Unity, Diversity, and Information Literacy in Biblical Studies

November 9, 2011 By 2 Comments

My op-ed piece, entitled “Unity, Diversity, and Information Literacy in Biblical Studies,” has now appeared on the site of The Bible and Interpretation.

Filed Under: Bible, education Tagged With: , , , , , , 2 Comments
  • http://twitter.com/dougchaplin Doug Chaplin

    James, having read that I wonder how you would respond to Dale Martin’s critique of the dominance of the historical critical method in his Pedagogy of the Bible? (It’s fresh in my mind because I just reviewed it) It seems to me that your post presupposes that dominance.

  • http://www.patheos.com/community/exploringourmatrix/ James F. McGrath

    I have not read Martin’s book other than skimming, but want to, and must move it closer to the top of my reading list.

    I suspect that my post does indeed reflect the dominance of historical criticism. While I understand Martin’s concern to bring other approaches to the fore in a seminary setting, I think that, inasmuch as historical questions and methods continue to be brought to bear on the text, even if only as one approach among many, the points I made will probably retain some validity. And I suspect that, even when a wider array of approaches is brought into the picture, it will still remain the case that most of those studying the text will agree on a great many things, which it is important to keep sight of amid the diversity.