science

Peter Enns

Peter Enns is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Enns rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Eric Enns (born January 2, 1961) is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation.

Key takeaways

Peter Enns belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Enns to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Enns from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter Eric Enns (born January 2, 1961) is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament interpretation. Outside of his academic work Enns is a contributor to HuffPost and Patheos. He has also worked with Francis Collins' The BioLogos Foundation. His book Inspiration and Incarnation challenged conservative/mainstream Evangelical methods of biblical interpretation. His book The Evolution of Adam questions the belief that Adam was a historical figure.

Biography Enns was born in Passaic, New Jersey, on January 2, 1961, to German-American immigrant parents. He grew up in River Vale, New Jersey, and graduated from Pascack Valley High School (Hillsdale, New Jersey) in 1978. He graduated from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania (1982), obtained an M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1989), and an M.A. (1993) and Ph.D. (1994) from Harvard University (Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations). Enns returned to Westminster Theological Seminary in 1994 to begin his teaching career. He was tenured in 2000 and promoted to full professor in 2005 as a professor of Old Testament and Biblical hermeneutics. Among other duties, he served as Associate Academic Dean from 1998 to 2001, chair of the Hermeneutics (Ph.D.) Field Committee (1997–2000), and edited the Westminster Theological Journal (2000–2005). His publication of the book Inspiration and Incarnation led to institutional strife and the eventual loss of Enns's teaching position at Westminster Theological Seminary by 2009. Enns was a senior fellow of Biblical studies with the BioLogos Foundation, a Christian organization that "explores, promotes, and celebrates the integration of science and Christian faith". He wrote nearly 100 blog posts at the BioLogos Forum, Science and the Sacred. He also has written several pieces for The Huffington Post's religion section. Enns is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and has served on the Wisdom in Israel and Cognate Literature Session steering committee since 2006. He is also a member of the Institute for Biblical Research, where he served on the board of directors from 2004 to 2007 and the editorial board for the Bulletin for Biblical Research from 2002 to 2004. In 2017, Enns launched the Bible For Normal People Podcast (B4NP) together with Jared Byas. In the weekly podcast, mainly theologians, but also musicians and journalists are invited and interviewed on biblical topics. Guests of the podcast so far have included Rob Bell, Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Jodi Magness, Rachel Held Evans, Bart D. Ehrman, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jon D. Levenson and Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Enns is currently the Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University (St. Davids, Pennsylvania). Enns resides in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Academic work Enns's academic interests include Old Testament theology, Biblical Theology, Wisdom Literature (especially Ecclesiastes), the New Testament use of the Old Testament, Second Temple literature, and the general issue of how the historical context of the Bible affects how the nature of Scripture is understood within Reformed tradition and Evangelical commitments. He has written many articles, essays, dictionary and encyclopedia entries, and book reviews on varied topics surrounding the Old Testament and its interpretation (see "Books" and "Articles and Essays" below). His 2008 edited volume (with Tremper Longman III), Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry, and Writings (IVP), won the Christianity Today "Award of Merit" for 2009 and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s "2009 Christian Book of the Year" award in the Bible Reference and Study category. His 2012 publication, The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't Say about Human origins, won the gold award in the Religion category of the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards. Enns has also contributed to a Bible curriculum for grades 1–12 Telling God's Story, and a book on the hermeneutical implications of the discussion between Christianity and science. He has also taught courses at Princeton Theological Seminary, Harvard University, Fuller Theological Seminary, Eastern University, and Biblical Theological Seminary.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Enns

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Enns claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Enns before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Enns ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Enns

In research: Peter Enns appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Enns in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Enns is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, 20th-century American biblical scholars, 20th-century American male writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Enns outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Enns in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Enns means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Enns out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Enns in simple terms?

Why does Peter Enns matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Enns?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Enns.