The Value of Biblical Criticism

Bibliographic Data

ID21687989
AuthorsJohn Barton (0000-0001-5428-537X, John Barton is Emeritus Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow of Campion Hall, Oxford. He is a member of the editorial board of Modern Believing and a former president of Modern Church. His most recent book is A History of the Bible: The Book and its Faiths (Allen Lane, 2019), which was a Sunday Times book of the year and won the Duff Cooper Prize for non-fiction for 2019., corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume61
Issue4
Pages314-325
Publication date2020-10-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Believing (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1353-1425 • E-ISSN: 2053-633X
PublisherLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3828/mb.2020.19
OpenAlexW3091864369
LanguageEN
Citations received1

Biblical criticism is the application to the biblical text of critical enquiry such as can be applied to any other text, and especially to obscure or puzzling ones. This is illustrated through a short analysis of some of the background and context of William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’, and the same questions are then put to 1 Corinthians 13. In both cases it is shown that we understand the text better by attending to its original context, its genre and the thought-world within which it was written. Such criticism gives depth to the study of the text, and does not reduce its power or profundity as is sometimes feared. Biblical criticism is an exciting pursuit, and even if not essential for all Bible readers it is very much to be recommended

Art · Biblical criticism · Biblical studies · Criticism · Epistemology · Literature · Physics · Textual criticism · Theology · Computer Science · History · Moravian Church and William Blake · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophy

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