Table Of ContentThe Gagging of God
Other Zondervan Books by D.A. Carson…
From Sabbath to Lord’s Day
An Introduction to the New Testament (with Douglas J. Moo and Leon
Morris)
Telling the Truth (General Editor)
The Gagging of God
Christianity Confronts Pluralism
D.A. Carson
ZONDERVAN
The Gagging of God
Copyright © 1996 by D. A. Carson
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the
required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of
this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled,
reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form
or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express
written permission of Zondervan.
ePub Edition OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-83068-9
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carson, D. A.
The gagging of God : Christianity confronts pluralism / D. A. Carson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-310-24286-X (Softcover) 1. Theology—Methodology. 2. Theology, Doctrinal—History
—20th century. 3. Religious pluralism. 4. Salvation outside the church. 5. Hermeneutics—Religious
aspects—Christianity.
I. Title.
kBT118.C37 1996
230’.01-dc20
95-36458
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International
Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of
Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Edited by Elizabeth Yoder
Interior design by Joe Vriend
05 06 07 /♦ DC/ 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
This one is for Tiffany and Nicholas, not because they can as yet understand
much of it, but because in a few years they will need it.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Half Title Page
Other Books By
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Chapter 1 THE CHALLENGES OF CONTEMPORARY PLURALISM
Part One HERMENEUTICS
Chapter 2 THE TAMING OF TRUTH: THE HERMENEUTICAL
MORASS
Chapter 3 ESCAPING FROM THE HERMENEUTICAL MORASS:
“LET GOD BE TRUE, AND EVERY MAN A LIAR”
Part Two RELIGIOUS PLURALISM
Chapter 4 HAS GOD SPOKEN? THE AUTHORITY OF
REVELATION
Chapter 5 WHAT GOD HAS SPOKEN: OPENING MOVES IN THE
BIBLE’S PLOT-LINE
Chapter 6 WHAT GOD HAS SPOKEN: CLIMACTIC MOVES IN
THE BIBLE’S PLOT-LINE
Chapter 7 GOD’S FINAL WORD
Chapter 8 ON DRAWING LINES, WHEN DRAWING LINES IS
RUDE
Part Three CHRISTIAN LIVING IN A PLURALISTIC CULTURE
Chapter 9 NIBBLING AT THE EDGES: THE RANGE OF THE
CHALLENGE
Chapter 10 THE VISION THING
Part Four PLURALISM WITHIN THE CAMP
Chapter 11 FRAYING, FRAGMENTED, FRUSTRATED: THE
CHANGING FACE OF WESTERN EVANGELICALISM
Chapter 12 ON HERALDING THE GOSPEL IN A PLURALISTIC
CULTURE
Chapter 13 ON BANISHING THE LAKE OF FIRE
Chapter 14 “THIS IS MY FATHER’S WORLD”:
CONTEXTUALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION
APPENDIX When Is Spirituality Spiritual? Reflections on Some Problems of
Definition
Selected Bibliography
Scripture and Ancient Text Index
Index to Modern Authors
Subject Index
About The Publisher
Consumer Engagement
Preface
My interest in the subject of pluralism springs from several quite different
kinds of experiences. The first is the ever present need to understand one’s own
culture. The need appears all the more pressing to those who move from culture
to culture: their mobility exposes them to great diversity in outlook, eventually
prompting them to wonder what makes their own world “tick.” The need appears
no less challenging to those who enjoy reading biographies and other historical
studies: as we form opinions about past movements and periods, we begin to
wonder what people will one day say about our own culture and period of
history. Of course, hindsight is considerably overrated: it is not characterized by
anything like the acuity that some people assign to it. Nevertheless, hindsight is
far more accurate than prognostication about the future (that most disreputable
fancy of horoscopes and social sciences); it is also more perceptive than most
assessments of the present. Since we live in the present, however, the present is
what we must try to understand, no matter how much we try to shed light from
the past on the subject. And the one common theme of the great majority of
commentators who seek to define Western culture at the end of the twentieth
century is pluralism. Inevitably, then, I have been drawn into the vast literature
on this subject, and find myself wrestling with it.
The second kind of experience that has pushed me to think about these
matters arises from my vocation as a Christian teacher. For years I have taught
courses in hermeneutics. I have watched hermeneutics change from the art and
science of biblical interpretation to the “new hermeneutic” to deconstruction,
with many stopping places along the journey and many interesting side roads.
Everyone who has thought about these things has soon recognized that many
forms of contemporary pluralism are tied to certain approaches to hermeneutics.
A Christian teacher cannot think long about the former without reading more
widely in the latter. As an antidote to the arrogant claims of positive knowledge
common a century ago, the new hermeneutic is refreshingly restrained. Yet just
when it might be expected to teach us humility, it has become the most
imperious ideology of our day. It threatens us with a new ideological
totalitarianism that is frankly alarming in its claims and prescriptions.
The third kind of experience that has nudged me to reflect on the
characteristics of contemporary pluralism derives from my vocation as a
Christian preacher. For example, university missions must today deal with
