Theology, History, and Biblical Interpretation
Modern Readings
Theology, History, and Biblical Interpretation
Modern Readings
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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9780567184276
Number of Pages: 504
Published: 29/01/2015
Width: 16.9 cm
Height: 24.4 cm
The Christian Bible serves as the sacred scripture of the Christian community. It is read regularly by many people around the world today, as it has been for centuries. But how should one interpret this text? This reader presents a variety of perspective on how to relate historical and theological considerations when approaching the Bible. It encourages students and scholars to ponder how historical and theological categories shape one’s view of three crucial realities: the text of the Bible, the human subject who reads the text, and the nature of the exchange between the two in the practice of reading. As historical and theological categories are applied to these realities, are they mutually exclusive, or can they be combined in some way? This reader encourages students and scholars to explore these important questions by bringing together a selection of some of modernity’s most influential discussions of the issues as well as some of the present day’s most distinguished attempts to weigh in on the debate.
Copyright Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Theology, History, and Biblical Interpretation 1
1 Spinoza, Benedict de. Theological-Political Treatise. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Chapter 7, “On the Interpretation of Scripture.” 11
2 Strauss, David F. The Life of Jesus Critically Examined. London: SCM, 1973. Selections from Introduction, “Development of the Mythical Point of View in Relation to the Gospel Histories.” 29
3 Kierkegaard, Søren. Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments. Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Chapter 1, “The Historical Point of View.” 69
4 Troeltsch, Ernst. “On the Historical and Dogmatic Methods in Theology.” In Religion in History, 11–32. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1991. 89
5 Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968. Prefaces 1–6. 109
6 Bultmann, Rudolf. “The New Testament and Mythology.” In The New Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings, edited by Schubert Ogden, 1–44. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984. 131
7 Pope Pius XII. Divino Afflante Spiritu: On Promoting Biblical Studies. Rome, 1943. 165
8 Ebeling, Gerhard. Selections from “The Significance of the Critical Historical Method for Church and
Theology in Protestantism.” In Word and Faith, 17–61. London: SCM Press, 1963. 187
9 Lubac, Henri de. History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007. Selections from the Conclusion. 219
10 Stendahl, Krister. Selections from “Biblical Theology, Contemporary.” In The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George A. Buttrick. New York: Abingdon, 1962. 239
11 Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979. Chapter 3, “Canon and Criticism.” 255
12 Steinmetz, David C. “The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis.” Theology Today 37 (1978): 27–38. 267
13 Luz, Ulrich. “Reflections on the Appropriate Interpretation of New Testament Texts.” In Studies in Matthew, 265–289. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. 279
14 Marion, Jean-Luc. God without Being: Hors-Texte. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Chapter 5, “Of the Eucharistic Site of Theology.” 303
15 Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. “The Ethics of Biblical Interpretation: Decentering Biblical Scholarship.” Journal of Biblical Literature 107 (1988): 3–17. 321
16 Levenson, Jon D. “The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism.” In The Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and Historical Criticism: Jews and Christians in Biblical Studies, 1–32. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1993. 337
17 Plantinga, Alvin. “Two (or More) Kinds of Scripture Scholarship.” Modern Theology 14 (1998): 243–278. 365
18 Ricœur, Paul. “The Nuptial Metaphor.” In Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies, edited by André LaCocque and Paul Ricœur, 265–303. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. 403
19 Barr, James. The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspective. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999. Chapter 12, “Evaluation, Commitment, Objectivity.” 439
20 Webster, John. Holy Scripture: A Dogmatic Sketch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Chapter 1, “Revelation, Sanctification, and Inspiration.” 459
Index 485
These extensive readings provide a wonderful resource for engaging biblical hermeneutics. Darren Sarisky's introductions are clear and concise, gently helping the reader to keep central questions in mind. Whatever one's inevitable quibbles over a text getting left out, these selections represent important moments of the modern conversation about theology and interpretation. Sarisky is one of the young scholars who can advance that conversation to a new stage, and here he does so by helping us attend to its historical context. * Daniel J. Treier, Wheaton College, USA * Theology, History and Biblical Interpretation is a collection of twenty seminal essays that, taken together, reflect the ebb and flow of historical vs. theological interests over the past two hundred years of biblical interpretation. Darren Sarisky provides a helpful editorial introduction and offers a broader perspective from which to see present-day controversies for what they are, namely, the latest chapter in the long story of the Bible, history, and theology in the modern world. This is a helpful collection of essays that convincingly demonstrates the importance of coming to grips with the meaning and relationship of historical and theological biblical interpretation. * Kevin Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinty School, USA * Darren Sarisky's well-chosen and diverse collection of readings in the modern history of biblical interpretation shows that this is not the case. Biblical interpreters have engaged intensively with the history/theology problem for over three centuries, and Sarisky has done students and their teachers a great service by making such a broad range of major contributions to this debate available within a single volume * Francis Watson, University of Durham, UK * Since the Enlightenment, thoughtful readers of the Jewish and Christian Bibles have asked whether and how ancient scriptural texts, for all their historical particularity, might be or become the divine word. In this judicious selection of key voices in this debate, Darren Sarisky ushers the reader into this lively and ongoing conversation. The masters are all here, from Spinoza and Kierkegaard to Troeltsch and Ricoeur. Careful attention to these readings might save historical criticism from its thoughtless historicism, and theological interpretation from its ahistorical weightlessness, and resource a sophisticated dialogue between history and theology in the reading of the Bible today. * David Lincicum, University of Oxford, UK *
