Rylaarsdam, J. Coert, ed. Transitions in Biblical Scholarship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.

Abstract

Transitions in Biblical Scholarship is the sixth volume in the Essays in Divinity series, published in honor of the centennial of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and under the general editorship of Jerald C. Brauer. The series is the published proceedings of seven conferences, each of which focused on the work of one of the seven academic fields of the school. The present volume concentrates on the work in biblical scholarship at Chicago. The history of Chicago biblical study is presented in an introductory chapter by J. Coert Rylaarsdam, the editor of this volume. Mr. Rylaarsdam describes the vision of some of the Divinity School's great founders, who gave biblical studies a unique direction. Among them are William Rainey Harper, Edgar J. Goodspeed, and Shirley Jackson Case, who, together with their colleagues and successors, developed what has often been called "the Chicago school," a movement in historical and theological scholarship that specialized in an empirical-descriptive approach. The introduction indicates the tension between this historical empiricism and the new metaphysical theological developments of the thirties and forties, sponsored by such men as Henry N. Wieman and Charles Hartshorne. Finally, Rylaarsdam describes the present Faculty in Bible and suggests that it is both reacting to the School's current methods of interpretation and seeking to preserve its great heritage. The rest of the book is made up of essays by alumni of the Biblical Field of the Divinity School. All of them are professors in American universities, colleges, or theological seminaries. The essays deal with a wide range of topics, and all reflect moments and emphases in the story of the School that produced these scholars.