book review: biblical studies what they dont tell yoi
September 23 2013
Brown Book Review
Part One:
What They Don't Tell You A Survivor's Guide to Biblical Studies by Michael Joseph
Brown and published by Westminster John Know Press is a book that provides basic information
about biblical criticism. Ultimately, it tries to motivate students to engage with the biblical text and
contemporary biblical studies by illustrating how to approach academic biblical studies in a
different way than which one would approach normal bible study. The book seems to be aimed at
students beginning their journey of academic biblical studies and is supposed to be used as a guide
to get the most out of one's studies.
Part Two:
The first chapter of this book seems to be mainly focused on discussing how bible study
and biblical scholarship[1] differ and how different approaches need to be taken to each. Brown
made several very interesting points when discussing the difference between bible study and
biblical scholarship. One of the most interesting to me was when he compared bible studies to the
“Christian version of selfhelp groups like Alcoholics Anonymous”(Brown 2000, 2). I found this
very interesting because such a random comparison to an alcoholics group just seemed so strange
to me, especially when referring to biblical studies. However, this comparison does make sense
because it portrays his view that bible study groups are mainly about discussing one's feelings
about the bible and that in an academic setting, that is simply not the case and cannot be because
personal feelings and views about certain biblical texts can get in the way of truly learning about
the bible in a scholarly way( Brown 2000, 17). Ha e also talks about the history of biblical
scholarship and how it was fueled by the Reformation and how philosophers such and John Locke
and even Sir Isaac Newton are some of the reasons why we have so many good
Brown Book Review
Part One:
What They Don't Tell You A Survivor's Guide to Biblical Studies by Michael Joseph
Brown and published by Westminster John Know Press is a book that provides basic information
about biblical criticism. Ultimately, it tries to motivate students to engage with the biblical text and
contemporary biblical studies by illustrating how to approach academic biblical studies in a
different way than which one would approach normal bible study. The book seems to be aimed at
students beginning their journey of academic biblical studies and is supposed to be used as a guide
to get the most out of one's studies.
Part Two:
The first chapter of this book seems to be mainly focused on discussing how bible study
and biblical scholarship[1] differ and how different approaches need to be taken to each. Brown
made several very interesting points when discussing the difference between bible study and
biblical scholarship. One of the most interesting to me was when he compared bible studies to the
“Christian version of selfhelp groups like Alcoholics Anonymous”(Brown 2000, 2). I found this
very interesting because such a random comparison to an alcoholics group just seemed so strange
to me, especially when referring to biblical studies. However, this comparison does make sense
because it portrays his view that bible study groups are mainly about discussing one's feelings
about the bible and that in an academic setting, that is simply not the case and cannot be because
personal feelings and views about certain biblical texts can get in the way of truly learning about
the bible in a scholarly way( Brown 2000, 17). Ha e also talks about the history of biblical
scholarship and how it was fueled by the Reformation and how philosophers such and John Locke
and even Sir Isaac Newton are some of the reasons why we have so many good