Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" J B Lightfoot 9781533202819 Books
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Joseph Barber Lightfoot (sometimes called J. B. Lightfoot; 13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889) was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Lightfoot wrote commentaries on the Epistle to the Galatians (1865), Epistle to Philippians (1868) and Epistle to the Colossians (1875). In 1874, the anonymous publication of Supernatural Religion, a work speculated by some to be authored by Walter Richard Cassels, attracted attention. In a series of papers in the Contemporary Review, between December 1874 and May 1877, Lightfoot undertook the defense of the New Testament canon. The articles were published in collected form in 1889. About the same time he was engaged in contributions to William Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography and Dictionary of the Bible, and he also joined the committee for revising the translation of the New Testament.
Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" J B Lightfoot 9781533202819 Books
One of the standard texts on biblical scholarship, "The Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters" has this to say of Lightfoot:"Lightfoot...is principally...remembered as the almost ideal model of the responsible historical critic...Lightfoot's greatest strength as a scholar was...commitment to historical inquiry, his expertise in historical texts and the measured quality of his findings mark him out as probably the finest commentator on early Christian texts that Great Britain has ever produced( pp 336-7).
When it comes to biblical scholarship, Lightfoot casts a long shadow.
This particular book by Lightfoot "Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" was written in response to the book "Supernatural Religion" by a nonscholar by the name of Cassels.
Here is how Stephen Neill, in his "The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861-1986" puts it: "A writer of very small distinction named J. A. Cassels in 1874 published anonymously a book under the title 'Supernatural Religion'" (P 36). No scholar thought Cassels' work worth noticing. Then Cassels made a blunder, by being rude to a friend of J. B. Lightfoot.
Lightfoot was the greatest biblical scholar of his day. It was like drawing the attention of some vast and mighty eagle to a mouse. Lightfoot promptly wrote "Essays on the Work Entitled Supernatural Religion". It's a masterpiece of logic, not to mention it proves you can be polite while offering a scathing rebuke. Lightfoot had "no difficulty in tearing to shreds...Cassels...The effect was immediate and deadly" (Neill, P 37).
Simply put, no biblical scholar quotes from "Supernatural Religion" except to laugh at it. It is a "book which is so permanently and justly dead it is hardly even of historical interest today" (Neill, P 37).
"Supernatural Religion" appealed to a certain kind of person back in the 1880s. The kind who believed spirits knock on tables to give you messages. The kind today who think there are aliens among us.
Lightfoot pointed out that Cassels did not understand the way to read koine Greek, which was which was "to presume to read meaning from these texts without reference to ancient usage would be irresponsible" (p 337, Historical Handbook).
Cassels had simply piled one hypothesis upon another, constructing a fairy castle of wild guesses not based upon proper textual and historical study. His work, even for his time, was shoddy and even laughable.
I find it frankly bizarre and even disturbing there are people today who still read it and find it credible.
As for Lightfoot, great as he was in his day, scholarship has moved on. Archaeological discoveries and major studies into Second Temple Judaism have altered the arguments for much of biblical scholarship. Nevertheless, there is still much in Lightfoot to be mined and admired.
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Tags : Essays on the work entitled Supernatural Religion [J. B. Lightfoot] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Joseph Barber Lightfoot (sometimes called J. B. Lightfoot; 13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889) was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Lightfoot wrote commentaries on the Epistle to the Galatians (1865),J. B. Lightfoot,Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion",CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1533202818,RELIGION Christianity General
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Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" J B Lightfoot 9781533202819 Books Reviews
From Lightfoot of Durham
As an instance of the extraordinary influence of his learning and authority among scholars may be cited the effect of his remarkable essays published in the Contemporary Review between December 1874 and May 1877, in criticism of an anonymous book entitled Supernatural Religion. This apparently learned book was a vigorous attack upon the credibility of the Christian Fathers, especially those of the second century. A rumour attributing the authorship of this book to a learned Bishop of the Anglican Church, himself a distinguished historian and scholar, Bishop Thirlwall, together with a chorus of praise from the critics of its scholarship and learning, ensured for it a large circulation, and several editions very quickly appeared. It was vigorously answered by more than one distinguished theologian. But, Lightfoot's articles revealed so many gross misstatements, that the book quickly lost its importance in the learned world. The Dean of Lichfield, who was closely following the controversy at the time, writes
I remember a conversation, in the early eighties, with a well known bookseller about Lightfoot's articles and he told me, in his quiet and judicial way, that they constituted the most remarkable phenomenon in the publishing trade that he had ever known or heard of. "When the book Supernatural Religion appeared", he said, "it had an extraordinary reception. It was emphatically praised by the Reviewers, and its sale was so rapid that the publishers could hardly produce it in its successive editions, fast enough to meet the demand. But before the series of Dr Lightfoot's articles was even approaching completion, the book was already a glut in the secondhand market".
