After Pentecost: Language and Biblical Interpretation by Craig Bartholomew (Engl

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In this rich and creative volume the importance of linguistic issues for biblical interpretation is analyzed, the challenge of postmodernism is explored, and some of the most creative recent developments are assessed and updated.

FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description

"There is always some view of language built into biblical interpretation. If we are to read Scripture to hear God's address it is vital that we attend to current debates about language and become critically conscious in this respect."Craig BartholomewAfter Pentecost is the second volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures.The Seminar was aware from the outset that any renewal of biblical interpretation would have to attend to the issue of language. In this rich and creative volume the importance of linguistic issues for biblical interpretation is analyzed, the challenge of postmodernism is explored, and some of the most creative recent developments in philosophy and theology of language are assessed and updated for biblical interpretation. CONTRIBULTORS INCLUDE:Mary HesseRay Van LeeuwenAnthony ThiseltonKevin VanhoozerNicholas Wolterstorff

Author Biography

Craig G. Bartholomew (PhD, University of Bristol) is the director of the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge, England. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including Divine Action in Hebrews, Listening to Scripture, and The Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar: Retrospect and Prospect.Colin Greene is head of theology and public policy at the British and Foreign Bible Society and visiting professor of systematic and philosophical theology at Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Christology and Atonement in Historical Context and the forthcoming Making Out the Horizons: Christ in Cultural Perspective. Karl Möller is lecturer in theology and religious studies at St. Martin's College, Lancaster, and senior tutor at the Carlisle and Blackburn Diocesan Training Institute. He is the author of A Prophet in Debate: The Rhetoric of Persuasion in the Book of Amos. He has also co-edited Renewing Biblical Interpretation and After Pentecost: Language and Biblical Interpretation.

Table of Contents

Contributors xiiiAbbreviations xviiThe Artists xixIntroduction by Craig G. Bartholomew xxi1. From Speech Acts to Scripture Acts: The 1Covenant of Discourse and the Discourse ofCovenantKevin J. VanhoozerIntroduction: Language in Jerusalem and Athens 1The Covenant of Discourse: Speech Acts 4The Discourse of Covenant: Canonical Action 31Conclusion: The Covenant Community 44Summary of Theses 462. Ricoeur, Speech-act Theory, and the Gospels 50as HistoryDan R. StiverThe Gospels between History and Fiction 52Ricoeur's Interweaving of History and Fiction 55Speech-act Theory's Integration of History and Fiction 62An Interweaving of Ricoeur and Austin 673. The Promise of Speech-act Theory for 73Biblical InterpretationNicholas WolterstorffWhere We Are Now in Theory of Interpretation 73The Promise of Authorial-Discourse Interpretation for Biblical 82InterpretationInterpreting Scripture for Divine Discourse is 'Dogmatic' 85InterpretationObjections and Answers to Objections 87Should We Practice Divine-Discourse Interpretation? 894. How to Be a Postmodernist and Remain a 91Christian: A Responce to Nicholas WolterstorffMary Hesse5. 'Behind' and 'In Front Of' the Text: Language, 97Reference and IndeterminacyAnthony C. ThiseltonThe Metaphorical Force of 'Behind' and 'In Front Of ' in 97HermeneuticsWhy is there Dissatisfaction with Representational or Referential 102Accounts of Texts and Language?Is there Still Value in Drawing Distinctions between Worlds 107'Behind' the Text and 'In Front Of ' the Text?The Conflict between Consumerist Hermeneutics and Both 111Theism and Reasonableness: Two Sides of the Case?Concluding Postscript 1166. A 'Polite' Response to Anthony Thiselton 121William OlhausenLanguage, Meaning and Theology 122Politeness 125Biblical Interpretation and the Holy Spirit 127Conclusion 1297. Before Babel and After Pentecost: Language, 131Literature and Biblical InterpretationCraig G. BartholomewSummary of Argument 131Introduction 132Origins and Development of the Modern and Late Modern 132Debate about LanguageRelevance of this Debate to Biblical Interpretation 134Derrida, Language and Biblical Interpretation 139Postmodernism as Confronting Us with Our Ultimate or Religious 142Orientations Towards the World and LanguageScripture and Language 147Theology and Language, and Biblical Interpretation 151Conclusion 1638. Language at the Frontiers of Language 171Gregory J. LaugheryIntroduction 171Religious Language versus Other Types of Language 173Should Scripture be Read as any Other Book or in a Special Manner? 183Conclusion 1899. 'Starting a Rockslide' - Deconstructing History 195and Language via Christological DetonatorsColin J.D. GreeneIntroduction 195Apocalyptic and the Metaphor of the Kingdom of God 196The Meaning of Apocalyptic and Eschatology within Recent 198Biblical ScholarshipJesus, Apocalyptic and the Kingdom of God 201The Early Christian Communities, Apocalyptic and the Kingdom 205of GodFurther Implications for the Philosophy of History 209Further Implications for the Philosophy of Language 21510. Words of Power: Biblical Language and 224Literary Criticism with Reference to StephenPrickett's Words and the Word and Mark 1:21-28Stephen I. WrightThe Transparent Text? 225Religious and Poetic Language 229The Prophet and the Poet 231'Disconfirmation' and Revelation 234Metaphor and Reality 23611. Reviving the Power of Biblical Language: 241The Bible, Literature and Literary LanguageBrian D. Ingraffia and Todd E. PickettGeneral and Special Hermeneutics in Vanhoozer and Ricoeur 243(Ingraffia)Informing and Reforming the Scriptural Imagination: The Guest 248in Parable and Poetry (Pickett)Reforming or Deforming the Scriptural Imagination 25912. Naming the Father: The Teaching Authority 263of Jesus and Contemporary DebateDavid L. JeffreyReligious Language versus Other Types of Language 173Should Scripture be Read as any Other

