Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible

1. Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible Before 1500s: Catholic Approaches Predominate • Pre-Critical: Questions of historical background or credibility are sometimes noted, but not pursued. • Centered: The central message or purpose of the whole Bible (the “rule of faith”) governs the reading of specific passages. • Community-Governed: Readings are subject to a community of faithful, informed readers (centralized in Western Europe, decentralized elsewhere). • Problematic passages, especially, are treated figuratively (metaphorically, allegorically, typologically, etc.).

2. Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible 1500s-1700s: Protestant Approaches Emerge • Pre-Critical: Questions of historical background or credibility are sometimes noted, but not pursued, except for textual criticism. • Centered: The central message or purpose of the whole Bible (“grace alone” “what preaches Christ” “the promises”) governs the reading of specific passages. • Community-Informed: Individual reading is encouraged; no communal authority is officially recognized; but ancient creeds and one’s Church’s doctrinal statements are highly influential). • Figurative readings are not allowed, except for typology, or unless the genre of the passage (e.g., Psalms, parables) calls for them. • Problematic passages are sometimes explained as God’s “accommodation” to us.

3. Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible 1700s-Present: Modern Approaches Emerge • Critical: Questions of historical background, politics, accuracy and credibility become paramount. • De-Centered: The possibility of a central message or purpose is put on hold; passages that seem different are studied on their own terms. • Academy-Governed: Readings are subject to a community of scholars, regardless of their beliefs. • Eventually, most scholars are active and welcome in their Churches. • Examples: Source Criticism, Form Criticism, Redaction Criticism, lives of Jesus, the Jesus Seminar

4. Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible Late 1800s-Present: Anti-Modern Approaches Emerge • Anti-Critical: The Bible’s presumed accuracy and consistency (including scientific and historical claims) must be defended against any questioning. • Suspicious: Almost all critical scholarship is seen as part of a secular humanist conspiracy. • Apologetic: Scholarship is selectively engaged for the purpose of refuting prevailing theories. • Doctrine-Governed: Individual reading is encouraged, as long as it confirms the doctrines of a certain movement. • No new scholarly approaches are developed: the finality of some pre-critical approach is presumed at the outset. • Examples: Fundamentalism, Dispensationalism, much of Evangelicalism

5. Approaches to Studying the Christian Bible Early 1900s-Present: Post-Modern Approaches Emerge • Post-Critical: Questions of historical background, accuracy and credibility are welcomed, but are not paramount. • Diversely Centered: Interpreters’ differing convictions, hunches, loyalties and suspicions need to be named and allowed to inform (but not control) their interpretations. (Sometimes these differ within the same interpreter!) • Conversational: Interpreters need to remain accountable to one another, even when they keep moving in different directions. • Examples: Existentialist readings, Hermeneutic Theory, Narrative readings, Canonical readings, Liberationist readings, Social Standpoint readings, Mimetic Theory, Post-Colonial readings, some Evangelical/Emerging Church readings, who knows what else? • Post-Modern Reminder: This is my account of post-modern approaches, partly as they seem to be, partly as I want them to be.