George Rodney Eden and Frederick Charles Macdonald, Lightfoot of Durham Memories and Appreciations (Cambridge University Press, 1932), 9-10.
Walter Cassels' classic of Victorian rationalism, "Supernatural Religion", created a sensation in the late 19th century theological world. First published in 1874, it ran through many editions until the author's death in 1907. Despite a popular belief that Bishop J.B. Lightfoot soundly refuted Cassels' scholarship, the Bishop's essays were in fact dismissed as inadequate by contemporary theologians such as Otto Pfleiderer and Samuel Davidson. As Cassels noted in his own "Reply To Dr Lightfoot's Essays", the Bishop devoted most of his argument to minor side-issues regarding footnotes and patristic references while failing to discuss important questions such as the credibility of the New Testament record of miracles and the Resurrection. The latter word, incidentally, doesn't even appear in the index of Lightfoot's book! Two stars for scholarly merit, but this doesn't deserve its exaggerated reputation as the final word on the debate.
One of the standard texts on biblical scholarship, "The Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters" has this to say of Lightfoot
"Lightfoot...is principally...remembered as the almost ideal model of the responsible historical critic...Lightfoot's greatest strength as a scholar was...commitment to historical inquiry, his expertise in historical texts and the measured quality of his findings mark him out as probably the finest commentator on early Christian texts that Great Britain has ever produced( pp 336-7).
When it comes to biblical scholarship, Lightfoot casts a long shadow.
This particular book by Lightfoot "Essays on the work entitled "Supernatural Religion" was written in response to the book "Supernatural Religion" by a nonscholar by the name of Cassels.
Here is how Stephen Neill, in his "The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861-1986" puts it "A writer of very small distinction named J. A. Cassels in 1874 published anonymously a book under the title 'Supernatural Religion'" (P 36). No scholar thought Cassels' work worth noticing. Then Cassels made a blunder, by being rude to a friend of J. B. Lightfoot.
Lightfoot was the greatest biblical scholar of his day. It was like drawing the attention of some vast and mighty eagle to a mouse. Lightfoot promptly wrote "Essays on the Work Entitled Supernatural Religion". It's a masterpiece of logic, not to mention it proves you can be polite while offering a scathing rebuke. Lightfoot had "no difficulty in tearing to shreds...Cassels...The effect was immediate and deadly" (Neill, P 37).
Simply put, no biblical scholar quotes from "Supernatural Religion" except to laugh at it. It is a "book which is so permanently and justly dead it is hardly even of historical interest today" (Neill, P 37).
"Supernatural Religion" appealed to a certain kind of person back in the 1880s. The kind who believed spirits knock on tables to give you messages. The kind today who think there are aliens among us.
Lightfoot pointed out that Cassels did not understand the way to read koine Greek, which was which was "to presume to read meaning from these texts without reference to ancient usage would be irresponsible" (p 337, Historical Handbook).
Cassels had simply piled one hypothesis upon another, constructing a fairy castle of wild guesses not based upon proper textual and historical study. His work, even for his time, was shoddy and even laughable.
I find it frankly bizarre and even disturbing there are people today who still read it and find it credible.
As for Lightfoot, great as he was in his day, scholarship has moved on. Archaeological discoveries and major studies into Second Temple Judaism have altered the arguments for much of biblical scholarship. Nevertheless, there is still much in Lightfoot to be mined and admired.
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