Although Many Conservative scholars have had reservations about biblical criticism since its rise a century ago, Carl Armerding contends that critical rationalism need not be antithetical to belief in a divinely inspired Word of God. Indeed, says Armerding, the evangelical scholar - mediating the traditional conservative view and the rational critical view of Scripture - is able to use all the tools of historical, philological, and literary study, while still retaining biblical categories of revelation, inspiration, and history.