Customer Reviews

The Bible in Modern Culture: Theology and Historical-Critical Method from Spinoza to Kasemann

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This is both a German-centered, and a Lutheran-centered tour of the field. It is more focused on those who wrote about the nature of interpretation, rather than those who produced commentaries on books of the Bible.

"Can the church live with Historical Criticism?" That question, posed at the beginning is one that the book explores, but not in any shrill or light fashion. "We believe that what is needed is a confessionally critical history of modern biblical criticism" meaning an analysis that is "seeking to be responsible to the church and its dogmatic tradition." In the hands of those with less integrity this could lead to fundamentalism or to appeals to authority. Here it leads to a balanced, careful work.

I have read this book a number of times, both for a class and for my personal growth. The wording can be a little tricky at times, but that is the challenge of this book, to read to get a better understanding of the different views of the different methods used by people to understand and explain the Bible. So if you are looking for a book that will help you to grow in you runderstanding of the Bible, this is one that will give you a lot of ideas, but I suggest you come up with your own and test them against the ones brought up in the book.