17-Allen JETS 43.3 489-515
JETS 43/3 (September 2000) 489–515 A TALE OF TWO ROADS: HOMILETICS AND BIBLICAL AUTHORITY DAVID L. ALLEN* Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler . Robert Frost—“The Road Not Taken” I. INTRODUCTION The issue of authority has been the quintessential issue of the Enlight- enment and especially of the twentieth century. This is true for the very simple reason that the Enlightenment, by its very name, celebrated the au- tonomy of reason and humanity. Until the Enlightenment, philosophers and theologians traveled a single road: Authority Avenue. In the eighteenth century, however, these travelers came to a fork in the road. The old road was marked with the old sign “Authority of Revelation.” The new road sign, marking the new fork, read “Autonomy of Reason.” Many travelers who passed that way were so busy practicing their art that they never noticed the fork. Others were confused by the lexical and grammatical similarity of the signs. No doubt many merely assumed that either road was an equally viable route to their ultimate destination. The result was politically, socially, ethically, philosophically, and reli- giously momentous. The Enlightenment witnessed the rise of the democratic state, resulting in the mitigation of political authority, humanism, resulting in the mitigation of moral authority, and religious liberalism, resulting in the mitigation of religious authority. Enlightenment modernity distrusted authority. Radical postmodernity dismantles authority. Edward Farley’s oft-repeated statement sums up the late twentieth-century scenario: “the house of authority has collapsed.”1 For many, great was the fall of it.
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