You are misunderstood by people who hate and despise you; so there must be something wrong with you
A third disappointment is Wright’s lack of clarity. He says that he has been misunderstood, but is the list of readers who are misunderstanding him, in addition to Piper, really this impressive: Don Carson, Stephen Westerholm, Doug Moo, Mark Seifrid, and Simon Gathercole? (And should we assume that the list now includes Doug Wilson, Gerald Bray, Paul Helm, Dan Wallace, and Michael Horton, who all have registered weighty concerns with this new title?) Perhaps it is Wright who is creating the fog and not producing clarity.
Putting Don Carson and Paul Helm in that list really destroys all credibility for me. It is like saying there is something wrong with Bush because Osama bin Ladin opposes his policies in the Middle East.
And it treats these people as if they are all independent witnesses. That is like Bernanke claiming there is no housing bubble because the increase in cost in the various aspects of the construction industry. No, the bubble was causing all the increases. And if you think there has been no concerted, political, institutional effort against Wright, you need to raise your eyelids.
Not every name on the list is open to such a description. Doug Wilson and Mark Seifried, for example, interest me as worthwhile critics, who are independent. But notice there is no list of all the people who are pro-Wright. And I’m sure Themelios will, if they haven’t done so already, eventually publish a list of people to avoid reading because they agree with Wright, all the while pretending to be giving objective information.
If Wright is dangerous, then many of these guardians are guilty of giving him credibility by their own transparent hostility that makes their own criticisms look like they are motivated by something other than an understanding of Scripture or of Wright.
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November 17th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Did Calvin ever list long lists of names of people who were opposed to his opponents?