Brevard Childs

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Brevard Childs
Canonical approach

Brevard Springs Childs (September 2, 1923 – June 23, 2007) was an American

biblical scholars of the 20th century.[4]

Thought

Childs is particularly noted for pioneering the

historical-critical method.[5] Childs set out his canonical approach in his Biblical Theology in Crisis (1970) and applied it in Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (1979). This latter book has been described as "one of the most discussed books of the 1980s".[6]

Childs' influences included Karl Barth[3] and Hermann Gunkel.[7]

Christopher Seitz argues that

Professor Childs single-handedly effected major and sustained changes in the conceptual framework of modern biblical studies through appeal to the canonical presentation of biblical books and the theological implications of attending to their final form.[8]

Seitz has also noted that "there is a small

cottage industry in evaluating the contribution of Brevard Childs."[9] For example, John Barton writes about Childs' response to those who claimed that historical criticism "deliberately took away the Bible's religious claims in order to subject it to analysis". In Childs' canonical approach, writes Barton, "the interpreter of the Bible should not confront the biblical text as if it were a newly discovered document." To the contrary, as Barton reads Childs, "a properly theological reading of the Bible, by contrast, would treat it just as it stands as a vehicle of a living faith."[10]

Education

Childs' formal education was interrupted during 1943-45 while he was serving in the United States Army during World War II. After being discharged, he continued his academic work at the University of Michigan.[11]

In addition to his earned degrees, Childs was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Theology by the University of Aberdeen in 1981 and by the University of Glasgow in 1992.[1]

Life

There is no one hermeneutical key for unlocking the biblical message, but the canon provides the arena in which the struggle for understanding takes place.

Most of Childs' professional life was spent in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. From 1958-1999, he was Professor of Old Testament at Yale University. In 2007, shortly after returning from his spring residence in the United Kingdom, Childs suffered a severe fall at his home in Connecticut from which he did not recover. He had continued writing and publishing until the end.[13]

Childs was survived by his wife, Ann, and their children, Cathy and John.[2]

Ellen Davis
of Duke Divinity School studied under Childs and notes:

His scholarship was very fully integrated into his character, it would be very difficult to separate those two. He was a Christian. His work was a form of discipleship.[14]

In 1990, a

Ronald E. Clements, and James Luther Mays
.

Works

In addition to the following books, during the 1955–2006 period, Childs wrote some eighty articles and reviews.[15]

Books

References

  1. ^ a b http://manuscripts.ptsem.edu/collection/41 "The Brevard S. Childs Manuscript Collection" at Princeton Theological Seminary.
  2. ^ a b "Yale Divinity School-News". Archived from the original on 2010-10-16. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  3. ^ a b Obituary Archived October 16, 2010, at the Wayback Machine at Yale University
  4. ^ G.T. Sheppard, "Brevard Childs", Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation (Abingdon Press, 1999), 178-179.
  5. ^ Brevard S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture (SCM, 1979), 82–83.
  6. ^ Tremper Longman, Old Testament Commentary Survey, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 19.
  7. ^ Daniel R. Driver, Brevard Childs, Biblical Theologian (Baker Academic, 2012) §4 "Form-Final Form-Canon after Gunkel".
  8. ^ Obituary at Society of Biblical Literature
  9. ^ Christopher R. Seitz, "The Canonical Approach and Theological Interpretation" in Craig Bartholomew et al (eds.), Canon and Biblical Interpretation, p. 61.
  10. ^ John Barton The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster John Knox, 2007), 143-144.
  11. ^ http://manuscripts.ptsem.edu/collection/41 "The Brevard S. Childs Manuscript Collection" at Princeton Theological Seminary.
  12. ^ Brevard S. Childs, Old Testament Theology in a Canonical Context (Fortress, 1986), 15.
  13. ^ Christopher R. Seitz, "Tribute to Brevard S. Childs at the International SBL Meeting in Vienna, Austria" in Christopher R. Seitz, Richards Kent Harold, eds, The Bible as Christian Scripture: The Work of Brevard S. Childs (Society of Biblical Lit, 2013), 1.
  14. ^ Yale Divinity School obituary online at "Yale Divinity School-News". Archived from the original on 2010-10-16. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
  15. ^ Christopher R. Seitz, Richards Kent Harold, eds, The Bible as Christian Scripture: The Work of Brevard S. Childs (Society of /Biblical Lit, 2013),


See also

  • Theology of crisis

External links

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