The Bible as the Word of God: a moderate foundationalist approach

As an example of the nature of this three fold division among evangelicals, we intend to explore the relationship between the philosophical issue of foundationalism, defined as the relationship between our beliefs and how we acquire knowledge, and the authority of Scripture. Three general viewpoints on foundationalism will be discussed in order to provide a framework for the paper. This will be followed by an exploration of three models for understanding the relationship between the Bible and the Word of God. A connection will then be provided between the models of the Bible as the Word of God and foundationalism. Through this analysis, we will show how postconservative evangelicals, heavily influenced by postliberalism, implicitly deny the historical evangelical understanding of the nature and authority of Scripture and mischaracterize the type of foundationalism advocated by most evangelicals. We will also discuss how the various types of foundationalist viewpoints do in fact differ on their coherence and applicability to our postmodem culture and how we can properly understand the nature of Scripture and its relationship to knowledge