Progress in Psychological Biblical Criticism

Abstract

The article reflects on the scientific progress that psychological biblical criticism has offered to biblical hermeneutics. The inquiry concerns the explanation of textual traditions and transmission of traditions; genre and rhetorical style; the texture of communication; its reception (Wirkungsgeschicte) and affect on readers; interpretation through translation; transformation of communication in formats that differ from the original; and the psychological dynamics of communication. The article also reflects on a question with regard to the innovation of psychological biblical hermeneutics in the field of exegetical methodology that Friedrich Schleiermacher in the 19th century and William James in the 20th century, for example, had not already perused. The article demonstrates the importance and relevance of empirical pragmatics. It concludes that the stigmatization of the so-called psychological fallacy is unnecessary and even false.