Nobility and Knowability Truth Ministries

Knowability of Truth

Throughout the last forty years, conservative evangelical scholars have seriously engaged issues of enculturation, accommodation, and theological method.1 This interaction is providing a healthy chastening of hermeneutics, epistemology, and theological method. Historical studies clearly demonstrate that the early post-apostolic church, the reformers as did the Puritans, Princetonians, and even the historical fundamentalist (especially before social-fundamentalism with the Scopes trials) differentiated first-order apostolic doctrine from types of theological syntheses. Thus degrees of interpretative certainty were proffered.

While not everyone practiced this type of stratification in theological method, it was nonetheless generally understood that while some doctrines were held in an absolute manner (as objective doctrinal criteria) other doctrines were held in a less weighty manner (more of a theological synthesis and denominational distinctive).

Some contemporary evangelicals continue to call for a more chastened view in the hermeneutical and theological process so as to distinguish between what is held as first-order doctrine and praxis when compared to doctrines derived from theological synthesis. In addition, some brethren are asking for more of a dialogical-theological process that begins with the implications (or significance) of truth as opposed to beginning with the truth itself. They suggest a process whereby we move from current societal-theological issues of concern and then work back into the meaning of the Scripture and than back to the actual societal