About the Book

Table of Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

    

Vol.9: The Flood: Local or Global?

Chapter 1     A Protest . . . .
Chapter 2     . . . . .   A Plea.

Publishing Information
1963: Special Doorway Paper (No. 62), published privately by Arthur Custance
1979: Part VIII, The Flood: Local or Global?, vol.9 in The Doorway Papers Series published by Zondervan
1997: Arthur Custance Online Library (HTML)
2001: 2nd Edition (design revisions)

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     It is generally assumed that if a man is both a Scholar and a Christian, his writings will automatically bear the hallmark of Christian Scholarship. But what is it that stamps Scholarship as specifically 'Christian'?
     A little while ago, when I was discussing the nature of Christian Scholarship with a very true friend of mine, he said to me, "The essential point, of course, is to tell the turth". He said other things also of importance, yet I felt that his words reflected only a partial view of what Christian Scholarship is, for after all, the goal of 'telling the truth' is in no sense uniquely Christian.
     In this Paper, therefore, we are primarily concerned with that which specifically qualifies a serious word as 'Christian' rather than merely as scholarly. And I suggest that the hallmark of Christian Scholarship is not that it states the Truth (which it certainly ought to do), but rather that it faces up to the implications of the truths presented.
     It is not in the presentation of the facts or ideas themselves that an author shows his true colours, but how he deals with their implications. One can hardly have a 'Christian Mathematics', or a 'Christian Physics', or a 'Christian Chemistry', for the subject matter in each case remains the same for all investigators whether they are Christian or not. But the manner in which an author deals with the implications of his data is the crucial issue, and I believe it is at this point that there is a fundamental distinction between the scholarly presentation which is a Christian one and the scholarly presentation which is merely a secular one. To my mind, any work which fails to deal with implications as they relate to the body of Christian Faith cannot qualify as Christian Scholarship.
     This Paper is really a protest against the growing tendency of recognized scholars in various fields who are also known as Christians, to ignore this responsibility; and a plea to authors, editors, publishers, and reviewers, to re-examine their own responsibility in this regard. For I believe the issue is becoming a serious one.

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