John H. Kaelberer

This book is a little introduction to the history of the historical critical method of hermeneutics. Or in layman's terms, it looks at how some folks started the practice of interpreting the Bible according to reason and the historical record rather than using the Bible's own teachings as guide. Captain Kaelberer is dead set against the HC method and wrote the book to help us guys in the pew understand from where some of the guys in the pulpit got their ideas. I had mixed feelings about the book. I get a bit skeptical reading an overly partisan bit of prose and Capt. Kaelberer is quite proud to take a stand. The fact that he talks down a bit to us layfolk also put me off a bit. But despite my misgivings, I am pretty much on his side and I had been wondering myself where some of the more liberal theologians were coming from. The book does a good job of outlining the "family tree" of the HC method from the Enlightenment to the late 20th Century. It's a handy book to keep on the shelf if you don't want to do a lot of deep reading and blaze your own path through the last few centuries of philosophical and theological thought.
--J.… (más)