The Historical-Critical Method: A Guide for the Perplexed PDF Download

Author: David R. Law
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567400123
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
An introduction to one of the core methods of approaching biblical texts.

Author: John Barton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139825313
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
This book provides the first complete guide for students to the present state of biblical studies. The twenty-one specially commissioned chapters are written by established scholars from North America and Britain, and represent both traditional and contemporary points of view. The chapters in Part One cover all the methods and approaches currently practised in the academic study of the Bible, while those in Part Two examine the major categories of books in the Bible from the perspective of recent scholarship - e.g. historical books of the Old Testament, Gospels, prophetic literature. Major issues raised are: the relation of modern 'critical' study of the Bible to 'pre-critical' and 'post-critical' approaches; the place of history in the study of the Bible; feminist, liberationist and new historicist concerns; the relation of Christian and Jewish scholarship; and recent interest in the Bible as literature.

Author: Stephen B. Chapman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316577961
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 547

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Book Description
This Companion offers a concise and engaging introduction to the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Providing an up-to-date 'snapshot' of scholarship, it includes essays, specially commissioned for this volume, by twenty-three leading scholars. The volume examines a range of topics, including the historical and religious contexts for the contents of the biblical canon, and critical approaches and methods, as well as newer topics such as the Hebrew Bible in Islam, Western art and literature, and contemporary politics. This Companion is an excellent resource for students at university and graduate level, as well as for laypeople and scholars in other fields who would like to gain an understanding of the current state of the academic discussion. The book does not presume prior knowledge, nor does it engage in highly technical discussions, but it does go into greater detail than a typical introductory textbook.

Author: Gerhard Maier
Publisher: St. Louis : Concordia Publishing House
ISBN: 9780570037521
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
"Gerhard Maier is a German theologian who created a bit of a 'stir' when this book was published in Germany in 1974. Essentially, he argues for abandoning the 'critical' approach to biblical studies, and a return to treating it as 'revelatory.' Here are some quotations from the book: 'The Bible itself gives no key with which to distinguish between the Word of God and Scripture, and along with that, between Christ and Scripture (Pg. 16).' 'Accordingly, the historical-critical method is of necessity concerned with differences of content and judgments about facts, whereas the Bible wants to be a witness of personal encounter and the declaration of the divine will. A suitability of method to subject matter is again diminished or destroyed (Pg. 19).' 'This method would take human reason out of the fall into sin and use it critically, i.e., to discriminate and make judgments in matters of revelation. In actual fact this method has thereby already withdrawn reason from claims to revelation. What blindness! (Pg. 23)' 'The assumptions of the historical-critical method--founded on human arbitrariness--logically lead to this, that man himself appears as the norm in the real canon. Man, who began critically to analyze revelation and to discover for himself what is normative, found at the end of the road: himself (Pg. 35).' 'The theologian is different. He must methodologically begin with the assumption that a given event here is possible, and therefore he must ensure an openness to the methodological principle which will not hastily and insolently curtail divine revelation at any place ... Therefore the historical-critical method is to be replaced by a historical-Biblical one (Pg. 52).' 'Our starting point was the methodological insight that, at least initially, we must let revelation determine its own limits. Consequently revelation defines itself (Pg. 63).' "The often sadistic desire to elaborate on contradictions has no support in the Biblical method (Pg. 71)'"--Amazon.com.

Author: Eta Linnemann
Publisher: Kregel Academic & Professional
ISBN: 9780825430954
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
A former liberal scholar and student of Rudolph Bultmann and Ernst Fuchs tells how modern biblical scholarship has drifted far from the truth, and why its assumptions are nonetheless so influential and thereby dangerous.

