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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