Evangelical Faith and Historical Criticism

As a follow-up to my earlier post where I pointed out that the rhetoric of the new atheist’s does not bother college-age Christians as much as historical criticism does, I’m glad to announced a forthcoming book edited by Christopher Hays and Christopher Ansberry on Evangelical Faith and the Challenge of Historical Criticism which is an edited collection of essays on the topic (coming out in June with SPCK!).

Here are some endorsements for the book:

”Chris Hays and Chris Ansberry engage in the courageous task of showing how evangelical scholars can soberly address the hot-potato issues in biblical scholarship, even appropriate many critical insights, without selling out on what evangelicals traditionally believe. The contributors systematically address big topics like Pentateuchal criticism, pseudepigraphy and canon, problems with prophecy, the historical Jesus, and exemplify what it means to practice a form of ‘faithful criticism’ when it comes to the Bible. This is the type of discussion on faith and criticism that evangelical scholarship has needed for years. Thankfully, an intellectually rigours and theologically sensitive approach to these matters is finally upon us!” Dr Michael Bird, Ridley Melbourne College of Mission & Ministry, Australia

”This carefully argued book urges evangelical Christians to re-examine the potential of historical-critical biblical criticism. The book’s essays make this case with unusually discriminating attention to biblical texts, critical treatments of these texts, theological implications of the treatments, and self-conscious historical awareness for both biblical eras and our own day. The authors seek not so much universal acceptance of what they propose, but fresh evangelical engagement with questions involving the methods of biblical criticism – and therefore with Scripture itself. In this aim they succeed admirably.” Mark A. Noll, Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, and author of Between Faith and Criticism: Evangelicals, Scholarship, and the Bible in America.

See also my post on An Evangelical and Critical Approach to the Gospels.