Toward A Hermeneutics Of Spirit

"The work begins by drawing a contrast between the emphasis placed on the author, characteristic of the romantic hermeneutics of Schleiermacher, and the more contemporary emphasis on the text, as may be seen in Gadamer, Ricoeur, the Deconstructionists, etc. These two emphases are understood as concentrating primarily on the intention of the author, on the one hand, and on the intent or intents of the text, on the other. These two are joined in a hermeneutic that attempts to divine the author/text relationship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

How do we hear the Spirit's voice in Scripture? Once we have done responsible exegesis, how may we expect the Spirit to apply the text to our lives and communities? In Spirit Hermeneutics biblical scholar Craig Keener addresses these questions, carefully articulating how the experience of the Spirit that empowered the church on the day of Pentecost can -- and should -- dynamically shape our reading of Scripture today. Keener considers what Spirit-guided interpretation means, explores implications of an epistemology of Word and Spirit for biblical hermeneutics, and shows how Scripture itself models an experiential appropriation of its message. Bridging the Word-Spirit gap between academic and experiential Christian approaches, Spirit Hermeneutics narrates a way of reading the Bible that is faithful both to the Spirit-inspired biblical text and the experience of the Spirit among believers. -- from book flap.

This book considers the academic treatment of biblical interpretation in the renewal movement, the fastest growing tradition in Christendom today. The initial chapter surveys the history of biblical interpretation in the renewal tradition and provides a conceptual basis for the book. In Part II, six renewal scholars outline a proposal for the future of biblical hermeneutics in the tradition. These authors address certain key questions. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation? What are the distinctive presuppositions, methods and goals of renewal biblical hermeneutics? Three prominent biblical scholars (Craig G. Bartholomew, James D.G. Dunn, R. Walter L. Moberly) respond to the proposals outlined above. These critical responses deepen the examination of renewal biblical hermeneutics as well as increase its appeal to biblical and theological scholars in general. The final chapter offers a synthesis and evaluation of the accomplishments of the discussion, as well as an assessment of the state of the discipline with an eye toward the future.

The Interpreting Spirit is both a consideration of the Spirit's role in the interpretation of Scripture and a celebration of renewal scholarship. It examines those who have focused on the Spirit's role in their hermeneutical considerations, recognizing common, uniting themes amidst the diversity of scholarly approach and opinion. Working on the principle that the Spirit communicates in ways that seek to unify and celebrate the other, Mather works diachronically from 1970, identifying and drawing together these common, uniting hallmarks into a collective understanding. Pivotal to Mather's argument is her emphasis that we do not just interpret Scripture, but that the Spirit through Scripture, and working in our lives in ways that lead us towards Scripture, interprets us. The Interpreting Spirit is the first comprehensive analysis of the conversation surrounding pneumatic interpretation that has been taking place, particularly among renewal scholars, since 1970. It seeks to answer the notoriously difficult question, "What does the Spirit do in the process of biblical interpretation?"

The Spirit Says offers a stunning collection of articles by an influential assemblage of scholars, all of whom lend considerable insight to the relationship between inspiration and interpretation. They address this otherwise intractable question with deft and occasionally daring readings of a variety of texts from the ancient world, including—but not limited to—the scriptures of early Judaism and Christianity. The thrust of this book can be summed up not so much in one question as in four: o What is the role of revelation in the interpretation of Scripture? o What might it look like for an author to be inspired? o What motivates a claim to the inspired interpretation of Scripture? o Who is inspired to interpret Scripture? More often than not, these questions are submerged in this volume under the tame rubrics of exegesis and hermeneutics, but they rise in swells and surges too to the surface, not just occasionally but often. Combining an assortment of prominent voices, this book does not merely offer signposts along the way. It charts a pioneering path toward a model of interpretation that is at once intellectually robust and unmistakably inspired.

This title was first published in 2002. How does one go about "doing Christian theology"? Yong explores this question by proposing a pneumatological-trinitarian hermeneutic. Its thesis is that interpretation and theological method is an ongoing tri-logue of Spirit-Word-Community: of interpretive subjects as imaginative, obligated and relational agents; of the horizons of the interpreter, the biblical and ecclesial traditions, and the world; and of founding, historical, and ongoing communities of faith and inquiry. Ecumenical perspectives on the topics of pneumatology (the doctrine of the Spirit), metaphysics (foundational pneumatology), epistemology (the pneumatological imagination), and trinitarian theology converge in this book to move forward the present discussion of theological method.

This book presents the work of leading hermeneutical theorists alongside emerging thinkers, examining the current state of hermeneutics within the Pentecostal tradition. The volume’s contributors present constructive ideas about the future of hermeneutics at the intersection of theology of the Spirit, Pentecostal Christianity, and other disciplines. This collection offers cutting-edge scholarship that engages with and pulls from a broad range of fields and points toward the future of Pneumatological hermeneutics. The volume’s interdisciplinary essays are broken up into four sections: philosophical hermeneutics, biblical-theological hermeneutics, social and cultural hermeneutics, and hermeneutics in the social and physical sciences.

In the contemporary biblical studies climate, proposals regarding the theological interpretation of Scripture are contested, particularly but not only because they privilege, encourage, and foster ecclesial or other forms of normative commitments as part and parcel of the hermeneutical horizon through which scriptural texts are read and understood. Within this context, confessional approaches have been emerging, including some from within the nascent pentecostal theological tradition. This volume builds on the author's previous work in theological method to suggest a pentecostal perspective on theological interpretation that is rooted in the conviction that all Christian reading of sacred Scripture is post-Pentecost, meaning after the Day of Pentecost outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh in anticipation of the coming reign of God. In that respect, such a pentecostal interpretative perspective is not parochially for those within the modern day movement bearing that name but is arguably apostolic in following after the scriptural imagination of the earliest disciples of Jesus the messiah and therefore has ecumenical and missional purchase across space and time. The Hermeneutical Spirit thus provides close readings of various texts across the scriptural canon as a model for Christian theological interpretation of Scripture suitable for the twenty-first-century global context.