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Modern Biblical Criticism as a Tool of Statecraft
Modern biblical scholarship is often presented as analogous to the hard and natural sciences; its histories present the developmental stages as quasi-scientific discoveries. That image of Bible scholars as neutral scientists in pursuit of truth has persisted for too long. Modern Biblical Criticism as a Tool of Statecraft (1700-1900) by Scott W. Hahn and Jeffrey L. Morrow examines the lesser known history of the development of modern biblical scholarship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This volume seeks partially to fulfill Pope Benedict XVI's request for a thorough critique of modern biblical criticism by exploring the eighteenth and nineteenth century roots of modern biblical scholarship, situating those scholarly developments in their historical, philosophical, theological, and political contexts. Picking up where Scott W. Hahn and Benjamin Wiker's Politicizing the Roots of Historical Criticism and the Secularization of Scripture 1300-1700 left off, Hahn and Morrow show how biblical scholarship continued along a secularizing trajectory as it found a home in the newly developing Enlightenment universities, where it received government funding. Modern Biblical Criticism as a Tool of Statecraft (1700-1900) makes clear why the discipline of modern biblical studies is often so hostile to religious and faith commitments today.
328 pages, Hardcover
Published April 30, 2020
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About the author
Scott Hahn
415 books1,332 followersScott Hahn is a renowned Catholic theologian, apologist, speaker, and bestselling author whose work has had a profound impact on contemporary biblical theology and Catholic thought. A former Presbyterian minister, Hahn converted to Catholicism in 1986 after an intense personal and theological journey, which he details in his popular book Rome Sweet Home, co-written with his wife, Kimberly Hahn. Their story of conversion has inspired countless readers around the world and remains a landmark in modern Catholic apologetics.
Hahn holds the Father Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990. He is also the founder and president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting biblical literacy among the laity and biblical fluency among clergy. Through the Center, Hahn leads a wide range of initiatives, including publications, pilgrimages, Bible studies, and the scholarly journal Letter and Spirit.
Educated at Grove City College (B.A.), Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Marquette University (Ph.D. in Systematic Theology), Hahn brings a deep academic foundation to his work. His dissertation, Kinship by Covenant, was later published by Yale University Press and received praise for its theological insight and scholarly rigor.
Throughout his career, Hahn has emphasized the covenant as the key to understanding salvation history, showing how the biblical narrative reveals a divine plan that unites all of humanity into God's family. His works explore themes such as the Eucharist, the role of Mary, the sacraments, and the authority of the Church, often drawing on the writings of the early Church Fathers to bridge the ancient faith with modern understanding.
He is the author or editor of over forty books, including The Lamb’s Supper, Hail, Holy Queen, First Comes Love, Letter and Spirit, Swear to God, Reasons to Believe, The Creed, The Fourth Cup, and Holy Is His Name. Many of his books have become staples in Catholic households, study groups, and seminaries.
In addition to his writing, Hahn is a highly sought-after speaker, having delivered thousands of lectures across the United States and abroad. He appears regularly on EWTN and has collaborated with Lighthouse Catholic Media to bring his teachings to an even broader audience.
Scott Hahn lives in Ohio with his wife Kimberly. They have six children and numerous grandchildren. Together, the Hahns continue to lead efforts in evangelization and Catholic education, embodying a lifelong commitment to deepening faith and understanding through Scripture and tradition.
Hahn holds the Father Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990. He is also the founder and president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting biblical literacy among the laity and biblical fluency among clergy. Through the Center, Hahn leads a wide range of initiatives, including publications, pilgrimages, Bible studies, and the scholarly journal Letter and Spirit.
Educated at Grove City College (B.A.), Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and Marquette University (Ph.D. in Systematic Theology), Hahn brings a deep academic foundation to his work. His dissertation, Kinship by Covenant, was later published by Yale University Press and received praise for its theological insight and scholarly rigor.
Throughout his career, Hahn has emphasized the covenant as the key to understanding salvation history, showing how the biblical narrative reveals a divine plan that unites all of humanity into God's family. His works explore themes such as the Eucharist, the role of Mary, the sacraments, and the authority of the Church, often drawing on the writings of the early Church Fathers to bridge the ancient faith with modern understanding.
He is the author or editor of over forty books, including The Lamb’s Supper, Hail, Holy Queen, First Comes Love, Letter and Spirit, Swear to God, Reasons to Believe, The Creed, The Fourth Cup, and Holy Is His Name. Many of his books have become staples in Catholic households, study groups, and seminaries.
In addition to his writing, Hahn is a highly sought-after speaker, having delivered thousands of lectures across the United States and abroad. He appears regularly on EWTN and has collaborated with Lighthouse Catholic Media to bring his teachings to an even broader audience.
