(DOWNLOAD) "Kuhnian Paradigms and Biblical Scholarship: Is Biblical Studies a Science?" by Journal of Biblical Literature # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Kuhnian Paradigms and Biblical Scholarship: Is Biblical Studies a Science?
- Author : Journal of Biblical Literature
- Release Date : January 22, 2000
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 222 KB
Description
It is a rare phenomenon when a scholar working in a particular academic discipline develops an idea so revolutionary that it not only fuels discussion and debate within that particular discipline, but is discussed and applied by practitioners of many other, seemingly unrelated, disciplines as well. Such is the case with Thomas S. Kuhn's landmark book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. (1) Kuhn is largely responsible for bringing the term "paradigm change" into the vocabulary of academic communities of many different types, even though Kuhn, as a trained philosopher of science, was specifically trying to understand the workings of the discipline of the physical sciences. (2) The academic discipline of religious studies, including its subdiscipline of biblical studies, has not escaped this scholarly fascination with Kuhnian paradigms and paradigm change. This essay explores the ways in which biblical scholars have cited Kuhn in their own works for the purpose of challenging this or that scholarly paradigm. Specifically, I will consider three works in the area of biblical studies and related subjects that cite the theory of Thomas Kuhn. My purpose is to discern to what extent the Kuhnian notion of paradigm change will support the interpretations placed upon it by these various scholars. (3) When the full impact of Kuhn's theory is rightly understood, it will be apparent that the academic discipline of biblical studies constitutes a poor arena for the application of Kuhn's notion of paradigms. In fact, I will argue that deliberate effort should be expended to keep the discipline of biblical studies from devolving into a pseudo-scientific, Kuhnian enterprise. The Kuhnian notion of paradigm, while it may be a characteristic of the physical sciences (though even this has been debated), (4) has little place in the discipline of biblical studies.