Grace Evangelical Society

P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202
  • About
    • Home
    • Beliefs
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Resources
    • Grace in Focus Blog
    • Grace in Focus International Blogs
    • Grace in Focus Radio
    • Grace in Focus Magazine
    • Free eBooks
    • Journal of the GES
    • Book Reviews
    • Partners in Grace Newsletter
    • Audio Messages
    • Videos
    • Email Subscription
    • Bookstore
    • Online Tracts
  • Store
    • Main Page
    • On Sale
    • Return Policy
    • Your Cart
    • Your Account
  • Events
  • Connect
    • Contact Us
    • Free Grace Church and Bible Study Tracker
    • Free Grace Jobs
    • Ministry Links
  • Donate
    • One Time Donation
    • Monthly Donation
    • Your Account
  • Search
Home
→
Journal Articles
→
Book Reviews
→
Historical Criticism of the Bible: Methodology or Ideology?

Historical Criticism of the Bible: Methodology or Ideology?

Posted in Book Reviews

Historical Criticism of the Bible: Methodology or Ideology? By Eta Linnemann. Originally published in German as Wissenschaft oder Anfragen and Alternativen. Neuhausen: Friedrich Hanssler, 1986. Translated by Robert Yarborough. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990. 169 pp. Paper, $9.95.

Eta Linnemann is an eminent continental scholar, a former student of Rudolf Bultmann, and a member of the prestigious Society for New Testament Studies. In 1978 she literally threw her many publications into the trash and invited others to do likewise. She had, in her own words, said Nein! to Historical Criticism because she had said Ja! to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Historical Criticism of the Bible is Professor Linnemann’s first book since her conversion, and she is not mincing words. Addressing the state of affairs in the German universities in the first part of her book, Linnemann calls for a break-away Bible College movement. She then turns to her main topic, Historical Criticism and the Bible. Simply put, Historical Criticism, which operates ut si Deus non daretur (“as if there were no God”), is inherently hostile to evangelical faith. It is not merely that the Bible isn’t read from the perspective of faith, it isn’t even read from the perspective of the possibilityof faith.

Readers of JOTGES will obviously share Linnemann’s concern that faith not be excluded a priorifrom the academy. And they should applaud her frankness and courage. Yet from the perspective of NT scholarship, Historical Criticism of the Bible is little more than a personal confession of faith. I seriously doubt that it will get much (if any) of a hearing from her former colleagues who have probably not heard a pulpit pounded since before their qualifying exams. For my money, a second volume in which she constructively engages those elements of Historical Criticism that are hostile to faith would be welcome.

On a more positive note, time and again Linnemann makes reference to the subtle pressures placed on students in liberal (and sometimes “conservative”) institutions to toe the line. Barraged by an endless litany of “obviously,” “of course,” “everyone now knows,” along with peer pressure from fellow students-who are often more unsparing than professors-and what Linnemann kindly calls “the process of socialization” (e.g., finding someone who will eat lunch with you), most eventually cave in. Linnemann lists herself among the weak. Her humility is disarming, and her point well taken. Most liberals are as coercive as … well … as most of the rest of us. In the end it is not our brains that typically fail us, but our character (cf. James 4:4).

Reading Historical Criticism of the Bible reminded me that the Christian faith is just that. It is a set of beliefs resting ultimately on a personal trust in Jesus Christ. Those who study at institutions that are not sympathetic to such faith should expect to be faced with questions they cannot answer. They should expect their colleagues to find them a little odd. This is the scandal of the Cross, the foolishness of Christianity.

It is a privilege Eta Linnemann now personally knows, and which she seems to have taken in stride.

Paul Holloway
Graduate Student
Department of Early Christian Literature
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Cart

Recently Added

March 23, 2023

1 Peter–Part 04–2:11-3:7

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today, Ken Yates, Philippe Sterling and Bob Wilkin continue looking at 1 Peter. Not only do believers need to...
March 23, 2023

Was Zane Hodges’s View of the Saving Message Misguided, Anemic, Inconsistent, and Evasive? Part 2 

A 2019 doctoral paper by Nicholas James Claxton (available online—see here) is entitled “Faith Without Works: The Gospel According to Zane Hodges.” In part 1,...
March 22, 2023

1 Peter–Part 03–1:22-2:10

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today, Bob Wilkin, Philippe Sterling and Ken Yates are talking about the contents of 1 Peter. There are many...

Grace in Focus Radio

All Episodes

Listen to Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

Grace In Focus Magazine

Grace In Focus is sent to subscribers in the United States free of charge.

Subscribe for Free

The primary source of Grace Evangelical Society's funding is through charitable contributions. GES uses all contributions and proceeds from the sales of our resources to further the gospel of grace in the United States and abroad.

Donate

Bookstore Specials

  • Hebrews: Partners with Christ $22.00 $15.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Hardcover) $13.95 $5.00
  • Absolutely Free, 2nd Edition $20.00 $12.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Paperback) $6.95 $3.00
  • The Road to Reward, 2nd Edition $9.95 $5.00
Grace Evangelical Society

(940) 270-8827 / ges@faithalone.org

4851 S I-35E Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210
P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube