Contrasts with Lower Criticism, Textual Criticism.
All forms of biblical criticism besides textual criticism.
(Handbook of Biblical Criticism: Now Includes Precritical and Postcritical Interpretation. Third Edition, Revised and Expanded, by Richard N. Soulen, R. Kendall Soulen, 2001. Page 108)
Reversals
Secular writers do not necessarily have better credentials in providing historical testimony than biblical writers. Not long ago, scholars rejected the historicity of the patriarchal accounts, denied that writing existed in Moses' day, ascribed the Gospels and Epistles to 2nd century writers.
Archaeology proves the glories of King Solomon's era are not a literary fabrication, that Yahweh was known before the 8th century prophets, and that Ezra's representations about the Babylonian captivity are not fictional. Tablets discovered at Ebla near Aleppo confirm that names similar to the patriarchs' were common among people in Ebla shortly before the events of late chapters of Genesis took place.
John T. Robinson in his Redating the New Testament (1976) found late critical dating of the New Testament wholly unpersuasive, due to their failure to mention the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Surely the writers would use that event apologetically. (Though, dating based on omissions and apologetic motives is unreliable.)
(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Authority of the Bible by Carl F.H. Henry. Page 17)
List
- J-E-D-P Hypothesis, JEDP Theory, Documentary View of Scripture