Author: Christopher M. Hays
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1441245758
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Many introductions to biblical studies describe critical approaches, but they do not discuss the theological implications. This timely resource discusses the relationship between historical criticism and Christian theology to encourage evangelical engagement with historical-critical scholarship. Charting a middle course between wholesale rejection and unreflective embrace, the book introduces evangelicals to a way of understanding and using historical-critical scholarship that doesn't compromise Christian orthodoxy. The book covers eight of the most hotly contested areas of debate in biblical studies, helping readers work out how to square historical criticism with their beliefs.

Author: Zondervan,
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310860946
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Christianity believes in a God who acts in history. The Bible tells us the story of God’s actions in Israel, culminating in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth and the spreading of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. The issue of history is thus unavoidable when it comes to reading the Bible. Volume 4 of the Scripture and Hermeneutics Series looks at how history has dominated biblical studies under the guise of historical criticism. This book explores ways in which different views of history influence interpretation. It considers the implications of a theology of history for biblical exegesis, and in several case studies it relates these insights to particular texts. “Few topics are more central to the task of biblical interpretation than history, and few books open up the subject in so illuminating and thought-provoking a manner as this splendid collection of essays and responses.” Hugh Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Oxford, England “. . . breaks new ground in its interdisciplinary examination of the methodology, presuppositions, practices and purposes of biblical hermeneutics, with a special emphasis on the relation of faith and history.” Eleonore Stump, Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy, Saint Louis University, United States “This volume holds great promise for the full-fledged academic recovery of the Bible as Scripture. It embodies an unusual combination of world-class scholarship, historic Christian orthodoxy, bold challenges to conventional wisdom, and the launching of fresh new ideas.” Al Wolters, Professor of Religion and Theology, Redeemer University College, Ontario, Canada “The essays presented here respect the need and fruitfulness of a critical historiography while beginning the much-needed process of correcting the philosophical tenets underlying much modern and postmodern biblical research. The result is a book that mediates a faith understanding, both theoretical and practical, of how to read the Bible authentically as a Christian today.” Francis Martin, Chair, Catholic-Jewish Theological Studies, John Paul II Cultural Center, Washington, D.C. Not only is history central to the biblical story, but from a Christian perspective history revolves around Jesus Christ. All roads of human activity before Christ lead up to him, and all roads after Christ connect with him. A concern with history and God’s action in it is a central characteristic of the Bible. The Bible furnishes us with an account of God's interactions with people and with the nation of Israel that stretches down the timeline from creation to the early church. It tells us of real men, women, and children, real circumstances and events, real cultures, places, languages, and worldviews. And it shows us God at work in human affairs, revealing his character and heart through his activities. “Behind” the Text examines the correlation between history and the Bible. For the scholar, student, and informed reader of the Bible, this volume highlights the importance of history for biblical interpretation, and looks at how history has and should influence interpretation.

Author: Fitzmyer, Joseph A., SJ
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 1616436352
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This book seeks to establish the properly oriented use of the historical-critical method as the mode of ascertaining the sense of the written Word of God.

Author: Jon Douglas Levenson
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664254070
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Writing from a Jewish perspective, Jon Levenson reviews many often neglected theoretical questions. He focuses on the relationship between two interpretive communities--the community of scholars who are committed to the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation and the community responsible for the canonization and preservation of the Bible.

Author: Scott Hahn
Publisher: Herder & Herder
ISBN: 9780824599034
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Resisting the typical, dry methods of contemporary scholarship, this powerful examination revisits the biblical days of life-and-death conflict, struggles for power between popes and kings, and secret alliances of intellectuals united by a desire to pit worldly goals against the spiritual priorities of the church. This account looks beyond the pretense of neutrality and objectivity often found in secular study, and brings to light the appropriation of scripture by politically motivated interpreters. Questioning the techniques taken for granted at divinity schools worldwide, their origins are traced to the writings of Machiavelli and Marsilio of Padua, the political projects of Henry VIII, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke, and the quest for an empire of science on the part of Descartes and Spinoza. Intellectual and inspiring, an argument is made for bringing Christianity back to biblical literacy.