There are two ways of looking at scripture: the historical-critical and the theological. The historical-critical method has greatly increased our understanding of the biblical text and the stitz im leben of the various books over the past 250 years. Unfortunately, this increase in knowledge has not contributed to a better theological understanding. Indeed, “perplexity has grown among both the faithful and the theologians” (13).

One of the great challenges, therefore, that is faced by the intellectus fidei today is that of trying to restore the unity of the dual dimension of exegesis: being critical and theological at the same time. (13)

For Roman Catholic theologian Ignacio Carbajosa, the solution is to set both the historical-critical and the theological in the context of faith. “[F]aith must necessarily be involved from the beginning in the shaping of the method, making possible that the indivisible unity of the two methodological dimensions that do justice to the nature of Scripture: the historical-critical and the theological” (250).

In Faith, the Fount of Exegesis, Carbajosa accomplishes this argument in three steps.

First, he surveys the history of historical-critical research on the Pentateuch, specifically the documentary hypothesis. Carbajosa shows how every text critic was a product of the presuppositions of their age. Logical-positivism became the lens through which the Pentateuch was divvied up into J, E, P, and D documents. Carbajosa levels a brief but incisive criticism when he asks, “Does a Theory about the Origins of the Pentateuch Serve Any Useful Purpose” (76–79)? In this section Carbajosa argues (following D. J. A. Clines) that academic paradigms such as the documentary hypothesis are held in place (even when they are fundamentally questioned) by the power of institutions whose reputations are too heavily invested in the theory to change course.

Second, Carbajosa surveys the history of the critical study of the prophets—a field related to the critical study of the Pentateuch. Modern criticism of the prophets, rooted in Welhausen, suggests that unlike the structure of the canon, the prophets preceded the law. In this reconstruction of Israel’s history, rooted in an evolutionary perspective of religion, the prophets represent a more simple and pure call to faith which the law then systematized and complicated.

Third, having conducted a critical diachronic survey of the history of historical-critical method of interpretation, he argues that a so-called “objective” approach to the text rooted in logical-positivism is the wrong way to handle scripture.

Scripture is a single object or reality accessible through a single path made up of the two dimensions required by the nature of the object. As attested revelation, Scripture cannot be reduced to a methodologically accessible text (historical-critical dimension) that does not question freedom (theological dimension). As a witness to revelation, Scripture preserves the nature of an event that is happening here and now, challenging my freedom. (156)

It is only when the two dimensions (historical-critical and theological) are brought together that we can genuinely understand scripture. As he suggested in the title, faith truly is the fount of exegesis.

Carbajosa, Ignacio. Faith, the Fount of Exegesis: The Interpretation of Scripture in Light of the History of Research on the Old Testament. Translated by Paul Stevenson. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2013.