In a Mars Hill Audio interview, Ellen Charry observes that the Protestant theologians of the seventeenth century, even before the Enlightenment, had a tendency to detach truth from historical reference.   The truth of theology was seen in the coherence of the system of truth found in Scripture, rather than a truth of reference to historical events.

Charry’s comment was a passing one, no doubt a drastic oversimplification.  Protestant scholastics, after all, defended the historical reliability of Scripture as well as its systematic coherence.  But, the comment seems worthy of investigation, since it might provide a historical link between Protestant scholasticism and the development of liberal theology.