Lee Martin McDonald Quotes
On what biblical or historical grounds has the inspiration of God been limited to the written documents that the church now calls its Bible? ... If the Spirit inspired only the written documents of the first century, does that mean that the same Spirit does not speak today ... about matters that are of significant concern?
McDonald, Lee Martin. The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon. Rev. and expanded ed., Hendrickson Publishers, 1995, p. 254.
Al-Maarri’s quotations are not only meaningful in their own right, but they illustrate the openness and free thinking that was allowed in the early days of Islam before about 1100. If anyone wrote such things today in most Islamic countries he would at least be jailed if not executed for blasphemy. And if any Christian in Europe made the same statement, he would have been excommunicated at least if not tortured and murdered.
Priests at the time were mostly uneducated. They would tend to make up their own Biblical stories that the people would prefer rather than the official church versions. The bishops wanted this practice stopped.
Although a conservative, he had a great tolerance for and understanding of other points of view. For this some people thought him a radical.
Rev. Lee Martin McDonald, Ph.D., Professor of New Testament Studies was President of the Institute for Biblical Research, (2006-2012). EDUCATION - B.A., Biola University, La Mirada, California, 1964; B.D., Talbot Theological Seminary, La Mirada, California 1969. (Magna Cum Laude); Th.M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1985 (Honors); Ph.D., University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1976.
