Michael Douglas Goulder (31 May 1927 – January 6, 2010)[1] was a British biblical scholar who spent most of his academic life at theUniversity of Birmingham where he retired as Professor of Biblical Studies in 1994.[2] He was perhaps best known for his contributions to theSynoptic Problem, and specifically theFarrer hypothesis, which postulatesMarkan priority but dispenses with theQ document, suggesting instead thatLuke knew the contents ofMatthew.[3] Goulder was also associated with the theory that the evangelists were highly creative authors, and that Matthew and Luke had only minimal source material.[4] Goulder later admitted that his analogy comparing Matthean expansions of Mark toMidrash was untenable, and modern scholarship of the Farrer hypothesis has abandoned the idea that Matthew invented most of the content in the double tradition.[5]
In recent years, he wrote widely on a theory of Christian origins that sees a fundamental opposition betweenPaul the Apostle on one side and theJerusalem ChristiansPeter andJames, Jesus' brother, on the other.[6] This has been seen as reviving a hypothesis proposed by 19th centuryHegelian philosopher andtheologianFerdinand Christian Baur of theTübingen school.[7]
Goulder was an unusual biblical scholar in that he had expertise in both testaments. He published extensively over a twenty-year period on a variety ofOld Testament topics, but especially thePsalms. His works in this area aimed among other things to discover the historical contexts in which individual psalms were used in worship, employing comparisons with the traditions behind other parts of the Hebrew Bible such as thePentateuch.[8][9] Despite some scholarly criticisms of his conclusions, Goulder has been described as "a renowned leader in the study of the Hebrew Psalter".[9]
Educated atEton followed byTrinity College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in classics, he was ordained in Hong Kong by BishopRonald Hall, having gone out there originally in pursuance of secular employment. Having not received any formal theological training, he returned to England and studied underAustin Farrer atTrinity College, Oxford, while serving a curacy at the university church. After a number of years of parochial ministry inWithington, Manchester he returned to Hong Kong as principal of the Union Theological College there before taking up a post atBirmingham University's Extra Mural Department. Some years later he returned to Trinity to give the Speaker's lectures at Trinity College, Oxford in 1969–71 on St. Matthew's method of writing the gospel and, in the process, dispensing with Q, for which he was awarded a Doctorate by the University. In Birmingham he ran lecture courses for clergy but it was following an invitation to give lectures back in Hong Kong that he decided to resign his orders as a priest which he did in 1981, though he never became an aggressive atheist. Goulder was a Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) which is a division of theCouncil for Secular Humanism[10] and became President ofBirmingham Humanists in 1993 shortly before retiring from academic life.[11]
For articles and chapters consult the comprehensive bibliography compiled by Mark Goodacre, linked below.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
