“If our hearts are in rebellion against God, the inclinations of our heart will affect the shape of our sociology and anthropology” (Inerrancy and Worldview, 108). Continually throughout this study I have tried to stress that our starting place will often determine how receptive we are to the doctrine of inerrancy. Our worldview shapes our approach to the subject. If, however, we are going to treat the Bible fairly and deal with its challenges honestly, we must allow the Bible to speak from within its own worldview. That is as equally true as we consider the challenges associated with sociology and anthropology. Much of modern sociology and anthropology begins with the assumptions that God is absent from human culture and human culture is governed by impersonal rules.
Much of our analysis of culture will parallel our analysis of human language. In the same ways that we assume God is absent from language, we assume him absent from culture to. Many operate under the assumption that culture is closed. That is to say we view culture as a “merely immanent, humanly produced environment” (Poythress, 114). From the very start we take God out of the picture, we remove him from any involvement in the development and oversight of human culture. But the Bible tells us that God governs human culture. He rules over it. He appoints kings (Dan. 2:20-22; Rom. 13:1), determines the victors in battle, he raises up musicians and priests, he governs the policies and politics (Prov. 21:1). All this and more remind us that nothing exists apart from God’s involvement in it. Vern Poythress writes:
In reality God rules over all the particulars of all cultures and gives these cultures as gifts to humanity. That by itself does not decide what the rules and regularities look like in detail, but it sets the tone. (111)
Starting where the Bible does helps set the tone for our examination of various human cultures. It sets the tone for our study. If we start with the assumption that God is not involved in human culture then we will never be able to find compatibility with the Scriptural doctrine of inerrancy. But if we start where the Bible does we can begin to wrestle fairly and honestly with the challenges that sociology and anthropology bring to the Scriptures.
In a similar vein we need to examine the assumption that human culture is governed by impersonal rules. Poythress sets up this discussion well when he writes:
The twentieth century has witnessed impressive advances in analyzing the structure of cultures – some of the regularities. And yet, the desire to make sociology and social anthropology “scientific” has sometimes resulted in a kind of woodenness and has truncated some of the rich, multidimensional character of human culture for the sake of scientific “rigor.” (112)
Some of the ways in which modern sociology and anthropology work is to assume a uniformity within a culture. This sometimes leads to an oversimplification and overestimation of human behavior and belief. So for example, often scholars will interpret ancient Israelite beliefs in light of the surrounding cultures. There is some great benefit in doing this, but clearly the Israelites believed their religious beliefs were quite distinct and unique. Sociologists and anthropologists, of course, cannot produce results by focusing on the reality of individual uniqueness, but sometimes their approach diminishes the diversity of experiences, beliefs, and peoples within a culture. Furthermore cultures are a dynamic phenomenon, they may change over time. We have to reckon with this type of transition within any given cultural context. The impersonalist worldview often assumed underneath modern sociology and anthropology will reduce everything down to simple principles and observances of regularities. But when we deal with both the reality of human nature, and the personal influence of God himself in a culture we cannot be so reductionist in our approach to understanding human culture.
The Bible gives us a different starting place. The Bible demonstrates God involvement in the world, and his interest in drawing men to himself, changing cultures, and influencing peoples. That dramatically alters how we understand the regularities of culture and how we analyze and study those cultures. And if we will begin where the Bible does we will find that we can more easily reconcile the tensions that exist between sociology and the claims of inerrancy.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 