what are the four types of biblical criticism what are the four types of biblical criticism

Psychological Criticism Contents: An overview of psychological biblical criticism with a focus on psychoanalytic approach; various psychoanalytic theories utilized in such approach, and a critique of its tasks, presuppositions, and reading strategies. [147]:156, Rhetorical criticism is also a type of literary criticism. Different types of criticism: constructive criticism. [14]:xiii For example, some modern histories of Israel include historical biblical research from the nineteenth century. By the 1950s and 1960s, Rudolf Bultmann and form criticism were the "center of the theological conversation in both Europe and North America". "The analogy between the development of the gospel pericopae and folklore needed reconsideration because of developments in folklore studies: it was less easy to assume steady growth of an oral tradition in stages; significant steps were sometimes large and sudden; the length of time needed for the 'laws' of oral transmission to operate, such as the centuries of Old Testament or Homeric transmission, was greater than that taken by the gospels; even the existence of such laws was questioned Further the transition from individual units of oral tradition into a written document had an important effect on the interpretation of the material. While James Muilenburg (18961974) is often referred to as "the prophet of rhetorical criticism",[148] it is Herbert A. Wichelns who is credited with "creating the modern discipline of rhetorical criticism" with his 1925 essay "The Literary Criticism of Oratory". Contents 1 Aesthetic criticism. Theological studies is topical. [143]:102 In 1981 literature scholar Robert Alter also contributed to the development of biblical literary criticism by publishing an influential analysis of biblical themes from a literary perspective. The major types of biblical criticism are: (1) textual criticism, which is concerned with establishing the original or most authoritative text, (2) philological criticism, which is the study of the biblical languages for an accurate knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and style of the period, (3) literary criticism, which focuses on the various literary genres embedded in the text in order to uncover evidence concerning date of composition, authorship, and original function of the various types of writing that constitute the Bible, (4) tradition criticism, which attempts to trace the development of the oral traditions that preceded written texts, and (5) form criticism, which classifies the written material according to the preliterary forms, such as parable or hymn. [4]:22, There is no general agreement among scholars on how to periodize the various quests for the historical Jesus. [45]:10, In the early twentieth century, biblical criticism was shaped by two main factors and the clash between them. [194]:12,13, Biblical criticism produced profound changes in African-American culture. [123]:xiii, Form criticism breaks the Bible down into its short units, called pericopes, which are then classified by genre: prose or verse, letters, laws, court archives, war hymns, poems of lament, and so on. [150] Phyllis Trible, a student of Muilenburg, has become one of the leaders of rhetorical criticism and is known for her detailed literary analysis and her feminist critique of biblical interpretation. [143]:374,410, New Testament scholar Donald Guthrie highlights a flaw in the literary critical approach to the Gospels: the genre of the Gospels has not been fully determined. By then, it became necessary to acknowledge that "the upshot of the first two quests was to reveal the frustrating limitations of the historical study of any ancient person". Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [96]:19 The validity of using the same critical methods for novels and for the Gospels, without the assurance the Gospels are actually novels, must be questioned. Evaluation of the Scriptures to uncover evidence about historical matters was formerly called higher criticism, a term first used with reference to writings of the German biblical scholar J.G. [174]:18 He recommended that the student of scripture be first given a sound grounding in the interpretations of the Fathers such as Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Augustine and Jerome,[174]:7 and understand what they interpreted literally, and what allegorically; and note what they lay down as belonging to faith and what is opinion. II. By the mid-twentieth century, the high level of departmentalization in biblical criticism, with its large volume of data and absence of applicable theology, had begun to produce a level of dissatisfaction among both scholars and faith communities. The 1980s saw the rise of formalism, which focuses on plot, structure, character and themes[143]:164 and the development of reader-response criticism