I want to give a culturally-centered view of the different approaches to the academic study of the Bible, and why each region values and focuses on certain emphases in scholarship. To do this we will look some at the university system and types of universities, some cultural context, the academic approach, and the kinds of research this results in.

These are extremely broad, general categories, meant to help you orient yourself when you are reading the work of different scholars. Based on where the scholar did their doctoral studies, you can understand the school of thought they are in, what they might focus on, and what tools (methodological approaches) they use, and therefore what kinds of results they will find.

Very generally speaking, in bigger research universities and seminaries, what is considered most attractive as socially- and culturally-valuable is interdisciplinary research. Much stimulating and cutting-edge work is being done at the intersection of many different fields, drawing from things such as psychology and art studies, to feminist/gender studies, modern linguistics, and sociology—sometimes even computing and statistics are necessary.

Not only does this generate really interesting work and new questions, the scholars who participate in this kind of work usually are seeking to break down some kind of barriers, whether it is within the academy, or socially looking to seek reform and change. The Bible is fertile soil for sparking change within our communities, and seeing it through the many different interdisicplinary/interpretive lenses can have much import for the everyman and everywoman, in our day-to-day lives.

Often there is an emphasis on rebalancing and decentralizing the often dominant narrative and perspective of the middle aged white male, and bringing in minoritized or formerly excluded voices from the academic and intellectual conversations. For this reason it is truly an exciting time to be a female scholar in this field!

Types of universities: broadly speaking, we have public universities and private ones. There can be major, influential private universities (like Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Duke, Columbia…) There are plenty of notable seminaries either attached to or associated with big research universities, as well as departments of Bible, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Judaic Studies, etc. The bigger (more famous) private universities and the more well-known seminaries tend to generate the most research and tend to offer funded (and therefore highly competitive) doctoral programs.

What makes the US so unique, and where many people at the undergrad level are given basic biblical education is at a bible college. What is distinct about these bible colleges is that they are funded privately (as opposed to larger public universities), and are very closely tied to their representing denomination, as many will choose to study there in order to prepare for various ministerial jobs or vocations. Therefore the bible departments in these colleges and universities will be often housed under the umbrella of ministry/seminary training.

In a smaller Bible college, where the element of faith is more closely tied to the field, the types of research you will see will focus on the biblical text itself, the shape of the canon as we currently have it (not as it was developing across time), and a bit less on parabiblical texts, apocryphal texts, or comparative literature, and more than likely less on archeology. The classes will also tend to focus on teaching the students the text itself and some historical and cultural context to help them better understand and read the bible devotionally.

Especially in Protestant bible colleges, faculty need to sign and agree with a faith statement, which usually includes the central tenet that the Bible is not only central and authoritative (sola scriptura) and it is widely accepted that the Bible is by and large a historically accurate document, and it is often taught from this viewpoint. This is generally referred to as biblical inerrancy and or infallibility. For this reason, focusing on the biblical text as much as possible is preferred in research, as it is seen as most useful and relevant in terms of training future ministers.

On the other hand, where faith is not a central aspect of the university, critical biblical scholars usually challenge this widely-accepted position, and argue for a more historically accurate back story for how the biblical text came to be, based on archaeological findings ranging from Egypt across the Levant to ancient Babylon. Critical arguments can range from the scholarly conversations around the pseudonymous letters of Paul, or the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection, and the origins of Christianity; to the challenge of the traditional idea that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or whether the United Monarchy under the Davidic dynasty was an historical reality.

Violence? Reception history? Biblical theology? Interdisciplinary?

The UK has some of the most popular locations for English-speaking students to do doctoral work, both in Scotland and in England, and many influential and revered scholars publish and work there.

The UK does have plentiful bible colleges, although there are none that are quite as big or influential in terms of research as some of the seminaries and bible colleges in the United States. Ireland has very few small institutes where one can study the Bible and prepare for ministry, but they do not generate any research.

Similar to the US, interdisciplinary work is also valued, as well as topical studies like studies of violence (just to give one relevant example).

Although education in the UK and Ireland is still much cheaper than compared to the US, both national students and international students do have to pay tuition fees for their schooling. However, unlike doctoral programs in the US, which are funded for a select few doctoral students (who receive a stipend), these programs do not have guaranteed funding attached to them, which means they are much less competitive.

Therefore, whereas doctoral program applicants in the US face an incredibly uncertain selection process, in the UK, Ireland, and in Europe, it is much easier to find and select a doctoral supervisor to work with, and European universities are always keen to accept new students. So while it is cheaper and probably easier to be accepted into doctoral programs in Europe, the burden of visa and immigration logistics, and finding a way to support your living expenses fall squarely upon the student.

In Germany, all education is federally subsidized, so there is less of a contention between religious identities in the field—I am a Pentecostal Christian, I am an atheist, I am Catholic—all of these can inform how we see the text, and what realms of research we are interested in. The  main denomination in Germany is called the Evangelical Church in Germany (Lutheranism), and it is connected with the federal government. Pastors are given salaries and pensions not by the tithes of their local congregants (as in the US), but rather by the state.

The state also funds the bible and theology departments in universities here, so any university education is free, both for Germans and for international students. This social and educational structure extends as well to Switzerland and Austria (these three countries make up what we call the German Sprachraum, similar to what we might call the Anglosphere.)

In this Sprachraum, study of the Bible tends to focus on a more classical education and is rooted in philology and textual criticism, often branching outward into other ancient cultures and literatures of the Bronze and Iron Age in the Levant, Mesopotamia, or across the entire Mediterranean. There is an ancient European university tradition that the German-speaking countries participate in, and so the faculty for departments of OT and NT are housed under a broader Theological Faculty (department). This used to be (and still can be) the way to train for ministry and a pastoral vocation. Classic languages are a requirement, not only Hebrew and Koine Greek, but Classical/Ancient Greek, and Latin, as well as some cuneiform writings like Sumerian, Akkadian, or Ugaritic, depending on the individual scholar’s research focus.

Israel is, for good reason, the core of where archaeological research is done. For studies relating to biblical studies specifically and other related ancient historical fields, the historical epochs that are focused on for excavations and research tend to be from the late Bronze Age through the Iron Age, and further into the Persian and Hellenistic periods, which is approximately 3000 years of history. Outside of Israel and in the broader Mesopotamian area, research tends to further back to the early Bronze Age (back to around 5,000 BC), which can help us contextualize our findings from the Iron Age Levant.

There can be also a certain self-limitation of research interest based on religious preferences and values, and just as with Christian scholars, Jewish scholars can range from incredibly conservative to those who really push the envelope.

Much of Israeli study of the Bible has been influenced by German critical theories, although in the Israeli context it can take on a life of its own and there are diverse schools of thought which may or may not exist still in the German Sprachraum. This is also the case in some of the larger research universities in the US, where research can be influenced by German critical theories, but can diversify into its own communities informed by preferred methods, theories, and other ideas.

What is an incredibly salient cultural and therefore intellectual value in Latin America is post-colonial thought. Postcolonial thought is an interpretive lens used on the biblical texts, and aptly so. Because of the narrative of Israel as fleeing from Egypt, then being kicked out of their lands (or living on occupied land), the bible lends itself beautifully to not only biblical scholarship, but also to liberation theology.

Although I personally have not yet read so much scholarship from Latin America (it is all in Spanish as well), but because of the recent boom especially in Pentecostal Christianity in the past generation or two, many seminaries and bible colleges have cropped up there, and there is what can be called in missiological terms, a “self-theologizing” impulse arising as many people become believers. The research being done in the Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries is extremely important socially and culturally, as well as theologically.

Last updated: 27 December 2023