Higher criticism

Higher criticism is a Christian theological doctrine and school that described itself as passing beyond what its practitioners saw as the preparatory stage of textual criticism to look at the Bible critically. "Higher" in this sense is much like the "meta" in "metaphysics" (see "the origin of the word 'metaphysics').

While textual criticism tries to establish the most accurate version of the ancient text, the original project of the higher criticism was to determine the authorship of the Old Testament. Leading practitioners included [Rudolf Buhltmann]? and his students.

An important goal was to demythologize the miraculous events of the Bible by finding alternative explanations for scientifically and chronologically impossible events. One example is the explanation that Jesus did not literally walk on the water, but perceived from the shore a sand bank in the [Sea of Galilee]? along which he walked to the boat; only the later mythologizing of the apostles? interpreted the event as a miracle. Many traditional Christians contend that higher criticism assumes what it attempts to show, that without the miracles, the Bible lacks evidence of a Deity?.

Links:

• [Catholic Encyclopedia article "Biblical Criticism (Higher)"]