One unfortunate consequence of the bitter fundamentalist-modernist controversy which raged in the early twenties has been the strongly negative attitude toward biblical criticism assumed by some of the successors to the fundamentalists of the 1920s. Such people, according to Professor Ladd, insist that the critical method is basically hostile to the evangelical faith, and they have continued to oppose any use of it. Others, however, claiming the same heritage, believe that the orthodox interpretation of the Gospel can be defended positively and constructively only with the aid of a sound critical method and the results of critical scholarship. The author believes that an evangelical biblical criticism is not only possible but necessary. The central thesis of his book is that �the Bible is the Word of God given in the words of men in history,� and as such its historical origins must be reconstructed as far as possible. In this way a richer understanding of the Scriptures can be achieved. The New Testament and Criticism provides the serious student of the Scriptures with valuable guidelines for such an understanding.
George Eldon Ladd was a Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.
Ladd was ordained in 1933 and pastored in New England from 1936 to 1945. He served as an instructor at Gordon College of Theology and Missions (now Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), Wenham, Massachusetts from 1942–45. He was an associate professor of New Testament and Greek from 1946–50, and head of the department of New Testament from 1946–49. In 1950–52 he was an associate professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif, becoming professor of biblical theology in 1952.
Ladd's best-known work, A Theology of the New Testament, has been used by thousands of seminary students since its publication in 1974. This work was enhanced and updated by Donald A. Hagner in 1993.
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