Inductivism, inerrancy, and presuppositionalism

Abstract

"At the heart of contemporary evangelical Bibliology and apologetics is the question of Scriptural inerrancy—in particular, the most appropriate and effective method of its exposition and defense. The three elements mentioned in the title of this paper have been derived from a short but potentially significant interchange between Daniel Fuller and Clark Pinnock in the Christian Scholar's Review.' Their brief discussion of Biblical authority is a noteworthy skirmish—one that puts a particular epistemological and apologetical outlook to a critical test. An analysis of the Fuller-Pinnock encounter may very well offer evan- gelicals unexpected but sound guidance through the thicket of presentday theological and apologetical questions impinging on inerrancy. To begin this recommended analysis we can rehearse how Fuller and Pinnock relate the three topics of inductivism, inerrancy and presuppositionalism to each other. Three major theses emerge from a reading of the two published letters exchanged between these two writers and each can be substantiated by quotation from the relevant literature. Thesis I may be stated as follows: Presuppositionalism is opposed to empirical procedures and inductive investigation"