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The Politics of Biblical Interpretation: A ‘Criticism of Criticism’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jeffrey L. Morrow
Jeffrey L. Morrow*
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University
*
E-mail: jeffmo2505@aol.com
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Abstract

Following Joseph Ratzinger's call for a ‘criticism of criticism’, this article situates the history of modern biblical criticism in its political context within the centuries long church state conflict. Beginning with Medieval Muslim polemical literature, this article traces through history the politically and theologically motivated philological analyses and hostility toward spiritual exegesis which formed the foundation upon which eighteenth and nineteenth century biblical criticism built. Rather than the result of some objective scientific enterprise, the methods modern Bible scholars employed often served state politics as well as other prior commitments.

Keywords

PoliticsBiblical CriticismHistory of Interpretation
Type
Original Articles
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 91 , Issue 1035 , September 2010 , pp. 528 - 545
Copyright
Copyright © The author 2010. Journal compilation © The Dominican Council.

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64 I am indebted to Maria Morrow and Biff Rocha for their comments on drafts of this paper, to William Portier for providing me a copy of his book prior to publication, and to Scott Hahn and Benjamin Wiker, whose unpublished 700 page manuscript on politics and the history of modern biblical criticism helped me especially with Marsilius, Ockham, Machiavelli and Locke.