Special Letter Section

The response we received to J. Edward Barrett’s “Can Scholars Take the Virgin Birth Seriously?” BR 04:05, was unprecedented. In our February 1989 Readers Reply department we printed 26 readers’ letters out of the avalanche we received in response to this article. Almost all were critical.

We wrote Dr. F. F. Bruce, the very distinguished British evangelical scholar who sits on BR’s Editorial Advisory Board, to ask if he thought these letters were an adequate response. Yes, he replied, they were a “sufficient—and probably more than sufficient—counterbalance.” He went on to say that “some of the letters suggest that Christian orthodoxy might well pray to be defended from its defenders.”

Then we received an avalanche of letters in reply to the 26 letters we published in our February issue. We print below a selection from this second-wave response.

Many of the letters we printed—on both sides—are extremely sensitive and insightful. All together the initial article and the exchange that followed cannot help but enrich our understanding and appreciation—regardless of our conclusions or the certainty or hesitancy with which we hold these conclusions. We hope our readers will agree with us that it can be a joy to learn.—Ed.