Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Preface
Introduction: Can hermeneutics be saved?

Part I – Evangelical Prolegomena to Hermeneutics
Introduction

1. The necessity for hermeneutics
Much ado about nothing?
What is/are hermeneutics
The necessity for hermeneutics
Communication and its principles
Divine communication
The dimensions of hermeneutics

2. Presuppositions in reading and understanding
The historical shift in presuppositions
Alternative presuppositional stances in theological study
The unavoidability of presuppositions
Basic evangelical presuppositions
Grace alone
Christ alone
Scripture alone
Faith alone
The four ‘alones’ and the Trinity
The function of evangelical doctrine
Ontology
Epistemology
Christology and hermeneutics

3. Gospel-centred hermeneutics
The presuppositions of the gospel
The gospel and noetic salvation
Christ as mediator means the gospel is the hermeneutic norm of Scripture
The resurrection and hermeneutics
Christocentricity is not Christomonism

4. Towards a biblical theology of interpretation
The method of biblical theology
Creation and fall
Torah (the Pentateuch)
Wisdom
Prophets
The Gospels
Acts
The epistles
Revelation
Conclusions

Part II – Challenges to Evangelical Hermeneutics
Introduction

5. The eclipse of the gospel in the early church
The context of hermeneutics
The sub-apostolic age
Allegory and the Alexandrines
Typology and the Antiochenes
Assessment

6. The eclipse of the gospel in the medieval church
Precursors to medieval interpretation
The later medieval period
The scholastic theologians
Assessment

7. The eclipse of the gospel in Roman Catholicism
The theological antecedents
Thomas Aquinas and Tridentine Catholicism
Modern Catholicism
Assessment

8. The eclipse of the gospel in liberalism
The Enlightenment
Liberal Protestantism of the Enlightenment
Schleiermacher’s hermeneutics of understanding
Assessment

9. The eclipse of the gospel in philosophical hermeneutics
On being eclectic
The devolution of hermeneutics
Postmodernism: total eclipse?
Assessment

10. The eclipse of the gospel in historical criticism
The problem of the method
The growth of the historical-critical method
Ernst Troeltsch
The problem of history
Challenges to the historical nature of the gospel
The new hermeneutic and historical criticism
Postmodernism and history
Assessment

11. The eclipse of the gospel in literary criticism
The place of literary criticism
Modern literary hermeneutics
Author-centred approaches
Text-centred approaches: the New Criticism and structuralism
Postmodernism and reader-centred approaches
Assessment

12. The eclipse of the gospel in evangelicalism
Hermeneutical perfectionism
Quietism: evangelical Docetism
Literalism: evangelical Zionism
Legalism: evangelical Judaism
Decisionism: evangelical Bultmannism
Subjectivism: evangelical Schleiermacherism
‘Jesus-in-my-heart-ism’: evangelical Catholicism
Evangelical pluralism
Evangelical pragmatism
Assessment

Part III – Reconstructing Evangelical Hermeneutics
Introduction

13. Pre- and post-Enlightenment evangelical interpretation
The pre-Enlightenment background to evangelical belief
Post-Enlightenment evangelical scholarship
Contemporary re-evaluation of Reformation principles

14. The gospel and the literary dimension
Biblical literature
The biblical-theological context of the literature
The dogmatic-theological context of the literature
The nature of exegesis
Linguistics
Speech-act theory
Some conclusions

15. The gospel and the historical dimension
A Christian theological philosophy of history
The gospel and God’s perspective on history
The gospel and the believer’s perspective on history
History and biblical hermeneutics

16. The gospel and the theological dimension (I):
the two Testaments and typology
The relationship of Old Testament and New Testament
Unity and diversity in the history of interpretation
Unity and diversity in recent biblical theology
Thematic polarities between the Testaments
The typology debate: the basis and nature of typology
Jesus and reality
The dimensions of reality in the biblical revelation

17. The gospel and the theological dimension (II):
biblical and systematic theology
Foundations of evangelical biblical theology
The hermeneutical role of biblical theology
The hermeneutical role of systematic theology
The relationship of biblical and systematic theology

18. The gospel and contextualization
Culture and understanding
The modern emergence of contextualization
Problems in contextualizing
Is there a biblical theology of contextualization?
Contextualization in translation

