Words of Life by Timothy Ward

Timothy Ward's "Words of Life" is an excellent orientation to Bibliology.  Instead of jumping straight into a discussion of the traditional labels for the Bible in Systematic Theology, Ward works from the ground up.  He discusses the Bible's view of itself, then looks at this view in light of modern speech-act theory.  Next he develops a doctrine of Scripture from a Trinitarian and theological perspective.  Only after developing a Biblical and Theological view of the Bible does he begin to discuss it doctrinally, using the traditional categories of the Bible's necessity, sufficiency, clarity, and authority.  This is an extremely helpful method.  When we begin with the doctrine first, we miss the depth and breadth of these affirmations.  Working from the ground up makes these doctrines much more visceral and causes them to land with a greater impact.


Another helpful aspect of this work is Ward's decision to place the discussion of inerrancy as a subcategory in his discussion of the Bible's authority.  Evangelicals (myself included) often miss the point of the doctrine of inerrancy because we are quick to affirm it, but do not take the time to understand it.  Ward shows us that while inerrancy is important, it is an outworking of what the Bible is and does, and not vice versa.  As I heard it explained once, we hold that the Bible is inerrant because it is true, not that it is true because it is inerrant.


This is a very good, clear summary of the doctrine of the Bible.  It places the discussion in the modern linguistic discussion without loosing any of the historic orthodox doctrine of the Scripture.  Because of its contemporary voice, we will see if it has legs to last down through the years, but now, it is an excellent and helpful work.

"Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere."