (taking the WCF contents as an example of theology).

-Turretinfan

Turretinfan said...

Dear TJ,

I just typed the mantra the way I have heard it. If the mantra is usually ordered in the way you suggest, I'd be happy to adjust it.

Otherwise, as you seem to have noted, I wouldn't read any nuance into the phrase ordering.

The point is that the second mantra asks the question "What does the Bible say?" whereas the former mantra asks "What does tradition say?"

-Turretinfan

GeneMBridges said...

A debate on Sola Scriptura should require Orthodox accurately present it. In times past, he has not done so, and has refused correction. He constantly uses "Solo" Scriptura as his model. If cannot do this much, I am not sure a debate would help.

Turretinfan said...

Gene,

If he has not learned yet, I'll point that out. If he refuses to acknowledge our position for what it is, it will be obvious to everyone who reads.

-Turretinfan

orthodox said...

Ok, how do you wish to proceed? What are the rules, if any? Or do we just dive in?

Turretinfan said...

Ok, if you'd like, here is the proposal:

I have a debate blog set up for the event.

We will each post an introduction with a 2000 word limit.

Then we will each have the chance to ask ten questions (in series) of the other person.

Finally, we will each have a 2000 word conclusion.

There are three options for posting:

(1) you can post your comments to any comment box, and then I can repost it as a post;

(2) you can email me your post and I can repost it; or

(3) I can invite you to be a guest blogger and you can post for yourself.

My email handle is Turretin and I use hotmail, should you choose to take the email approach. In fact for (3) I need to use your email address to invite you.

-Turretinfan

orthodox said...

Oughtn't we have a link to the debate?