which focuses on the reader rather than the author. Biblical Criticism / Critical Methods - various ways of doing biblical exegesis, each having a specific goal and a specific set of questions; some methods are more historical, others more literary, others more sociological, theological, etc. [102]:32 Deuteronomy is seen as a single coherent document with a uniformity of style and language in spite of also having different literary strata. Holtzmann developed the first listing of the chronological order of the New Testament texts based on critical scholarship. In societies where the "lay person" often has a passionate relationship with the Bible, it has been controversial to examine the book through historical types of literary criticism.Even though, as religious experts explain, historical criticism is used in seminaries, it is not popular in non-academic environments, where many people . [94]:2 He did this by identifying repetitions of certain events, such as parts of the flood story that are repeated three times, indicating the possibility of three sources. [113]:87 Multiple theories exist to address the dilemma, with none universally agreed upon, but two theories have become predominant: the two-source hypothesis and the four-source hypothesis. The ramifications of postmodernism have been catastrophic not only in hermeneutics but across society. [13]:viiiix, Textual criticism involves examination of the text itself and all associated manuscripts with the aim of determining the original text. What are the four types of biblical criticism? Following Pius's death, Pope Benedict XV once again condemned rationalistic biblical criticism in his papal encyclical Spiritus Paraclitus ("Paraclete Spirit"). The differences between them are called variants. ", continues to be debated by theologians and historians such as Wolfgang Stegemann[de], Gerd Theissen and Craig S. 6. [191]:11 Feminist theology has since responded to globalization, making itself less specifically Western, thereby moving beyond its original narrative "as a movement defined by the USA". [25]:862 Reimarus had left permission for his work to be published after his death, and Lessing did so between 1774 and 1778, publishing them as Die Fragmente eines unbekannten Autors (The Fragments of an Unknown Author). Critics focused on the historical events behind the text as well as the history of how the texts themselves developed. In rejecting religious bias, they embraced another set of biases without recognizing they were doing so. Wellhausen's theory went virtually unchallenged until the 1970s, when it began to be heavily criticized. Form criticism then theorizes concerning the individual pericope's Sitz im Leben ("setting in life" or "place in life"). [170] In 1864, Pope Pius IX promulgated the encyclical letter Quanta cura ("Condemning Current Errors"), which decried what the Pontiff considered significant errors afflicting the modern age. For example, a scribe might drop one or more letters, skip a word or line, write one letter for another, transpose letters, and so on. Lois Tyson says this new form of historical criticism developed in the 1970s. Included are examples of biblical racism, wishful thinking, subjugation of women, contradictions, failed prophecies and other biblical problems. During the latter half of the twentieth century, field studies of cultures with existing oral traditions directly impacted many of these presuppositions. [61][62] Sanders also advanced study of the historical Jesus by putting Jesus's life in the context of first-century Second-Temple Judaism. By the end of the eighteenth century, advanced liberals had abandoned the core of Christian beliefs. [38]:25,27 He saw Christianity as something that 'superseded' all that came before it. He identified four ways in which the Bible could be understood: the literal, the symbolic, the ethical and the mystical. Emendation is the attempt to eliminate the errors which are found even in the best manuscripts. Hermeneutics and Bible Study Methods: A study of principles or sound interpretation and application of the Bible, including analysis of presuppositions, general rules and specialized principles for the various biblical genre and phenomena and the development of an exegetical method. [81]:207,208 The multiple generations of texts that follow, containing the error, are referred to as a "family" of texts. [124]:296298 In 1978, research by linguists Milman Parry and Albert Bates Lord was used to undermine Gunkel's belief that "short narratives evolved into longer cycles". June 3, 2015 by Roger E. Olson. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. [122]:10 Within these oral cultures, literacy did not replace memory in a natural evolution. [21] The importance of textual criticism means that the term 'lower criticism' is no longer used much in twenty-first century studies. [133]:46 New Testament scholar N. T. Wright says, "The earliest traditions of Jesus reflected in the Gospels are written from the perspective of Second Temple Judaism [and] must be interpreted from the standpoint of Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism". E lohist (from Elohim) - primarily describes God as El or Elohim . Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Thus, he explicitly condemned it in the papal syllabus Lamentabili sane exitu ("With truly lamentable results") and in his papal encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis ("Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which labelled it as heretical. The trouble, as always, came with human execution. What are the 10 types of literary criticism? [124]:265,298304 According to Eddy and Boyd, these various conclusions directly undermine assumptions about Sitz im leben: "In light of what we now know of oral traditions, no necessary correlation between [the literary] forms and life situations [sitz im leben] can be confidently drawn". [191]:9 Feminist scholars of second-wave feminism appropriated it. This essay will elucidate these approaches along with some critical observations. [167]:29 There have also been conservative Protestants who accepted biblical criticism, and this too is part of biblical criticism's legacy. The major types of biblical criticism are: (1) textual criticism, which is concerned with establishing the original or most authoritative text, (2) philological criticism, which is the study of the biblical languages for an accurate knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and style of the period, (3) literary criticism, which focuses on the various In the end, Kuphaldt concludes that "God" was only an imaginary friend. [17], Albert Schweitzer in The Quest of the Historical Jesus, acknowledges that Reimarus's work "is a polemic, not an objective historical study", while also referring to it as "a masterpiece of world literature. Both forms of historical criticism . [154]:166 Scholars such as Robert Alter and Frank Kermode sought to teach readers to "appreciate the Bible itself by training attention on its artfulnesshow [the text] orchestrates sound, repetition, dialogue, allusion, and ambiguity to generate meaning and effect". Historical criticism is often applied to ancient records. Higher criticism. [130]:276278 What Kelber refers to as the "astounding myopia" of the form critics has revived interest in memory as an analytical category within biblical criticism. [149]:29 Rhetorical criticism is a qualitative analysis. Historical-biblical criticism includes a wide range of approaches and questions within four major methodologies: textual, source, form, and literary criticism. Frequent political revolutions, bitter opposition of "liberalism" to the Church, and the expulsion of religious orders from France and Germany, made the church understandably suspicious of the new intellectual currents. "[4]:22, Biblical criticism not only made study of the Bible secularized and scholarly, it also went in the other direction and made it more democratic. Source criticism attempts to determine the various sources, oral or written, that were used to write a particular book. [140]:336 Harrington says, "over-theologizing, allegorizing, and psychologizing are the major pitfalls encountered" in redaction criticism. [33]:286287 Albrecht Ritschl's challenge to orthodox atonement theory continues to influence Christian thought. [27]:25 Respect for Semler temporarily repressed the dissemination and study of Reimarus's work, but Semler's response had no long-term effect. JEDP are initials representing the four hypothetical sources as follows: J awist (or Yahwist, from Yahweh) - describes God as Yahweh, starting in Gen 2:4, it includes much of Genesis and parts of Exodus and Numbers. Form criticism is a method of biblical study that seeks to categorize units of Scripture according to their literary pattern or genre and then attempt to trace this pattern to its point of oral communication. "[T]his question affects our innermost cultural being and traces our relationship to the foundational text of our religious and cultural origins". [45]:10, The Old Quest was not considered closed until Albert Schweitzer (18751965) wrote Von Reimarus zu Wrede which was published in English as The Quest of the Historical Jesus in 1910. Clark responded, but disagreement continued. [14]:222 Other Bible scholars outside the Gttingen school, such as Heinrich Julius Holtzmann (18321910), also used biblical criticism. Some of these verses are verbatim. [32]:4952 The fragmentary theory was a later understanding of Wellhausen produced by form criticism. [49][50] Demythologizing refers to the reinterpretation of the biblical myths (stories) in terms of the existential philosophy of Martin Heidegger (18891976). [138]:100, Followers of other theories concerning the Synoptic problem, such as those who support the Greisbach hypothesis which says