Het goede nieuws en het moeilijke nieuws. De verwerking van de historisch-kritische methode in de Nederlandse orthodoxie

Samenvatting

In this article Biblical interpretation within the orthodox Dutch Reformed theology (of which
Theologia Reformata is a representative) is analysed. Here, Systematic Theology is more popular than Biblical Theology and Exegesis and the author’s question is whether fear of historical-critical methods is the reason. However, it is questionable to accept the historical methods of the Enlightenment in extra-Biblical fields but to forbid the use of those same methods in the area of Old and New Testament. The conservative biblical scholar often appeals to the inspired nature of Holy Scripture to defend the historical trustworthiness of the Bible text. With a reference to James Barr it is stated here that the appeal of this theologoumenon might presuppose the doctrine of mechanical inspiration, in which there is a process of ‘“spiritual downloading of data”’ by which the author could step over the barriers of his own knowledge.