Pandora’s Box Opened: An Examination and Defense of Historical-Critical Method and Its Master Practitioners

by Roy A. Harrisville

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2014

Overview

For many, the historical-critical method has released a host of threats to Christian faith and confession. In Pandora’s Box Opened, however, Roy Harrisville argues that despite the evils brought upon biblical interpretation by the historical-critical method, there is still hope for it as a discipline.

Harrisville begins by describing the emergence and use of the historical-critical method. He then attends to the malaise that has come over the method, which he says still persists. Finally, Harrisville commends a version of the historical-critical method, shorn of its arrogance. He claims that the method and all its users comprise a “Pandora’s Box” that, when opened, releases “a myriad other pains,” but hope still remains.

Key Features

• Presents an informed assessment of the historical-critical method
• Outlines the development of the historical-critical method
• Commends a humbler historical critical method of biblical interpretation

Contents

• Ancient Thumbnail History
• The Reformation Era
• Orthodoxy and Pietism
• The Enlightenment
• Contemporary in Dissent: Johann Georg Hamann
• The Modern Period
• The Twentieth Century
• Summing Up
• The Malaise
• The Historical-Critical Method Down to Size
• A Last Word

Praise for the Print Edition

Roy Harrisville has long studied biblical interpretation and thought much about it. This book presents the results—insights both deeply thoughtful and comprehensive in scope. Congratulations are in order.

—Robert W. Jenson, professor of religion, Institute for Theological Inquiry

Product Details

• Title: Pandora’s Box Opened: An Examination and Defense of Historical-Critical Method and Its Master Practitioners
• Author: Roy A. Harrisville
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Hermeneutics; Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc
• ISBNs: 9780802869807, 0802869807
• Resource ID: LLS:PNDRSBXPRCTTNRS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:16:16Z

About Roy A. Harrisville

Roy A. Harrisville is a graduate of Concordia College and Luther Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1949 and served parishes in Minneapolis and Mason City, Iowa. In 1953 he received his Th.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Since 1958 he has been professor of New Testament at Luther-Northwestern Seminaries in St. Paul. He has done post-doctoral work at Tübingen and at other leading theological centers in Europe and America. A gifted speaker and teacher, he is in popular demand to lecture at churches and conferences. He has published numerous books and articles, and has translated significant theological works from German and French.