What They Don't Tell You: A Survivor's Guide to Biblical Studies

Rating:
Summary: What Brown Does Tell You
Review: Faith threatened by Bible study? Well, it depends on what kind of Bible study you're speaking of. In the academic arena, the student of Scripture had better be prepared for more than Sunday School. Such a student will find a worthy introduction and guide to the field of biblical studies in what Brown has to say. I should add, that this is an introduction to the field as is it today represented in the mainline seminaries and universities, and therefore needs to be balanced with several conservative works for a fuller representation of the field. This said, the student of the Scriptures will get a good idea of where the field is at today.

The author, Michael Joseph Brown is a professor at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, with a M.Div. and Ph.D from the University of Chicago. Thus, he is more than qualified to offer the would-be student of academic biblical studies an intro to this field.

In the first chapter he outlines the purpose and method of academic biblical studies as opposed to the devotional study of the Bible. In the following chapters, he gives 28 rules of thumb for reading and interpreting biblical texts, and for understanding and surviving biblical scholarship. I would say that most of the rules are very sound...though not all. As Brown himself would say, read everything with a critical eye. However, the rules of thumb for understanding biblical scholarship are particularly good and, well, honest.

He writes from a moderately critical perspective, and though his persuasion is always evident, he does not aggressively push his conclusions on the reader. He is evidently aware of the limits of all biblical study...even his own. Certainly frustrating to the conservative student will be the obvious skepticism for the historicity of the events recorded in in the Bible, but I would say read on. Don't look here for a proper understanding of what the Gospel is, but rather to understand the methods, assumptions, and rules of critical scholarship. Whether you like critical scholarship or not, if you dare enter the field of biblical studies, this is what you will contend with.

Much biblical scholarship today, including critical scholarship, is full of overstated cases, imbalance, and arrogance, but Professor Brown comes across as equitable, sincere, and with a real desire to help the student study the Bible academically without losing their faith in God. Although I do not endorse all of what Brown says, I think that students desirous of entering the field could read this and benefit greatly from it. At the very least, it will wake them up to realize that seminary isn't Sunday School, and to their likely surprise will greatly challenge their faith.