historian and his or her “precritical” counterpart: The contemporary historian’s approach tends to differ from that of his earliest counterparts in three ways: he generally takes a critical stance toward his sources; (2) he is inclined to disregard the supernatural or miraculous in his treatment of past events; (3) he is very much aware of his own historicity and, accordingly, of the subjectivity and tentative character of his own historical conclusions.”4 But two objections can be made to this preemptory