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For those who want truth and reality, there is an excellent article by none other than Dr Jeff Mirus of *Catholic Culture *and he refers to the recent work by none other than the great faithful converts Dr Scott Hahn and Dr Benjamin Wiker. An excerpt from Dr Mirus is included here.
**What’s Wrong with Historical Criticism of the Bible?
By Dr. Jeff Mirus | May 19, 2014 **
“When Pope Benedict XVI wrote his trilogy of works on Jesus of Nazareth, one of his purposes was to blend the useful aspects of historical criticism with a neglected tradition of Patristic exegesis. He wanted to suggest the limits of modern historical criticism and call new attention to the importance of interpreting Scripture in a context of faith. In his Foreword to the first volume, the Pope identified the problem he wished to address:
The gap between the “historical Jesus” and the “Christ of faith” grew wider and the two visibly fell apart…. As historical-critical scholarship advanced, it led to finer and finer distinctions between layers of tradition in the Gospels, beneath which the real object of faith—the figure of Jesus—became increasingly obscured and blurred. At the same time, though, reconstructions of this Jesus…became more and more incompatible with one another…. [T]hey are much more like photographs of their authors and the ideals they hold. [pp. xi-xii]
“This is a dramatic situation for faith,” wrote the Pope, “because its point of reference is being placed in doubt: intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is in danger of clutching at thin air” (p. xii).”
Dr Mirus comments:
“It is this truly critical task that has been undertaken by Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker in their 2013 masterpiece, Politicizing the Bible: The Roots of Historical Criticism and the Secularization of Scripture, 1300-1700.
What Hahn and Wiker do is trace the roots of historical criticism beginning with such figures as Marsilius of Padua and William of Okham in the fourteenth century. Their purpose is to demonstrate that the very figures who developed the method were overwhelmingly motivated by a desire to minimize the influence of the Catholic Church and maximize the power of temporal rulers—or what we would now call the State. This is a massive study of over 600 pages, published in an impressive cloth-bound volume by Crossroad.”
See: catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=620
**What’s Wrong with Historical Criticism of the Bible?
By Dr. Jeff Mirus | May 19, 2014 **
“When Pope Benedict XVI wrote his trilogy of works on Jesus of Nazareth, one of his purposes was to blend the useful aspects of historical criticism with a neglected tradition of Patristic exegesis. He wanted to suggest the limits of modern historical criticism and call new attention to the importance of interpreting Scripture in a context of faith. In his Foreword to the first volume, the Pope identified the problem he wished to address:
The gap between the “historical Jesus” and the “Christ of faith” grew wider and the two visibly fell apart…. As historical-critical scholarship advanced, it led to finer and finer distinctions between layers of tradition in the Gospels, beneath which the real object of faith—the figure of Jesus—became increasingly obscured and blurred. At the same time, though, reconstructions of this Jesus…became more and more incompatible with one another…. [T]hey are much more like photographs of their authors and the ideals they hold. [pp. xi-xii]
“This is a dramatic situation for faith,” wrote the Pope, “because its point of reference is being placed in doubt: intimate friendship with Jesus, on which everything depends, is in danger of clutching at thin air” (p. xii).”
Dr Mirus comments:
“It is this truly critical task that has been undertaken by Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker in their 2013 masterpiece, Politicizing the Bible: The Roots of Historical Criticism and the Secularization of Scripture, 1300-1700.
What Hahn and Wiker do is trace the roots of historical criticism beginning with such figures as Marsilius of Padua and William of Okham in the fourteenth century. Their purpose is to demonstrate that the very figures who developed the method were overwhelmingly motivated by a desire to minimize the influence of the Catholic Church and maximize the power of temporal rulers—or what we would now call the State. This is a massive study of over 600 pages, published in an impressive cloth-bound volume by Crossroad.”
See: catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=620
