2022 08 04 Thursday meeting

Fr. Kalish teaches from his paper on Higher Criticism
Higher Criticism (cont.)
A Digression
August 4, 2022
We have confronted two modern arch-foes of the Church: Evolutionism, and Higher Criticism.
They go hand-in-hand. Although we are mainly concerned with evolutionism, since it pretends to be within the realm of science, it has also been ably assisted by intense subversion of Scripture,
to overthrow it. I saw it everywhere in a “conservative” Anglican seminary. It is very important
that we understand biblical criticism. There are ways in which we can ask regarding God’s Word
with reverence and respect. But what is of far, far greater significance are the deliberate efforts to
undercut Scripture, in order to render it useless and harmless. This document may help us get a
handle on this potentially dangerous tool.
I am utterly convinced that the Scripture cannot be dealt with merely as a literary work. It is . . .
Living! It is . . . Holy! It commands the attention of all men. It is NOT to be tampered with. For
these, and for a host of other reasons, the greatest, greatest care must be taken regarding analyz-
ing the biblical text, because analysis easily leads to doubts, which in turn destroy Faith.
For these reasons, “Criticism” of the Bible is a very, very poor label for approaching it.
Generally, “criticism” is scholarly. It is the province of the “intelligentsia.” And pride, of course,
always gets in the middle of everything.
Jesus prayed to His Father: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
Always remember Hebrews 4:12.
Below are three seminary texts to help us prove a point.
Kinds of Criticism:
We can divide critics of Scripture into Herbivores (with nice teeth), and Predators (with cruel
teeth).1 Here are some of them:
A. Herbivores [who may not be causing harm to the Church]:
-Literary criticism: Looking at the Bible generally as a source of literature
-Narrative criticism: Looking for “stories” behind the texts
-Rhetorical criticism: Trying to affect the reader in some way
-Text analysis: Looking at the language of the biblical times
-Social/scientific criticism: How the writers affected the world, and their communities
Many of these “criticisms” may be helpful, interesting, or enlightening, but when they are al-
lowed to have the upper hand over the Truth of God’s Word, they are to be thoroughly dis-
counted. God’s Word is for all times, all ages, all cultures, and all peoples.
1 These categories are found in Elements of Biblical Exegesis, by Michael J, Gorman, Baker, 2009. The use of ani-
mals as metaphors is mine.
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