The art of reading Scripture / edited by Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Davis, Ellen F.

Hays, Richard B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible--Hermeneutics.

Bible.

Hermeneutics.

Physical Description:

xx, 334 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Grand Rapids, MI : Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003.

Summary:

The difficulty of interpreting the Bible is felt all over today. Is the Bible still authoritative for the faith and practice of the church? If so, in what way? What practices of reading offer the most appropriate approach to understanding Scripture? The church's lack of clarity about these issues has hindered its witness and mission, causing it to speak with an uncertain voice to the challenges of our time. This important book is for a twenty-first-century church that seems to have lost the art of reading the Bible attentively and imaginatively. The Art of Reading Scripture is written by a group of eminent scholars and teachers seeking to recover the church's rich heritage of biblical interpretation in a dramatically changed cultural environment. Asking how best to read the Bible in a postmodern context, the contributors together affirm up front "Nine Theses" that provide substantial guidance for the church. The essays and sermons that follow both amplify and model the approach to Scripture outlined in the Nine Theses. Lucidly conceived, carefully written, and shimmering with fresh insights, The Art of Reading Scripture proposes a far-reaching revolution in how the Bible is taught in theological seminaries and calls pastors and teachers in the church to rethink their practices of using the Bible.

Contents:

Nine Theses on the Interpretation of Scripture 1

How Do We Read and Teach the Scriptures?

Teaching the Bible Confessionally in the Church / Ellen F. Davis 9

Scripture's Authority in the Church / Robert W. Jenson 27

Reading Scripture as a Coherent Story / Richard Bauckham 38

Uncovering a Second Narrative: Detective Fiction and the Construction of Historical Method / David C. Steinmetz 54

A Living Tradition

Is Patristic Exegesis Still Usable? Some Reflections on Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms / Brian E. Daley, SJ 69

Christ Was like St. Francis / James C. Howell 89

Reading the Scriptures Faithfully in a Postmodern Age / William Stacy Johnson 109

Preaching Scripture Faithfully in a Post-Christendom Church / Christine McSpadden 125

Embodying Scripture in the Community of Faith / L. Gregory Jones 143

Reading Difficult Texts

Critical Traditioning: Seeking an Inner Biblical Hermeneutic / Ellen F. Davis 163

Living Dangerously: Genesis 22 and the Quest for Good Biblical Interpretation / R. W. L. Moberly 181

Joseph and the Passion of Our Lord / Gary A. Anderson 198

Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection / Richard B. Hays 216

How Can We Know the Truth? A Study of John 7:14-18 / R. W. L. Moberly 239

"His Own Received Him Not": Jesus Washes the Feet of His Disciples / Marianne Meye Thompson 258

Selected Sermons

Vulnerability, the Condition of Covenant / Ellen F. Davis 277

Self-Inflicted Violence / Ellen F. Davis 294

Prisoner of Hope / Ellen F. Davis 300

Who Is the God That Will Deliver You? / Richard B. Hays 306

Netted / Richard B. Hays 311

Whether We Live or Die, We Are the Lord's / Richard B. Hays 317.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0802812694

OCLC:

53287862