ABSTRACT
The 19th century saw the emancipation of biblical philology from theology in the form of historical and literary criticism. Against the background of a dominant epistemology that posited human rational intelligence as the sole source of reliable knowledge (to the exclusion of, e.g., divine revelation), historical criticism of the Bible became a powerful instrument in the hands of theological reformers who wished to argue that much of traditional Christian doctrine should be renounced. However, the historical criticism of the Bible is not to be exclusively associated with this radical theological current. Moderate thinkers accepted the secular standard as normative, confident that it could be reconciled with the truthfulness of the Christian heritage.
