The Journal of Higher Criticism (JHC) was an academic journal

Academic journal

An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...

 presenting "articles dealing with historical, literary, and history-of-religion issues from the perspective of higher criticism", published by the Institute for Higher Critical Studies. The editor-in-chief was Robert M. Price

Robert M. Price

Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...

.

In the introductory article, the editor criticised modern biblical scholarship as "a toothless tiger or worse yet, covert apologetics wearing the Esau-mask of criticism" and advocated a return to the "golden era of bold hypotheses and daring reconstructions associated with the great names of Baur

Ferdinand Christian Baur

Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German theologian and leader of the Tübingen school of theology...

 and Tübingen".

During the journal's first decade, it was sponsored by The Theological School at Drew University

Drew University

Drew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...

. Some notable contributors included Richard Carrier

Richard Carrier

Richard Cevantis Carrier is an American historian. He is best known for his writings on Internet Infidels, otherwise known as the Secular Web, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years....

, Barbara Thiering

Barbara Thiering

Barbara Thiering is an Australian nonfiction writer, historian, and Biblical exegete specialising in the origins of the early Christian Church. In books and journal articles, she challenges Christian orthodoxy, drawing on claimed new evidence that gives alternative answers to its supernatural...

, Earl Doherty

Earl Doherty

Earl J. Doherty is a Canadian author of Challenging the Verdict , The Jesus Puzzle and Jesus: Neither God Nor Man...

, Robert Eisenman

Robert Eisenman

Robert Eisenman is an American Biblical scholar, theoretical writer, historian, archaeologist, and "road" poet. He is currently Professor of Middle East Religions, Archaeology, and Islamic Law and director of the Institute for the Study of...

, Jacob Neusner

Jacob Neusner

Jacob Neusner is an American academic scholar of Judaism who lives in Rhinebeck, New York.-Biography:Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Neusner was educated at Harvard University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America , the University of Oxford, and Columbia University.Neusner is often celebrated...

, and George Albert Wells

George Albert Wells

George Albert Wells , usually known as G. A. Wells, is an Emeritus Professor of German at Birkbeck, University of London. He is best known as an advocate of the idea that Jesus is a largely mythical rather than a historical figure....

. The final issue of the journal (Volume 10, No. 2) appeared in Fall, 2003.