higher criticism
1
9.5
- noun
- /ˈhaɪər ˈkrɪtɪsɪzəm/
- Formal
:
crítica superior
- As then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger identified in 1988, a central problem for theology is the need to find a better synthesis between historical and theological methods, between higher criticism and church doctrine.
- higher criticism of the Bible
Examples
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Bourne's work was highly praised by others in the historical community who hoped that his work would help to prove the worth of the historical methods to skeptics, especially the religious conservatives who resented the application of higher criticism to the Bible.
Academic text (2018) -
In Germany and America, and belatedly in England, something called the "higher criticism" was catching on.
Blog text (4) -
Even knowledgeable followers of the German school of higher criticism tried to find ways around its conclusions.
Blog text (4) -
Bourne made his name as a historian by applying higher criticism to earlier historical studies in order to locate errors or identify hidden contexts.
Academic text (2018) -
Bourne's interest in higher criticism was bolstered by his distrust in oral testimony.
Academic text (2018) -
Bourne discussed the importance of higher criticism in an essay on the nineteenth-century German historian Leopold von Ranke, commonly considered to be the founder of the modern historical profession.
Academic text (2018) -
The professor emphasized the significance of higher criticism in understanding the origins of biblical texts.
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In her lecture, she explained that higher criticism involves analyzing the historical context of religious documents.
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Many scholars use higher criticism to assess the authorship of various biblical books.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'higher' (advanced/more scholarly) and 'criticism' (analytical judgment) together plausibly yield a meaning like 'more academic or advanced analysis', so some sense of advanced scholarly scrutiny is recoverable from the parts. However, the term denotes a specific technical practice (historical/textual analysis of biblical authorship and origins) that a B1 learner would not reliably infer, making the meaning only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Higher criticism began as a phrase for scholars who looked at the Bible's big questions, like who wrote it and when, not small changes in the words. Here criticism means 'careful study' and higher points to those larger questions, so today higher criticism means studying who wrote a text and when it was written.