Making my task too easy and doing violence to the Bible

If, however, this speculative rationalistic process of the viae in the sphere of a Christian doctrine of the Divine Attributes is forbidden to us once and for all, on the other hand a purely literalistic Bible statement is also insufficient. It consists, like all other 'biblicist' procedures, in collecting Bible passages, arranging them in some kind of order, and then summing all this up. Although this process is not so dangerous as the speculative method, yet it is very unsatisfactory, because it is so arbitrary. The Biblical statements about the Attributes of God are, however, now parts of a whole which only need to be fitted together. Such a use of the Biblical testimony contradicts the nature and intention of the testimony. The very fact that the Bible uses so much poetical, pictorial language should suffice to warn us not to follow this line of thought. In so doing the theologian both makes his own task too easy, and does violence to the Bible.

Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of God