From the Cutting Room Floor

The next article in this collection was originally penned as one chapter of a longer book I had tried to write. I wanted to convey the sense of release I had experienced by taking my doubts seriously and examining my beliefs honestly, and titles like "Dare to Doubt" were running through my mind. The book was not flowing well and I realised that it was not going to work, but still wanted to tell the story. Then I realised that my message was already contained in articles I had been writing over the previous few years. "Stumbling Over Scripture" was recovered from the aborted book while the remaining chapters were quietly laid to rest. It repeated some arguments from the earlier essays but seemed at the time to be a fitting summary and conclusion for this collection.

After releasing the first edition of SOS in 1994 my thinking did not remain cast in the mould but continued to develop. I hope that I will always be ready to learn, to grow and to change, so that more of the ways and the richness of God will become clear to me. But I hope that the mystery of what I still do not know will always excite my wonder.

"Stumbling Over Scripture" had been intended as the final article of this book but, even in 1994, I could not leave it there and added my "Letter to Tyndale". The 2001 edition, of which this is an update, includes yet another addition, though Tyndale retains the place of honour at the end of the book. The following article still adequately sums up the course of my transition from fundamentalism to a more cautious reverence but the additional chapter updates my thinking based on the past seven-year's experience. I once revered the Bible so much that it got in the way of God. My process of re-evaluation, which this book traces, was long and painful and involved the disposal of a much-loved baby with the soiled bathwater of my fundamentalism. The baby has come back. The precious book is open to me again, not as something to research and criticise, but as a source for learning and revelation.

My disparagements about my own fundamentalism should not be taken as a criticism of everyone who believes the scriptures. Jesus did not condemn people for following the Law and the Prophets. But he did not spare those who used their legalism and religious accuracy as a weapon of control to lord it over other people. Let faith be humble and doubt be honest. My less-rigid acceptance of the record of revelation we see in the books of the Bible has enhanced my appreciation of the God who always revealed himself, and does so today.