Enlightenment, Establishment and the Word

Abstract

There is cause for concern for the future of New Testament studies, in particular in the UK, in relation to (a) theology as a whole, (b) the churches and (c) the univer sity system in general. A perhaps surprisingly large proportion (some 20%) of the teachers employed in Theology and Religious Studies departments of British uni versities and other comparable publicly funded institutions have New Testament as their subject. No other subject is so big. The situation is not without odd features. The strength of New Testament studies coincides with its almost fastidious with drawal from wider theological or religious connections, yet it is surely these con nections, taking various forms, which largely account for the subject's predomi nance. Equally strange is the recent official endorsement by the Roman Catholic Church of the range of methods now used in biblical studies, both historical and literary, when it coincides with a widespread tendency in many Protestant circles to reject the Enlightenment's legacy of primacy for historical enquiry in favour of revived doctrinal orthodoxy. Indeed some elements in New Testament scholarship have embraced this standpoint, often streamlining the New Testament writings to accord with later doctrinal norms. This movement accords ill with the official reli gious neutrality of university departments, which is accentuated by the tendency to locate them in schools of humanities. At the same time, the links between such departments and the churches have become tenuous, and even the elementary insights of New Testament studies find little currency in church decision-making. There is a need to work for new styles of relationship between New Testament studies and both theology in general and the churches (as a natural constituency), in ways that accept honestly the achievements and valid perspectives of the academic discipline.