The Hermeneutics of Historical Distance

Book excerpt: Historians have tended to create a dualistic paradigm, which excludes a mediating biblical criticism in America. For polemical reasons, it has been easier for both conservatives and liberals to polarize moderates as the opposition or to ignore them altogether. Rather than the common modernist/fundamentalist paradigm, which is dualistic, a more accurate way to interpret the biblical criticism of late nineteenth century America is to construe a theological spectrum extending from right to left.