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Re: Returned mail: Host unknown
On Wed, 20 Apr 1994, Sterling G. Bjorndahl wrote:
> I find it ironic that in the great debates between Fundamentalism and
> Modernism (which ultimately lie behind statements such as the one
> above), neither side noticed that Fundamentalism had unconsciously
> adopted a philosophical premise of Modernism, namely, that if something
> can be shown to be unhistorical, it is therefore untrue. This link
> between truth and history is not a necessary one. It is an artifact of
> Modernist philosophy.
Another irony is that Fundamentalism (and, to a great extent, many
branches of contemporary Evangelicalism) adopted the positivistic view of
language that insisted on core meanings for terms and syntactical
structures, leading to a wide variety of exegetical and hermeneutical
mistakes that fuel much of the division in the church today. This view
of language, overthrown since at least the late Wittgenstein, nonetheless
persists in conservative seminaries and pulpits, and leads to many
significant errors in dealing with the text.
I'm probably going to regret sending this out, too!
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Prof. James F. Sennett
Asst. Professor of Philosophy sennett@goliath.pbac.edu
Palm Beach Atlantic College andretg@aol.com
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