Philosophy and Biblical Interpretation
A Study in Nineteenth-Century Conflict

This book casts light on important questions of biblical interpretation, and demands a radical reassessment of the meaning of science for society.

Peter Addinall (Author)

9780521404235, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 July 1991

344 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.66 kg

"This book is valuable for the details it brings to light from nineteenth-century British biblical and religious debates, and to sound once again the call for creative theology which replies effectively to the questions posed by new knowledge." Walter J. Wilkins, Church History

This study explores the nature of the conflict between science and religion. It shows through a detailed examination of this conflict as it was manifested in nineteenth-century Britain that religion and science, properly understood, cannot co-exist in mutual harmony. The legacy of their conflict in the last century has been passed on to the twentieth century, greatly to the detriment of religious belief. It is the author's contention that a return to the essentials of Kant's critical philosophy would lay bare the profound differences between religious and scientific approaches to the world, and the nature of the choice to be made between them. In its effort to demarcate the outlines of a genuine biblical theology (and to articulate the proper procedures for producing one) the book casts light on important questions of biblical interpretation, and demands a radical reassessment of the meaning of science for society.

Preface
Introduction
1. The general picture
2. David Hume
3. William Paley
4. Biblical conservatism
5. Conservative Natural Theology: Paley's design argument
6. Conservative Natural Theology: Thomas Chalmers
7. Liberal Natural Theology
8. The later nineteenth century
9. Immanuel Kant
10. Critical philosophy and the Bible
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]