The Bible and criticism in Victorian Britain

F. D. Maurice and William Robertson Smith lived in a time of social, industrial and intellectual transformation. This book traces the ways in which they responded to these changes and sought to understand and apply the Old Testament to the society of their day. The book contains the F.D. Maurice Lectures for 1992, which present the first account of Maurice as an interpreter of the Old Testament. The Gifford Lectures for 1994 concentrate on Smith's theological interests as an interpreter of the Bible and, drawing on unpublished material, give for the first time a picture of Smith the preacher. There is also a close investigation of Smith's links with Germany.