Orthodox Biblical Scholarship: Possibilities & Prospects скачать в хорошем качестве

Orthodox Biblical Scholarship: Possibilities & Prospects

Renowned biblical scholar Professor R.W.L. Moberly (Emeritus Professor, Durham University) delivered the keynote address at St Vladimir's Seminary's Fourth Annual Academic Symposium. Orthodox interpreters are relative latecomers to the field of biblical studies. When the discipline came into its modern form in the mid- to late-eighteenth century, it received its shape largely from Protestant scholars. Among Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars, there were some pioneers and “early adopters” in the beginning stages, but it was not until the twentieth century that these two groups fully entered the discourse. As we enter the middle part of the twenty-first century, Orthodox biblical scholars, when compared with these groups, hardly seem visible at all within the wider academy, and “Orthodox biblical scholarship” is poorly known, if known at all, outside Orthodox countries. What would it mean to do scholarly work from an Orthodox perspective today? Is there or could there be a distinctively Orthodox mode of biblical scholarship? In many places, Orthodox Scriptural interpretation has and will no doubt continue to proceed without regard for the concerns and methods of the academy (e.g. sermons, talks, podcasts, videos, etc.). On the reverse side, it is certainly possible for Orthodox biblical scholars to do their work entirely within critical frameworks, bracketing or ignoring Tradition. But what would it mean for Orthodox scholars to pursue a kind of via media, to do scholarly work that is, one the one hand, shaped by and responsive to disciplinary questions and methods and, on the other hand, guided and informed by Tradition? This symposium gathered biblical scholars to explore this question. They considered whether or under what conditions an “Orthodox biblical scholarship” might be possible and what, if anything, makes Orthodox biblical scholarship distinct from other kinds of biblical scholarship.