Meaning of LITERARY GENRES

It is a more common expression among Roman Catholic exegetes and biblical scholars to express the discipline of studying the sources that contributed to the formation of biblical texts.

The expression is used from the studies of the French Dominican José María Lagrange, and officially began to be used in the Encyclical "Spiritus Paraclitus" of Pope Benedict XV, and became even more accepted by Pius XII's "Divino Afflante Spiritu" (September 30, 1943), which opened the doors to serious research into the Bible in the Church of Rome, where biblical scholars were often persecuted for not always agreeing with the official doctrine of Rome.

The phrase "literary genres" actually encompasses several disciplines that Protestants had already cultivated since the 18th century, such as the study of "redational units" (Formgeschichte), place and environment (Sitz im Leben), Higher Criticism (Higher Criticism). ), Historiography and Textual Criticism (Lower Criticism).

Among the Protestants, the following stand out: Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918), Johann Gottefried Eichhorn (1752-1827), Rudolph Bultmann (1884-1979) and his colleagues Gunkel, H. Gressmann, O. Eissfeldt and A. Bentzen. These authors are considered among the exponents of the so-called "High Criticism."

In the study of Textual Criticism, also called "Low Criticism", the pioneers in the Protestant field are Konstantine von Tischendorf (1815-1874), the Anglican bishops Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828-1889). ), of Durham, and Rudolph Kittel (1853-1929) and his son Gerhard Kittel (1888-1948).

Among the Catholics we can list José María Lagrange himself and the Spanish Jesuit José María Bover. Textual criticism has borne many fruits for the study and editing of the scientific texts of the Bible that result in piety and spirituality in the Christian Churches. This discipline is also accepted and appreciated by conservative evangelicals, but not so-called Higher Criticism.