D.A. Carson's book, Exegetical Fallacies (2005 ed.), exposes word-study fallacies, grammatical fallacies, logical fallacies, presuppositional and historical fallacies that often lurk in exegetical sermons and writing. The purpose of the book is to enable the student of the Word to identify, avoid, and correct such fallacies.It was a challenging read because I found myself in the dictionary page after page. The book is required reading for a hermeneutics class, so I couldn't just skip over words when the context didn't enlighten me as to possible meaning. In order to write the paper, I needed to thoroughly understand its contents. So it was a pretty slow trudge.
I understand now why pastors engage in devotional reading beyond their study for a sermon. Carson encourages distanciation coupled with caution. Distanciation is defined as: to establish or create a mental or emotional distance. This approach tends to detach us from spiritual interaction with the passage being studied and could be why many scholarly theologians lose sight of their faith. Study can become cerebral with little actual engagement. As Carson states, "It is difficult and sometimes costly."
In realizing the far-reaching impact of fallacies, one could become overly self-critical and discouraged in attempting an exegesis of any passage, becoming concerned with leading listeners or readers into error. However, gaining more awareness and skill is intended to benefit, not harm. Mindfulness should be the approach.
Strengths of the book would be that it presents a vast array of fallacies to be considered so that students of the Bible can handle it more accurately. The book is arranged in such a way that it is easy to locate a type of fallacy according to category: word-study, grammatical, logical, presuppositional, historical. One could run thoughts about a passage through the grid of listed fallacies.
Weaknesses would include the lack of giving definition to many of the terms
used throughout the book. Reading was often interrupted by the need to understand what a word meant to the context. If the book had not been required reading, I
would have laid it aside early on.
Another weakness is the apparent tone in which the author writes (although I realize that without emojis perceived tone in written work is often surmised). I, personally, found the tone to be rather haughty as he points out examples of fallacies from the works of other authors, pastors, scholars, etc.. The impression I was left with is that Carson considers himself the authority, that these other people are in error, and that caution should be taken in reading their works. This set a negative response reaction in my mind as I read. Far better, in my opinion, would have been examples of fallacies without such negative references.
Nevertheless, Exegetical Fallacies brings to light common fallacies of exegesis and is a ready reference. Carson urges diligence in studying and interpreting the Scriptures. He introduces the book with the hope that the reader will aspire to more correctly interpret the Word of God.
