form criticism

American  

noun

1. a method of textual analysis, applied especially to the Bible, in which the origin and history of certain passages are traced by isolating their literary forms, as miracle story, saying, or apothegm, on the assumption that they were fixed by oral tradition prior to compilation in written form.

---

form criticism British  

noun

1. literary criticism concerned esp with analysing the Bible in terms of the literary forms used, such as proverbs, songs, or stories, and relating them to their historical forms and background

---

Other Word Forms

• form critic noun
• form critical adjective
• form-critical adjective

Etymology

Origin of form criticism

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

They require a much more responsible form: criticism.

From Los Angeles Times

By 1964 the biblical commission acknowledged that the Apostles "made use of various modes of speaking which were suited to their own purpose and the mentality of their listeners"—a virtual endorsement of form criticism.

From Time Magazine Archive

To uncover that earliest stratum of Christian belief, Bultmann joined other scholars like Martin Dibelius in perfecting a research tool called form criticism, which examined the Gospels and Epistles with an eye to discerning the various stylized forms of the oral traditions behind them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mclntyre was one of 19 cardinals who last year signed a statement protesting to the Vatican Council the "heretical methods"�such as the technique of form criticism, devised by German Protestant theologians�used by Catholic Biblical scholars.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Midrash Theory is related to the technique of Biblical scholarship known as "form criticism," in which Scripture is analyzed in terms of the different forms in which Middle Easterners of 1,900 years ago communicated�far removed from the modern documentary attitude toward history.

From Time Magazine Archive