Dangers of Biblical Criticism based on the Fancies of Men

"People may raise an alarm over the encroachments of Rome,

but the danger is not in the political workings of Romanism....The danger lies in the attitude of professed Protestants for the Bible. 

They themselves are preparing the way for Rome to gain the ecclesiastical supremacy of the world.
When professed Protestants sit in judgment on the Bible,
they have every essential characteristic of the Papacy. 

Every individual soul who thus sits in judgment on the Bible is, so
far as his power extends, a pope. He differs in no essential
particular from the Pope that sits in the Vatican, except in degree.

 
The “man of sin” (2 Thess. 2:3) spoken of in the Bible, is made up of many
men of sin. The spirit of Antichrist must be in individual hearts before it can manifest itself at large. It is the exaltation of self, and this is shown in the most marked manner in the acceptance or rejection of the Bible, according as it pleases or displeases the fancy of men." E.J. Waggoner

 

"Ken and Richard Soulen say that "biblical criticism has permanently altered the way people understand the Bible". 

One way of understanding this change is to see it as a cultural enterprise. Jonathan Sheehan has argued that critical study meant the Bible had to become a primarily cultural instrument.  

...As a result, the Bible is no longer thought of solely as a religious artifact, and its interpretation is no longer restricted to the community of believers^. 

The Bible's cultural impact is studied in multiple academic fields, producing not only the cultural Bible, but the modern academic Bible as well^. Soulen adds that biblical criticism's "leading practitioners ... have set standards of industry, acumen, and insight that remain pace-setting today."

 

Post-modern biblical criticism

Postmodern biblical criticism began after the 1940s and 1950s ...Many of these early postmodernist views came from France following World War II. Postmodernism has been associated with Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and arguments against metaphysics and ideology. It questions anything that claims "objectively secured foundations, universals, metaphysics, or analytical dualism". Biblical scholar A. K. M. Adam says postmodernism has three general features: 

1) it denies any privileged starting point for truth; 

2) it is critical of theories that attempt to explain the "totality of reality;" and 

3) it attempts to show that all ideals are grounded in ideological, economic or political self-interest.

 

Social scientific criticism

Social scientific criticism is part of the wider trend in biblical criticism to reflect interdisciplinary methods and diversity.

 

Feminist criticism 

Biblical criticism impacted feminism and was impacted by it. In the 1980s, Phyllis Trible and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza reframed biblical criticism by challenging the supposed disinterest and objectivity it claimed for itself and exposing how ideological-theological stances had played a critical role in interpretation^. For example, the patriarchal model of ancient Israel became an aspect of biblical criticism through the anthropology of the nineteenth century.

Feminist scholars of second-wave feminism appropriated it. 

Third wave feminists began raising concerns about its accuracy.

 

African-American biblical criticism

Biblical criticism produced profound changes in African-American culture. 

Michael Joseph Brown writes-- Bible readings are contextual, in that readers bring with them their own context: perceptions and experiences harvested from social and cultural situations.

African-American biblical criticism is based on liberation theology and black theology, and looks for what is potentially liberating in the texts.

 

Queer biblical hermeneutics

According to Episcopalian priest and queer theologian Patrick S. Cheng: "Queer biblical hermeneutics is a way of looking at the sacred text through the eyes of queer people. It is important to understand the meaning of these terms in relation to the exegetical process."

 

Statistical criticism, uses mathematical and statistical methods to sift through variant readings. Instead of using manuscript families and the Bible critic's own reason, this type of criticism puts the various texts into a statistical formula to derive its text.

 

Redaction criticism and higher criticism are just a few of many forms of biblical

criticism. Their intent is to investigate the Scriptures and make judgments concerning their authorship, historicity, and date of writing.

The higher critical methods described below grew out of a German school of Biblical studies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Important names in the development of higher criticism include Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–1872) and David Friedrich Strauss (1808–1874); the origins of higher criticism are deeply intertwined with rationalism and naturalism. The concepts and methods behind higher criticism were carried from Germany across Europe, finding homes in the United Kingdom and France, among liberal Anglicans and Catholics respectively. In later times, higher critical methods were deployed in conjunction with the contemporary philosophical trends to de-historicize Scripture." wiki/GotQ/Theopedia