Scott Hahn lives in Ohio with his wife Kimberly. They have six children and numerous grandchildren. Together, the Hahns continue to lead efforts in evangelization and Catholic education, embodying a lifelong commitment to deepening faith and understanding through Scripture and tradition.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 13, 2021
A little shallow for those who have followed these debates and developments, and quite Judaeophilic. More than once the authors (one of whom appears to be a converso) equate anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism, and by implication link pro-atittudes to both (the other author is a formerly Zionist Protestant convert). For what reason? possibly in a metapolitical attempt to begin associating the two to give the Church some of the late modern shine of asserted Tribal victimhood.
The work: MBC is a genealogy of biblical criticism, taken as text and higher criticism inclusive. Personalities who developed are given: their developments' arguments and counter-arguments, and even analysis of the personalities' political loyalties, are absent. It's almost as if the authors added to a precis of Morrow's earlier volumes on Spinoza, Peyrere, and Hobbes a precis of the relevant sections from Reventlow's History of Biblical Interpretation vol 4.
Better to read the first volume (Politicizing the Bible), Legaspi's The Death of Scripture, and Dungan's History of the Synoptic Problem. For the political history, read Jones' Before Church and State.
The work: MBC is a genealogy of biblical criticism, taken as text and higher criticism inclusive. Personalities who developed are given: their developments' arguments and counter-arguments, and even analysis of the personalities' political loyalties, are absent. It's almost as if the authors added to a precis of Morrow's earlier volumes on Spinoza, Peyrere, and Hobbes a precis of the relevant sections from Reventlow's History of Biblical Interpretation vol 4.
Better to read the first volume (Politicizing the Bible), Legaspi's The Death of Scripture, and Dungan's History of the Synoptic Problem. For the political history, read Jones' Before Church and State.
May 13, 2020
The development of modern biblical criticism in the last few hundred years is given.
Virtually no one currently follows innovators Wellhausen and Holtzmann in every step today. The presumption of modern critics is that they are much smarter than the ancients, and there is a giant chasm between reason and faith. The history of the texts themselves and their authors/editors are the target of the investigation, and no longer the events and the people which the texts narrated.
Spinoza and Semler feared theological interpretations of Scripture led to the danger of violence. The view became that scripture should lead to good civil servants loyal to the state rather than to any particular church. The academic Bible separated from the scriptural Bible.
"No longer is the Bible to be studied as the Word of God. No longer, even, is the Bible to be studied as any other historical document. Rather, now the Bible is to be studied like other ancient myths and fairy tales; it is one fairy story among many." loc. 506
Virtually no one currently follows innovators Wellhausen and Holtzmann in every step today. The presumption of modern critics is that they are much smarter than the ancients, and there is a giant chasm between reason and faith. The history of the texts themselves and their authors/editors are the target of the investigation, and no longer the events and the people which the texts narrated.
Spinoza and Semler feared theological interpretations of Scripture led to the danger of violence. The view became that scripture should lead to good civil servants loyal to the state rather than to any particular church. The academic Bible separated from the scriptural Bible.
"No longer is the Bible to be studied as the Word of God. No longer, even, is the Bible to be studied as any other historical document. Rather, now the Bible is to be studied like other ancient myths and fairy tales; it is one fairy story among many." loc. 506
December 31, 2023
This is the second entry to Hahn and Morrow’s narration of modern biblical criticism, with this edition covering 1700-1900. Here is what I take to be their basic point: When the Bible ceased being interpreted in the Church and was handed over to the state-sponsored University, it became a tool for statecraft. The Bible, as a result, was fragmented and domesticated, and peoples related to one another via the nation-state rather than the Church. Biblical critics in the modern era served this secularizing move.
A note: for a book dedicated to detailing the polemical nature of the major works of modern biblical criticism, MBC is rather quiet concerning its own shape as a Catholic polemic against the movement.
Nonetheless, this book begins a work which needs to be done: opening the “conversation about the conversation about the Bible.” Modern biblical criticism, despite its universal ambitions, has a story with a beginning and (hopefully) an end. This book is a helpful narrator of that story; it is neither comprehensive nor entirely rigorous, but it is compelling and useful. It should not be used as a single genealogy of modern criticism, but it is a crucial supplement to standard narrations.
I would recommend this book for anyone who has been educated to read the Bible from a modern critical standpoint. It is important to overcome fundamentalism, but the tyranny of modernity is no fitting alternative. Amidst our scramblings for vision God’s word remains our light.
A note: for a book dedicated to detailing the polemical nature of the major works of modern biblical criticism, MBC is rather quiet concerning its own shape as a Catholic polemic against the movement.
Nonetheless, this book begins a work which needs to be done: opening the “conversation about the conversation about the Bible.” Modern biblical criticism, despite its universal ambitions, has a story with a beginning and (hopefully) an end. This book is a helpful narrator of that story; it is neither comprehensive nor entirely rigorous, but it is compelling and useful. It should not be used as a single genealogy of modern criticism, but it is a crucial supplement to standard narrations.
I would recommend this book for anyone who has been educated to read the Bible from a modern critical standpoint. It is important to overcome fundamentalism, but the tyranny of modernity is no fitting alternative. Amidst our scramblings for vision God’s word remains our light.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews