Title –  The Evolution of Bible Study

Author – Henry Drummond

Publisher – New York: Edwin S Gorham, 1901

I acquired this small, hardback book from my great, great grandfather’s collection.  Andrew Fleming writes a glowing introduction in New York, August 1, 1901 for this formal address that Drummond delivered to a vast audience of clergymen and students.

Back in my seminary days, I read Drummond’s book, The Greatest Thing in the World.  The topic was love.  But the theme of this address was much different – the Genesis account in creation.

Drummond mentions that the interpretation of Genesis 1 has gone through three stages (he prefers stage 3):

• Stage 1 of interpretation – The world was made in six literal days.
• Stage 2 of interpretation – The reconcilers:  they worked hard at the order recorded in Genesis, and tried to harmonize with the order of geology.
• Stage 3 of interpretation – The first chapter of Genesis does not contain and does not profess to be a scientific account of the creation.  It is not an account of how the world was made.

One hundred and fifteen years ago, Henry Drummond advocated the new science of literary criticism, which I find contrary to a faithful interpretation of Scripture.