Toward Vancouver, British Columbia
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Resources:
Higher criticism (HC), is typically contrasted with textual criticism (TC) where the latter focuses on locating the original text from variants produced over time. HC attempts to ask literary questions about the text in terms of who wrote it, when it was written and in what cultural circumstances and under what motivations. HC includes such disciplines as source criticism which seeks to understand what sources (oral and written) were used in the writing and editing the text, form criticism which focuses on the alleged literary forms of the document and redaction criticism which seeks to understand how the author(s) or editor(s) used the various sources to produce the extant text.
Examples of HC criticism would include theses and issues like the documentary hypothesis for the Pentateuch, the synoptic problem regarding Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and for another instance, the authorship of the book of Hebrews.
In short, in Biblical terms, HC is the literary investigation and treatment of the Biblical text in a non-sacred manner and it produces results according to its underlying assumptions. The methodology has been used with alleged benefits by both sacred and non-religious scholars, sometimes with similar results but often seen from different perspectives. An important question to ask is whether ALL of the purported results of HC investigation is neutral or objective regarding the Biblical text’s claims.
The resources in this section is aimed to give you some sense of what this sub-discipline is about because you will certainly encounter its results and influence when you’re involved in a ministry in academe--especially in the humanities.