Matthew was written first, Luke second, and Mark third, have pointed to weaknesses in the redaction-based arguments for the existence of Q and Markan priority. Most scholars believe the German Enlightenment (c.1650 c.1800) led to the creation of biblical criticism, although some assert that its roots reach back to the Reformation. [98]:4[102]:36[note 4], Problems and criticisms of the Documentary hypothesis have been brought on by literary analysts who point out the error of judging ancient Eastern writings as if they were the products of western European Protestants; and by advances in anthropology that undermined Wellhausen's assumptions about how cultures develop; and also by various archaeological findings showing the cultural environment of the early Hebrews was more advanced than Wellhausen thought. Interest waned again by the 1970s. The roughly 900 manuscripts found at Qumran include the oldest extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. [19][20] Instead of interpreting the Bible historically, Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (17521827), Johann Philipp Gabler (17531826), and Georg Lorenz Bauer (17551806) used the concept of myth as a tool for interpreting the Bible. 1937) advanced the New Perspective on Paul, which has greatly influenced scholarly views on the relationship between Pauline Christianity and Jewish Christianity in the Pauline epistles. [149]:29 In that essay, Wichelns says that rhetorical criticism and other types of literary criticism differ from each other because rhetorical criticism is only concerned with "effect. [2]:45 Neutrality was seen as a defining requirement. The biblical scholar Hans Frei wrote that what he refers to as the "realistic narratives" of literature, including the Bible, don't allow for such separation. [45]:12 According to Ben Witherington, probability is all that is possible in this pursuit. Updates? community's oral tradition. [129]:15 Two concerns give it its value: concern for the nature of the text and for its shape and structure. [87][88][89] It uses specialized methodologies, enough specialized terms to create its own lexicon,[90] and is guided by a number of principles. [23] Hugo Grotius (15831645) paved the way for comparative religion studies by analyzing New Testament texts in the light of Classical, Jewish and early Christian writings. 9 It is no longer acceptable to hold exclusive beliefs. Wellhausen's hypothesis, for example, depends upon the notion that polytheism preceded monotheism in Judaism's development. The field of textual criticism continues to evolve as scholars generate fresh theories and abandon previously established conclusions. 20. [99][95]:95 Wellhausen correlated the history and development of those five books with the development of the Jewish faith. This is now the accepted scholarly view. G. E. Lessing (17291781) claimed to have discovered copies of Reimarus's writings in the library at Wolfenbttel when he was the librarian there. [25]:34, After 1970, biblical criticism began to change radically and pervasively. [151], In the last half of the twentieth century, historical critics began to recognize that being limited to the historical meant the Bible was not being studied in the manner of other ancient writings. J stands for the Yahwist source, (Jahwist in German), and was considered[by whom?] For example, in the late 1700s, textual critic Johann Jacob Griesbach (1745 1812) developed fifteen critical principles for determining which texts are likely the oldest and closest to the original. [195], Michael Joseph Brown writes that African Americans responded to the assumption of universality in biblical criticism by challenging it. archetypal criticism, cultural criticism, feminist criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, Marxist Criticism, New Criticism (formalism/structuralism), New Historicism, post-structuralism, and reader-response criticism. [4]:21, Around the midcentury point the denominational composition of biblical critics began to change. [60] In the 1970s, the New Testament scholar E. P. Sanders (b. Mid-twentieth century scholars of oral tradition objected to the "book mentality" of source criticism, saying the idea that ancients had "cut and pasted" from their sources reflects the modern world more than the ancient one. [118] Donald Guthrie says no single theory offers a complete solution as there are complex and important difficulties that create challenges to every theory. First, form criticism arose and turned the focus of biblical criticism from author to genre, and from individual to community. [113]:8587 In 1838, the religious philosopher Christian Hermann Weisse developed a theory about this. [122]:16,17 Susan Niditch concluded from her orality studies that: "no longer are many scholars convinced that the most seemingly oral-traditional or formulaic pieces are earliest in date". "Higher" criticism is used in contrast