Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism

by Jeffrey L. Morrow

Biblical scholars by and large remain unaware of the history of their own discipline. This present volume seeks to remedy that situation by exploring the early history of modern biblical criticism in the seventeenth century prior to the time of the Enlightenment when the birth of modern biblical criticism is usually dated. After surveying the earlier medieval origins of modern biblical criticism, the essays in this book focus on the more skeptical works of Isaac La Peyrere, Thomas Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza, whose biblical interpretation laid the foundation for what would emerge in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as modern biblical criticism. ""No other analysis has pursued the historical roots of biblical criticism in the sixteenth century so brilliantly as Jeffrey L. Morrow's Three Skeptics and the Bible. He persuasively argues that the Thirty Years' War influenced La Peyrere, Hobbes, and Spinoza to develop methods of analyzing Scripture to promote their political agendas. Morrow's erudite and persuasive study exposes the fallacy of regarding biblical criticism as an 'objective' approach to the Bible."" --Edwin M. Yamauchi, Professor of History Emeritus, Miami University ""In Three Skeptics and the Bible, Morrow digs deeply into the seventeenth-century works of Isaac La Peyere, Thomas Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza. He lays bare the tangled early modern political roots of contemporary historical approaches to the Bible. Anyone who cares about retrieving liturgical and spiritual-theological approaches to the Bible, without sacrificing the considerable contributions of historical criticism, will welcome this timely and painstakingly documented book."" --William L. Portier, Mary Ann Spearin Chair of Catholic Theology, University of Dayton ""Recently I heard someone ask an eminent biblical scholar why he was willing to give up the 'objectivity' of historical-critical scholarship for the 'subjectivity' of theological interpretation. Answering that he was not in fact willing to give up either mode of exegesis, the biblical scholar pointed out that neither mode enjoys a purely scientific 'objectivity.' Professor Morrow's erudite and readable study of politics and exegesis in the seventeenth century makes this crucial point clear once and for all, particularly in his masterful retrieval of Isaac La Peyrere, whose significance might otherwise remain unknown. This book is a must-read for anyone who seeks to employ historical-critical scholarship today in a historically contextualized way--as the method itself demands."" --Matthew Levering, James N. and Mary D. Perry, Jr. Chair of Theology, Mundelein Seminary ""Dr. Jeffrey Morrow has taken up the task that should have been inevitable: the historical criticism of historical criticism. His book is a thorough, fair, dispassionate intellectual history of three key seventeenth-century figures. The culmination of long years of research--tested by publication--this book demonstrates that the roots of biblical criticism are not in religiously neutral empirical science but in a particular agenda that is essentially theo-political."" --Scott W. Hahn, Michael Scanlan Chair of Biblical Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville; coauthor, Politicizing the Bible: The Roots of Historical Criticism and the Secularization of Scripture Jeffrey L. Morrow (PhD, University of Dayton) is Associate Professor of Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University and is a Senior Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology.

Genres: Religion

198 pages, Paperback

Published January 19, 2016

Reviews

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt]

6.5/10

[NuevoBereano]

Hace años el cardenal Joseph Ratzinger animó a realizar una "crítica del método crítico". Desde entonces, algunos especialistas han tomado la sugerencia y la han convertido en un fructífero campo de investigación. Este libro es un claro ejemplo. El hombre vive sumergido en una circunstancia concreta, y bajo los proyectos de objetividad, es inevitable que las costuras aparezcan tarde o temprano. La Peyrère y se mesianismo político, Hobbes y el miedo y Espinosa y su supuesto resentimiento con la comunidad judía que le "excomulgó", muestran que la objetividad desinteresada es una quimera o al menos un objetivo difícil de alcanzar. Los padres del método crítico son a su vez hijos de su tiempo, y ponen su talento al servicio de un programa político que supone una nueva concepción de la religión. La domesticación de la Biblia se convierte así en un medio para facilitar la consumación de la nueva soberanía política fruto de las llamadas "guerras de religión".

No se trata de un libro que caiga en falacias naturalistas, solo nos enseña la dimensión histórica de un método para interpretar la Biblia que sigue bien vivo hoy día, y lo seguirá estando.

Me llevé una grata sorpresa al comprobar que el autor también bebe de fuentes en español. Es de agradecer. La bibliografía es fantástica.

Tengo ganas de leer su nuevo libro sobre el Pentateuco.

[Alan Fuller]

Morrow reveals the political motivations behind what eventually became the historical critical method of bible interpretation. Nominalism and Averroism laid the groundwork for this approach. Literalism served to separate faith from reason. The Bible was relegated to the past which was the job of the interpreter to reconstruct.

"Spinoza’s method required an exhaustive account of the history and philological points of each text, after which discussion Spinoza proceeds basically to tell his readers that such an attempt is impossible."

Morrow, Jeffrey L.. Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Kindle Locations 3412-3414).

"The difference with patristic-medieval interpretation thus begins with a different understanding of ‘nature’: for the patristic-medieval tradition, nature is a created participatory reality that signifies its Creator and possesses a teleological order; for Spinoza nature simply yields empirical data within the linear time–space continuum."

Morrow, Jeffrey L.. Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Kindle Locations 4107-4109).

[Yvonne]

Nice history