19. The hermeneutics of Christ
Summary
The hermeneutics of the person of Christ
The hermeneutics of the work of Christ
The hermeneutics of the glorification of Christ
The hermeneutics of the Spirit of Christ
Christians and their Bible: hands-on hermeneutics
Epilogue

Since 1995 I have taught a fourth-year BD elective in hermeneutics at Moore Theological College. After a couple of years the college agreed to my request to a change in the course from a general study of hermeneutics to one designated as ‘Principles of Evangelical Hermeneutics’. My main motivation in seeking the change was a pastoral one. I was concerned that the possession of the Bible by the people of God, the so-called people in the pews, was being eroded by the tremendous upsurge of interest in hermeneutics at the academic level. Not that the subject itself is illegitimate, but the regressive nature of much modern hermeneutics under the influence of the latest philosophical moods has contributed to the eclipse of the gospel in biblical interpretation. Sooner or later, the concerns of academia begin to affect the pastors and teachers exposed to them during their time as students, and are passed on through sermons and Christian education to the laity. ...

Given the broad scope of hermeneutics, it is with some trepidation that I have undertaken to prepare this book for publication. If the endeavour succeeds in encouraging pastors, preachers and Bible teachers to press on with confidence in the supreme authority of the Bible as the word of God, it will not have been in vain. ...

I dedicate this book to the memory of Alan Cole (1923–2003). To me he epitomized everything that I believe hermeneutics to be about: making Christ known. ...

Extract from ... INTRODUCTION: CAN HERMENEUTICS BE SAVED?

... For the ordinary reader who has some acquaintance with the seemingly endless production of books and articles on hermeneutics, the answer to the question in the title above may well be a sceptical shake of the head. The evangelical Christian in particular could be excused for thinking that theorizing about hermeneutics has long since lost its way. After all, well before names like Schleiermacher, Bultmann, Troeltsch, Ricoeur, Gadamer and Derrida were heard of, Christians had read the Bible with real comprehension, if not with impeccable understanding, and had lived, as they continue to live, lives of dedicated service to Christ and his gospel. For evangelicals, the main purpose of reading and understanding the Bible is to know God and his will for our lives. We believe that only as we know God can we really know ourselves and the true meaning of life. Evangelical Christianity stands firmly on the conviction that we know God through his Son, Jesus Christ, whom, in turn, we know only through Scripture. Our knowing God centres on Jesus, the Word of God who has come in the flesh, and on the Bible, the Spirit-inspired, written word of God that is the true testimony to this incarnate Word. God has spoken his word into a world darkened by human rebellion against him. It is a word of grace as well as a word of judgment. If to know God is to know him through his Word/word, then we must read, hear and understand that word in the Bible. Faith must rest on the reality of God’s true word and, thus, on a reliable understanding of that word.

This is where the study of hermeneutics comes in. From an evangelical point of view, the goal of hermeneutics is, or should be, a right understanding of what God says to us in his word. We want preachers and teachers to become better at communicating the word of God, and Christians to live more godly lives. I would add that any sense of individual understanding must go hand in hand with the understanding of our Christian existence within the church as a communal experience. What God says to me individually and what he says to all his people may at times be distinguishable, but they are never separable. Hermeneutics focuses on the gospel as it has its outworking in the realm of our understanding of the Scriptures. Thus it is an aspect of our ongoing sanctification. We need to be reminded of this central fact in view of the proliferation over the last few decades of publications relating to hermeneutics. But if hermeneutics is an aspect of our sanctification, it must rest on and be driven by our justification in Christ. Theologically, the priority of justification to sanctification means that the action of God in Christ, the grace of God acting for us, is prior to, and is the source of, the action of God in us. In simple terms this means that God puts us into a right relationship with himself as the prerequisite for the ongoing change in our lives. This theological perspective also applies to hermeneutics. Our ability to interpret Scripture must be saved, justified and sanctified through the gospel.

One could easily gain the impression from the recent developments in hermeneutical research and discussion that, once again, it is only the skilled specialist who can venture into the minefields of the biblical text to propose an interpretation of its meaning. Yet it is one of the givens of Protestant and Reformed Christianity – of evangelicalism – that the Scriptures are essentially clear. This means that, despite the many and varied interpretations of certain details, and despite the many difficult texts, the humble believer will not be led astray in the reading of the Bible’s essential message, and spiritual sustenance will be delivered to young and old, to the uneducated and the sophisticated alike. ...