with Lower criticism (or textual criticism), whose goal is to determine the original form of a text from among the variants. [182][183] Meier is also the author of a multi-volume work on the historical Jesus, A Marginal Jew. [38]:viixiii, The late-nineteenth century saw a renewed interest in the quest for the historical Jesus which primarily involved writing versions of the life of Jesus. It has often been used in attempts to categorize the supposed sources within the Torah or Books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy . Culturally, society has plunged headlong into radical pluralism. For full treatment, see biblical literature: Biblical criticism. Say scribe 'A' makes a mistake and scribe 'B' does not. It analyzes the social and cultural dimensions of the text and its environmental context. [4]:21,22 New perspectives from different ethnicities, feminist theology, Catholicism and Judaism offered insights previously overlooked by the majority of white male Protestants who had dominated biblical criticism from its beginnings. Key Concepts: Psychoanalysis, the unconscious, drive, psychic Tony Campbell says, "form criticism has a future "if its past is allowed a decent burial"; Erhard Blum observes problems, and he wonders if one can speak of a current form-critical method at all; Bob Becking calls the question of the validity of. It is dated around 850 B.C. [157]:121 For many, biblical criticism "released a host of threats" to the Christian faith. In so far as it depends on the use of Mark and Q by Matthew and Luke, the second is circular and therefore questionable. Jonathan Sheehan has argued that critical study meant the Bible had to become a primarily cultural instrument. [145]:4 Canonical criticism does not reject historical criticism, but it does reject its claim to "unique validity". For example, Psalm 8 is a hymn that begins, "Lord, our Lord, / how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (verse 1). [9]:xvi[10] Astruc's work was the genesis of biblical criticism, and because it has become the template for all who followed, he is often called the "Father of Biblical criticism". [95]:95[100] The Wellhausen hypothesis (also known as the JEDP theory, or the Documentary hypothesis, or the GrafWellhausen hypothesis) proposes that the Pentateuch was combined out of four separate and coherent (unified single) sources (not fragments). This and similar evidence led Astruc to hypothesize that the sources of Genesis were originally separate materials that were later fused into a single unit that became the book of Genesis. [83]:5, Source criticism is the search for the original sources that form the basis of biblical texts. Historical-biblical criticism includes a wide range of approaches and questions within four major methodologies: textual, source, form . [200]:288 Literary texts are seen as "cultural artifacts" that reveal context as well as content, and within New Historicism, the "literary text and the historical situation" are equally important". It critiqued the quest's methodology, with a reminder of the limits of historical inquiry, saying it is impossible to separate the historical Jesus from the Jesus of faith, since Jesus is only known through documents about him as Christ the Messiah. For others biblical criticism "proved to be a failure, due principally to the assumption that diachronic, linear research could master any and all of the questions and problems attendant on interpretation". [194]:56 It has a focus on the indigenous and local with an eye toward recovering those aspects of culture that Colonialism had erased or suppressed. By the end of the nineteenth century, these principles were recognized by Ernst Troeltsch in an essay, Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology, where he described three principles of biblical criticism: methodological doubt (a way of searching for certainty by doubting everything); analogy (the idea that we understand the past by relating it to our present); and mutual inter-dependence (every event is related to events that proceeded it). Exemplars drawn from the Bible provided models for contemporary human activity, in part by embodying types of ideal behaviour. Another problem is posed by dating (see note 4. Canonical critics focus on reader interaction with the biblical writing. [175] The cole Biblique and the Revue Biblique were shut down and Lagrange was called back to France in 1912. [116]:5[117]:157, While most scholars agree that the two-source theory offers the best explanation for the Synoptic problem, and some say it has been solved, others say it is not solved satisfactorily. [53][54]:443, The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls at Qumran in 1948 renewed interest in archaeology's potential contributions to biblical studies, but it also posed challenges to biblical criticism. [192]:2 Feminist criticism embraces the inter-disciplinary approach to biblical