Biblical Criticism

Abstract

The relationship between scholastic theology and biblical criticism in early modernity is intimately linked to the complex and conflicting development of educational institutions and theology as a discipline during the period. Essentially, it was a question of combining the exposition of faith through the dogmas contained in the Sacred Scripture with the exposition of faith centered on an understanding of the exegesis of the revealed texts that was based on specific philosophical premises and required knowledge of the original languages of the Bible. Overall, early modern Spanish theological schools decided for a theology centered on speculation and against a theology founded on the critical exposition of the biblical text. Notwithstanding, scholars at the University of Alcalá made important contributions to biblical philology, some Dominican theologians (Vitoria, Cano) sought to introduce critical exegesis as a premise to the speculative study of dogma, and many early Jesuits became important points of reference in the history of biblical studies. The so-called “Hebraists of Salamanca”, however, a group of scholars at that university, failed in their attempt to make biblical philology integral to the curriculum and attracted the attention of the Inquisition.