Any attentive observer will note a considerable decline in the significance of biblical study within the general framework of Protestant theology as it is practised in universities and church colleges and as it affects the work of local church communities. . . . If we are to deal with this situation, we must first take account of the developments which have led to it. As is always the case in the history of ideas, the external situation is simply the expression and consequence of internal developments which began long before their consequences became evident, and which have undermined the apparently secure foundation of theology as a discipline.

Henning Graf Reventlow, The Authority of the Bible and the Rise of the Modern World, 1.