criticism, encouraging a reader-response approach to the text that includes an attitude of "dissent" or "resistance". It can be said to have begun in 1957 when literary critic Northrop Frye wrote an analysis of the Bible from the perspective of his literary background by using literary criticism to understand the Bible forms. [51] Bultmann claimed myths are "true" anthropologically and existentially but not cosmologically. [122]:10,11 In this manner, compelling evidence developed against the form critical belief that Jesus's sayings were formed by Christian communities. Redaction criticism later developed as a derivative of both source and form criticism. After close study of multiple New Testament papyri, he concluded Clark was right, and Griesbach's rule of measure was wrong. [194]:6 The Postcolonial view is rooted in a consciousness of the geopolitical situation for all people, and is "transhistorical and transcultural". The dates of these manuscripts are generally accepted to range from c.110125 (the 52 papyrus) to the introduction of printing in Germany in the fifteenth century. Source criticism's most influential work is Julius Wellhausen's Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Prologue to the History of Israel, 1878) which sought to establish the sources of the first five books of the Old Testament - collectively known as the Pentateuch. For some, the many challenges to form criticism mean its future is in doubt. "[162]:151,153 This created an "intellectual crisis" in American Christianity of the early twentieth century which led to a backlash against the critical approach. This theory uses the initials JEDP to identify what it considers to be four different hands involved in the composition of . The early critics were all male. [163]:6[164] "There are those who regard the desacralization of the Bible as the fortunate condition for the rise of new sensibilities and modes of imagination" that went into developing the modern world. Biblical criticism can be broken into two major forms: higher and lower criticism. Biblical scholar Hermann Gunkel's system covers the following categories: Hymns: Many of the psalms are simple hymns or songs of praise. What is the most controversial Bible verse? [173]:301. [187]:215 According to Aly Elrefaei, the strongest refutation of Wellhausen's Documentary theory came from Yehezkel Kaufmann in 1937. [168]:136,137,141, Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Catholic theology avoided biblical criticism because of its reliance on rationalism, preferring instead to engage in traditional exegesis, based on the works of the Church Fathers. [138]:9697 It focuses on discovering how and why the literary units were originally edited"redacted"into their final forms. [74]), These texts were all written by hand, by copying from another handwritten text, so they are not alike in the manner of printed works. The term "biblical criticism" is an unfortunate one, because it gives the impression that the scholars who practice it are engaged in criticizing the Bible, in a hostile sense. In the encyclical, Leo XIII excluded the possibility of restricting the inspiration and inerrancy of the bible to matters of faith and morals. Herrick references the German theologian Henning Graf Reventlow (19292010) as linking deism with the humanist world view, which has been significant in biblical criticism. . [102]:92 This observation led to the idea there was such a thing as a Deuteronomist school that had originally edited and kept the document updated. [140]:336 The evangelist's theology more likely depends on what the gospels have in common as well as their differences. [2]:137 J. W. Rogerson summarizes: By 1800 historical criticism in Germany had reached the point where Genesis had been divided into two or more sources, the unity of authorship of Isaiah and Daniel had been disputed, the interdependence of the first three gospels had been demonstrated, and miraculous elements in the OT and NT [Old and New Testaments] had been explained as resulting from the primitive or pre-scientific outlook of the biblical writers. [7], Jean Astruc (16841766), a French physician, believed these critics were wrong about Mosaic authorship. 5. Tannehill. [116]:149 F. C. Grant posits multiple sources for the Gospels. [18] British deism was also an influence on the philosopher and writer Hermann Samuel Reimarus (16941768) in developing his criticism of revelation. During the eighteenth century, when it began as historical-biblical criticism, it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the scientific concern to avoid dogma and bias by applying a neutral, non-sectarian, reason-based judgment to the study of the Bible, and (2) the belief that the reconstruction of the historical events behind the texts, as well as the history of how the texts themselves developed, would lead to a correct understanding of the Bible. death records gilbert az,