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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How Not To Quote a Book, By Two Roman Catholic Bloggers

Here's an example of how not to quote a book, by Catholic Nick, compliments of Devin Rose. The following comes from Nick's A Study on Imputation of Righteousness posted on  Devin's St. Joseph's Vanguard (bolding in the original blog entry):
Despite the straightforwardness in which these sources explain the doctrine of Imputation, some Protestant sources are honest enough to admit that the teaching is not clearly laid out in Scripture. One scholar, George Ladd, taught the following in his hugely popular seminary textbook:

Paul never expressly states that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers. His words are, “And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom 4:3,5).

These words could be taken to mean that God regarded faith as the most meritorious human achievement, and therefore God accounts faith as the equivalent to full righteousness. This, however, would ignore the context of Pauline thought.
(A Theology of the New Testament, “Imputation”)

This text in context reads:




Note the last sentence: "It is an unavoidable logical conclusion that people of faith are justified because Christ's righteousness is imputed to them." So, exactly what "is not clearly laid out in Scripture"?

Thanks guys. Great stuff.
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5 comments:

  1. Devin Rose3:58 PM, June 13, 2012

    James,

    Thanks for pointing this out. I will let Nick know. His article was an extremely long one that quoted many writings, and it is possible he just missed the full context on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nick7:01 PM, June 13, 2012

    James,

    Please explain how I misrepresented Ladd here.

    Ladd said: "Paul never expressly states that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers."

    What Ladd said is a fact.

    Ladd also said: "These words could be taken to mean ...God accounts faith as the equivalent to full righteousness."

    Again, that's a plausible reading of the text.

    If Ladd had only studied the term Logizomai, he'd see that (a) Logizomai is never used in reference to Christ's righteousness, and (b) that the meaning of Logizomai fits perfectly with God reckoning faith itself as righteousness.

    The Bible is on the side of Catholics here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. James Swan3:16 PM, June 15, 2012

    Nick, Ladd states,

    "It is an unavoidable logical conclusion that people of faith are justified because Christ's righteousness is imputed to them."

    Contrary to your conclusion, Ladd is not a Protestant who believes "the teaching is not clearly laid out in Scripture."

    You need to be careful with selective citation. Don't make an author say what you want him to say.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nick11:36 AM, June 21, 2012

    James,

    I'm not sure how I was unsubscribed from this, so sorry for the late response.

    If that is the biggest complaint you have against the article, then I'd assume you see the overall information was fair and honestly presented.

    I'm more confident than before with the research I did if all you think I botched was a single (and not too crucial) quote at the start of the Essay.

    ReplyDelete
  5. James Swan7:08 AM, June 22, 2012

    I have no control over unsubscribing people, or if I do, I have no idea how to do it.

    In regards to your article, I visited Devin's blog, and as I skimmed through his entry of your article, the quote in question immediately seemed like something was simply not quite right, and yes, something was not quite right when I checked the context.

    I have not taken the time to read your article in its entirety. I suggest though you revise the quote in question to reflect accuracy in citation.

    ReplyDelete

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