Introduction
1. Revisiting German Historicism
2. Christian Reflection in the Shadow of Ranke
3. The Construction of History
4. The Theological Interpretation of History
Seth Heringer is assistant professor of theology and scripture at Toccoa Falls College.
Uniting History and Theology is based on an impressive reading
of texts from both theology and philosophy of history. . . .
Heringer reflects a noteworthy scholarly sentiment—which I
welcome—that challenges the prevailing reductionistic and
naturalistic orthodoxies of the academy. Philosophical theologians
Paul Tyson and Michael Hanby, for example, are advancing
sophisticated arguments that in some ways parallel Heringer’s
overall approach. Academic history does not exhaust what can be
meaningfully said about the past. And we need a thoughtful
theological interpretation of history that embraces
the strangeness and messiness of a past and acknowledges that
“the transcendent has indeed broken into time.” In pointing the way
for this, Heringer should be commended.
*Reading Religion*
Uniting History and Theology adds to a growing body of scholarship
that is critical of historical-critical method as conventionally
applied in Biblical studies. Dr Heringer contributes to the debate,
not only through a clear exposition of the problems with the
method, but also by charting constructive ways forward in
dialogue with recent developments in historiography, and by helping
us to think Christianly once more about what history is. This book
is an excellent contribution to a vitally important debate about
how we are to read the Bible well.
*Murray Rae, Senior Lecturer in Theology, University of Otago, New
Zealand*
There is no pure historical method. There are just
different views about how to read and understand the Bible, all of
which are theological in some sense. The contribution of Heringer’s
work is to help us see how this is true in the case of some of the
most important voices in the construction of historical method as
applied to the Bible. He engages Troeltsch, Ranke, Frei, Kähler,
Pannenberg and Wright, and offers a constructive theological
proposal for the interpretation of history. This is a clear, and
compelling case for a thoroughly theological approach to historical
method. Highly recommended.
*Oliver D. Crisp, Fuller Theological Seminary*
Uniting History and Theology takes aim at the Goliath whose
shadow has loomed large over the land of biblical studies for two
and a half centuries: the historical method. Heringer critically
examines the roots of historicism and its philosophical
assumptions, then slings five rough stones (what he calls “cairns”)
in an attempt to slay the giant (methodological naturalism). This
is a call not to abandon the quest for historical reality but to
pursue it with distinctly Christian convictions and faith in the
unified story of God’s steadfast love that holds Scripture together
and gives history its theological coherence.
*Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School*
Seth Heringer's Uniting History and Theology offers a
bracing critique of the understanding of history that most
biblical scholars still assume is the correct way to think and
write. Heringer does not, however, offer a newer, better
"universal" or "public" historiographical method. After an
interesting deconstructive tour through key moderns and their
"post" successors, Heringer guides his readers through a series of
reflections that are meant to reestablish a robust Christian
understanding of history and its retelling. This book is worthy
reading not only for its contribution to Christian reflection on
history but also for its insightful treatment of many of the deeper
problems that still bedevil biblical studies.
*C. Kavin Rowe, Duke Divinity School*
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