Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

[xiii.a] The application to biblical documents, since the start of the 19th century and largely in the Western churches, of critical methods which are applicable to literature in general. It includes: (1) textual criticism, the ascertaining as far as possible of the original wording and the assessment of various readings in thousands of manuscripts; (2) source criticism, the investigation of literary sources lying behind the biblical documents; (3) tradition criticism, the examination of the stages by which the material in our documents was transmitted; (4) form criticism, the study of the forms and the typical life settings in which the traditions were cast while being handed down; (5) historical criticism, the investigation of the historical setting of the existing documents; (6) redaction criticism, the consideration of the contribution of the authors who finally received the tradition and incorporated it into their works; (7) canon criticism, the description of how a document has been placed into and treated as part of the canon of a believing community; (8) literary criticism, the analysis of the text as literature, often apart from historical or theological issues, but incorporating a set of questions based in the critic's approach, such as feminism, post-modernism, etc. [2; 4: 1113–65; 7: iii, 238–338; 24] ... log in or subscribe to read full text