saw as his unwillingness to acknowledge the radical implications of the critical methods he was using. Literary critic Frank Kermode, in his review of The Birth of the Messiah, accused Brown of being too eager to secure the imprimatur of the Catholic Church. The Hebraic Jesus scholar Géza Vermes speaking of the Nativity narratives has described Brown's coverage as "the primary example of the position of having your cake and eating it." In The New York Times obituary, Gustav Niebuhr wrote: "Father Brown was regarded as a centrist, with a reputation as a man of the church and a rigorous, exacting scholar whose work had to be reckoned with." Aspects of Brown's multi-lingual, internationally peer-reviewed scholarship remains controversial among Anglophone traditionalist Catholics because of their claim that he denied the inerrancy of the whole of scripture and cast doubt on the historical accuracy of numerous articles of the Catholic faith. Some traditionalists criticized his questioning of whether the virginal conception of Jesus could be proven historically. He was regarded as occupying the center ground in the field of biblical studies, opposing the literalism found among many fundamentalist Christians while not carrying his conclusions as far as many other scholars. Works Thesis – This was his dissertation in partial fulfillment of his doctorate in Sacred Theology. Brown did much to define the term sensus plenior and had an enormous influence on the twentieth-century debate concerning the term. Books His total of 25 books on biblical subjects include: – with a reappraisal of the infancy gospels. Editor See also John Shelby Spong#Criticism Catholic modernism References External links Biblical Theology Bulletin obituary notice A Wayward Turn in Biblical Theory Msgr. George A. Kelly, (1999). Critical article from the traditionalist point of view. Felix Corley, "Obituary: The Rev Raymond E. Brown", The Independent, London, 19 August 1998 Quotables from R.E. Brown, S.S. 1928 births 1998 deaths Clergy from New York City St. Mary's Seminary and University alumni Sulpicians Catholic University of America alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni 20th-century American Roman Catholic priests St. Mary's Seminary and University faculty Dead Sea Scrolls Participants in the Second Vatican Council Christologists American biblical scholars New Testament scholars Roman Catholic biblical scholars Contributors to the Anchor Bible Series Pontifical Biblical Commission Union Theological Seminary (New York City) faculty Burials in California Bible commentators