The initial steps to underscore inspiration were clumsy, defensive techniques that aimed simply to attack critical methods. There was no attempt to build something constructive from which confessional or biblicist theologians could reform Christianity for the modern world as Luther had for his generation. Conservative theologians relied, for example, on the doctrine of verbal inspiration, which held that the Bible came word for word from God. They forced Strauss out of all theological faculties. They prophesied moral anarchy. But they were unable to find effective modern responses to modern issues raised by Strauss’s successors.
Shepherds of the Empire, 22.
A good reminder for us today.
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