Pretensions of Objectivity: Toward a Criticism of Biblical Criticism

Modern historical biblical criticism while having many strengths often operates under the pretensions of objectivity as if such scholarship were neutral and disinterested. Examining the history and roots of modern biblical scholarship shows that such objectivity is elusive and was never intended by the methods earliest practitioners. Building upon his earlier work in Three Skeptics and the Bible and Theology Politics and Exegesis Morrow continues this historical investigation into the political and philosophical roots of modern biblical criticism in Pretensions of Objectivity in the hope of developing a criticism of biblical criticism and of making space for theological exegesis. One would think that in a postmodern environment scholars would have learned to be suspicious about any claims to intellectual neutrality and objectivity but there remains a large pocket of unreformed modernism within the discipline of biblical studies. Morrow helps unmask the covert agendas of this intellectual tradition. --John Bergsma Professor of Theology Franciscan University of Steubenville Jeffrey L. Morrow is Associate Professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University. He is the author of Three Skeptics and the Bible (2016) and Theology Politics and Exegesis (2017).