From the Civil War to Today: Interpreting the Word and Way of God, Have We Really Come that Far?

Mark Noll’s The Civil War as a Theological Crisis draws attention to two questions which were being forced to the top during the Civil War and in many ways still float on top of our theological waters today, that is the issue of interpreting God’s Word, hermeneutics, and interpreting His work, or attempting to understand His sovereignty or providence.  These were essentially the two biggest theological crisis that the Civil War evoked but what I would argue briefly here, is that these issues lie at the heart of what any sociological, theological, philosophical, historical or scientific crisis.  In short for those who take seriously the authority of Scripture and the authority of its Author, a crisis which leads people to begin to question character of either of those things will become a theological crisis.  The question for us today is have we learned to handle hermeneutical issues any better, or are we any better at claiming God’s sovereignty while allowing Him to work out that sovereignty in the world without seeking to explain it down to the very last detail?