In a highly stimulating essay in a recent issue of the British journal Theology, my friend Richard Briggs, an Anglican priest who teaches Old Testament at Cranmer Hall in Durham, notes some of the ironies of current Anglican seminary education. Specifically, he focuses on biblical studies, his own discipline.
Much of the shape of Anglican seminary curricula, he contends, is shaped by the historical-critical project rather than by the particular questions raised by Anglican ministry itself. So, for instance, the classic “higher critical” Protestant reading of the development of the Old Testament — that the dynamic genius of Israel’s prophetic tradition hardened into the legalism of the priests and Levites, thus neatly inverting the canonical ordering of law and prophets — continues to impact even many Anglican seminaries’ approaches to teaching the Bible. Priority is given to the gospel-oriented book of Isaiah, for example, while the legal code is given comparatively short shrift. Briggs comments:
Read Full Article »