My Evaluation of Higher Criticism

Higher Criticism



      The Enlightenment and the dawn of the age of science really changed how people viewed the world and reality.  Epistemology became founded upon man's ability to reason and natural law.  Gradually, reason and scientific enquiry became the main source of truth.  Along with this, Christianity adapted to the times and became modern by judging its beliefs in light of modern scientific knowledge and reason.  During this time, people began to view the Word of God not as the truly inspired inerrant word given by God, but as a fallible human document needing subjection to man's intellectual reason and judgement. 
      This way of viewing the Bible is known as higher criticism.  Those who use this method of analyzing the Bible generally adhere to naturalism.   In their attempt reconcile the Bible with modern reason and philosophy, people who use higher criticism have made the Bible into a human and fallible book which needs to be scrutinized under modern cultural presuppositions, namely naturalism and the infallible reason of man. 
      Because of this view of the Bible, I must diverge from a view of higher criticism.  As a Christian, the Bible is God's written word to mankind and the authority over the believer.  Without an objective revelation source, Christianity loses validity because it then becomes a matter of personal religious experience rather than known objective truth which has bearing on people's lives.  Therefore, Christianity without the Bible is not Christianity.  Christ is the highest most pure revelation of God to man, but the Bible is the objective Word of God which has authority over the faith. 
      It is the Bible that reveals Christ to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  I believe this is why God gave us the Bible, so that we would actually have objective revelation which holds us accountable.  God is not a God of confusion, He is a God of perspicuity and truth.  When man thinks he can subject God to his own rational judgment, he needs to step back and understand his own finiteness.  God is not put into a box understood in terms of modern scientific "truth."  This is why I believe Higher Criticism is defunct, because in an attempt to scrutinize and understand God and the Bible, higher critics have forgotten that God is beyond everything we can know and as Christians we are called to a faith in God which seeks understanding.  Without the Bible, we are not Christian. 


      I believe the Bible is the Word of God, because I believe what it teaches, and the Holy Spirit convicts me so.  When I attempt to understand what the Bible is saying, I follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in faith.  Anselm put it in a great way for us to understand.  Christian epistemology should be faith seeking understanding.