The End of the Historical-Critical Method

This book is now a bit dated, in that it appeared in 1970. However, it is a fine summary of exegetical history up to that point. Maier provides a good antidote to the chaos that still reigns in many circles of the Biblical guild today. Maier writes from a distinctively Lutheran perspective, and the translation is a bit clunky at times. I think the book can quickly bring you up to speed on the issues if you are willing to read the footnotes and familiarize yourself with the wider debate. A good, quick read.

Is the Bible simply another ancient Middle Eastern test, or is it somehow unique? And if it is unique in some way, is it ever intellectually honest to simply disregard that uniqueness in studying it? How can Christians study documents they believe to be God's revelation, or to contain it in some real sense, as if it were otherwise, and without compromising the very uniqueness which presumably prompts them to study it? This book is essential for any student of the Bible who considers himself or herself in any sense a believer. It challenges such people to invoke their intellects and, above all, their capacity for intellectual integrity in asking a question most non-Fundamentalists simply refuse to think about: is it ever intellectually honest for Christians to study the Bible as if they were agnostic or athiestic students in a secular university? Is there a place specifically in the Church for Bible study filtered through the presuppositions of unbelief? And even in the secular acadamy, to what extent are "modern methods of Bible study" in fact intellectually honest?