The Bible in Modern Culture: Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs, 2nd Edition

366 Pages·2002·10.99 MB·English

by  Roy A. Harrisville

T HE BIBLE IN M O D E RN C U L T U RE

THE BIBLE IN MODERN CULTURE
Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs
• ·
SECOND EDITION
Roy A. Harrisville
&
Walter Sundberg
WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN / CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
© 1995, 2002 Wm. Β. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
All rights reserved
First edition 1995
Second edition 2002
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /
P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.
Printed in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 03 02 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harrisville, Roy A.
The Bible in modern culture : Baruch Spinoza to Brevard Childs /
Roy A. Harrisville and Walter Sundberg. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 0-8028-3992-4 (alk. paper)
1. Bible — Criticism, interpretation, etc. —
History— Modern period, 1500-
I. Sundberg, Walter. II. Title.
BS500 .H36 2002
220.6'092'2 — dc21
2002069680
www.eerdmans.com
Contents
Acknowledgments xii
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: About This Book 1
I. The Subject of This Book 1
II. The Plan of This Book 3
1. The War of the Worldviews 10
I. The Agony of Historical Criticism 10
II. The Precritical Reading of the Bible 13
A. Basic Features 13
B. Martin Luther 14
C. John Calvin 19
III. The Precritical Reading under Threat 21
A. Protestant Scholasticism 21
B. Pietism 23
C. Rationalist Biblical Criticism and Protestant Liberalism 24
IV. The War of the Worldviews 26
2. BARUCH SPINOZA:
The Emergence of Rationalist Biblical Criticism 30
I. From Dogma to Death 30
II. Biography 33
III. The Theological-Political Treatise 36
IV. Assessment 41
A. A New Method 41
B. Enduring Themes 43
3. HERMANN SAMUEL REIMARUS:
Pressing the Rationalist Attack 46
I. A Pattern of Warfare 46
II. Biography 50
III. The Apology 53
A. Circumstances of Composition 53
B. The System of Jesus and His Disciples 56
IV. Assessment 58
A. The "Historical Head" 58
B. Reason and Prejudice 60
4. FRIEDRICH SCHLEIERMACHER:
Formation of the Liberal Protestant Tradition 62
I. Is Theology Still Possible? 62
II. Biography 67
III. Christmas Eve: A Dialogue 68
IV. Assessment 70
A. The Fragment Hypothesis 70
B. Universal Hermeneutics 72
C. The Challenge of the Intellectual 73
D. Life-of-Jesus Research 75
E. Concrete Christ or Redeemer Idea? 77
Ε An Empty Gibbet 80
5. DAVID FRIEDRICH STRAUSS:
The Bible as Myth 83
I. Faith under Siege 83
II. Biography 88
III. The Life of Jesus 90
IV. Assessment 96
A. Strauss, Hegel, and Baur 96
Β. Focus on the Historical 99
C. Reason Is Divine 100
6. FERDINAND CHRISTIAN BAUR:
Historical Criticism in the Shadow of Idealism 104
I. Biography 104
II. The Church History 108
A. The Question of Essence and Sources 108
B. Jesus 109
C. The Antithesis 110
D. The Synthesis 112
III. Assessment 115
A. Legacy 115
B. Identifying the Divine and the Human 116
7. JOHANN CHRISTIAN KONRAD VON HOFMANN:
The Bible as Salvation History 123
I. Pietist Protest against Historical-Critical Method 123
II. Biography 128
III. Interpreting the Bible 128
A. The Occasion 128
B. The "Fact" of Rebirth 130
C. The Task and Method of Theology 131
D. The "Historical Way" 132
E. The "Eternal" Presupposition 136
F. The Relation between the Two Ways 136
IV. Assessment 137
A. The Boehme Connection 137
Β. The Unacknowledged Source 140
C. Loose Ends 143
8. ERNST TROELTSCH:
The Power of Historical Consciousness 146
I. Historicism 146
II. Biography 151
III. The Power of Historical Consciousness 153
A. The Task 153
B. The Method 155
C. The Results 157
D. The Guarantee 162
IV. Assessment 164
9. ADOLF SCHLATTER:
Biblical Criticism and the Act of Faith 169
I. Attack upon Christendom 169
II. Biography 174
III. Getting Free 180
IV. Historical Research 184
V. Presuppositions 186
VI. The Great Qualifier 189
VII. Assessment 190
10. J. GRESHAM MACHEN:
The Fundamentalist Defense 195
I. "We Have No Strauss" 195
II. Biography 204
III. Christianity and Liberalism 206
IV. Assessment 212
11. RUDOLF BULTMANN:
Biblical Scholarship in Crisis and Renewal 217
I. At War with the Worldview 217
A. Contrary Tendencies 217
B. The Advance of Historical-Critical Scholarship 218
C. The Coming of War 220
II. Biography 225
III. New Testament and Theology 228
A. What Is Myth? 228
B. Bultmann and Heidegger 231
C. The Quest for the Historical fesus 235
IV. Assessment 239
A. Myth and Bultmann 239
Β. Bultmann and Heidegger 241
C. The Question of Continuity 243
12. ERNST KÄSEMANN:
Biblical Theology under the Cross 249
I. Biography 249
II. Biblical Theology under the Cross 250
A. Bultmann 250
B. Cullmann 256
C. Crux sola nostra theologia 258
D. Christian Existence as the Body of Christ 262
E. Christian Existence as the Cruciform 264
F. Christian Existence as Obedience 264
G. Christian Existence and Politics 266
III. Assessment 268
13. PAUL RICOEUR:
The Risk of Reading the Bible 271
I. The Secular Challenge 271
II. Biography 276