The Historian and Believer: The Morality of Historical Knowledge and Christian Belief

by Van Austin Harvey

A milestone work in Christian
        theology--available again!
      "As a critic of the contemporary
        theological scene, Van Harvey has few, if any, competitors. This is nowhere
        clearer than in The Historian and the Believer . . . the classic
        discussion of its topic. Rich in insight and penetrating in argument,
        it is one book that belongs in the library of every theologian and seminarian."
        -- Schubert M. Ogden, author of Doing Theology Today
      Is it possible to be both
        a historian and a Christian? Van Harvey's classic The Historian and
        the Believer posed that question when it was first published.
      In this printing, the author
        has provided a new introduction in which he reflects on how he would reframe
        his original argument in order to bring out more fully the basic theological
        intention underlying his view that Christian faith cannot rest on dubious
        historical claims.
      From reviews of the first
       
      "Probably the most interesting
        piece of American theological writing to appear this year." -- John
        Reumann, Union Seminary Quarterly Review
 
 

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Remi]

Just kinda outdated

[Keith Davis]

Kind of a dry academic read, but one that raises a devastating question for any attempt to interpret the Bible in a literal fashion. Harvey asks how a historian can read a work like the Iliad and dismiss the mythological elements of the story as historically inaccurate, but then read the Bible and accept the supernatural elements. The historian has to apply the same epistemological standard to all texts. It is question of intellectual ethics.

[pjr8888]

my copy:First Macmillan Paperbacks Edition, 1969

[Bob Breckwoldt]

It is a classic attempt to deal with the issues of historiography and religious belief.