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If historical-criticism
has at all the task to search out everything as precisely as possible
with regard to writings whose origin and character it investigates,
it cannot be satisfied with merely their outward appearance, but
must attempt also to penetrate their inner nature. It must inquire
not merely about the circumstances of the time in general, but in
particular about the writer's position with regard to these things,
the interests and motives, the leading ideas of his literary activity.
The greater the conceptual significance of a literary product, the
more it should be assumed that it is based on an idea that determines
the whole, and that the deeper consciousness of the time to which
it belongs is reflected in it. Even with regard to the New Testament
writings, therefore, historical criticism would not completely fulfill
its task if it did not endeavor to investigate more precisely the
conceptual character which they themselves bear, the concerns of
the time under whose influence they originated, the direction they
pursue, the basic perspective to which the particular subordinates
itself — if it did not make any attempt at all to penetrate
as far as possible their inner nature, and likewise to peer into
the creative conception of the thoughts in the mind of the writer
from which these writings went forth. |
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