DrJim

The SBL has pretty good standards when it comes to its meetings too. I'm not envisioning the 'secular' association as a king of watchdog on the SBL per se. There are, however, a lot of issues beyond the SBL in which secular academic values get lost in theological discourses and this DOES impact the publishing industry, the teaching of (secular) biblical studies, and so forth.

The focus in the proposal for an affiliate relationship with the SBL is on SBL's allowance for outside groups to share meeting space with them. The SBL national is very large and so it is quite convenient for smaller groups. A large number of the affiliated groups, however, are theological in orientation. What I hope to achieve is a comparable working relationship with the SBL for a secular organization that can meet to discuss wider issues of secularism and biblical studies.

DCHindley

Even Leopold van Ranke, the "father" of the historical-critical method in the early 19th century, and many of the key figures active in historical criticism of the bible, have been faithful Christians. What they did was look at the world in a way that allowed them to accept a level of inaccuracy and myth into Christian tradition without giving up their faith. This is where "liberal" Christianity, one that concentrates on the social application of the Christian message, came from.

In fact, an in-depth discussion of the POVs of numerous historians takes up the bulk of Hayden White's Metahistory (or via: amazon.co.uk). Ranke is said to have viewed historical events as individual acts in a macrocosmic drama, a "set of conflicts that must necessarily end in harmonious resolutions ... in which 'nature' is finally supplanted by a 'society' that is as just as it is stable." Comic emplotment "imagines an agent/hero or protagonist as moving from obstruction to reconstruction, achieving at least a temporary victory over circumstances through the process of reconciliation. Often ends with rejoicing over the coherence or consensus a heroic figure achieves between groups of men, women, races, nations or classes. In this way, God's will is effected in history, regardless of the individual details." Ranke also had an organic argumentative strategy, which "identifies past events, people and actions as components of a synthetic process in a microcosmic-macrocosmic relationship whereby a single element or individual is just one element among many. Tends to be integrative." (ibid.)

I suppose if van Ranke can do it so can modern critics. Ranke was not a biblical critic, properly, so in a way he IS representative of secular history. If there is to be a secular historical presence at SBL, what kind of history should it represent? One that has no problem reconciling discordant historical events into "God's will," or some other approach. In reality, there are several perfectly valid ways to regard historical events.

How ironic ...

DCH

DrJim

Here is the announcement. Contact emails are on my blog: http://wp.me/pjNTZ-CH

If you are going to New Orleans for the SBL and are interested in such a thing , it would be nice to see you on Friday night.