Long Description

"There is always some view of language built into biblical interpretation. If we are to read Scripture to hear God's address it is vital that we attend to current debates about language and become critically conscious in this respect."Craig BartholomewAfter Pentecost is the second volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures.The Seminar was aware from the outset that any renewal of biblical interpretation would have to attend to the issue of language. In this rich and creative volume the importance of linguistic issues for biblical interpretation is analyzed, the challenge of postmodernism is explored, and some of the most creative recent developments in philosophy and theology of language are assessed and updated for biblical interpretation. CONTRIBULTORS INCLUDE:Mary HesseRay Van LeeuwenAnthony ThiseltonKevin VanhoozerNicholas Wolterstorff

First Chapter

From Speech Acts to Scripture ActsThe Covenant of Discourse and the Discourse of the Covenant Kevin J. VanhoozerIntroduction: Language in Jerusalem and AthensA word is deadWhen it is saidSome say.I say it justBegins to liveThat day.Emily Dickinson''Know thyself ''. Socrates'' demand that philosophers reflect on what it is to be human has been taken up by many in other disciplines as well. It is possible to study the functions of humans considered as biological organisms (physiology) as well as human emotional and mental dysfunctions (psychology); the actions of individuals in the past (history) as well as the behavior of various human groups (sociology). The study of human language is similarly interdisciplinary. It can be studied by linguists, cognitive psychologists, historians, logicians, philosophers -- and, yes, theologians. If the third-century theologian Tertullian was correct in defining a ''person'' as a being who speaks and acts (which is not so very far from what a philosopher, Peter Strawson, would say about individuals some seventeen hundred years later), then it may well be that we have to treat both topics -- language and humanity -- together. To study language, then, is to touch on issues involving a whole world and life view. Some approaches to the study of language''s origin and purpose, for example, presuppose that human existence and behavior is best explained in terms of Darwinian evolution. In their highly regarded work on linguistic relevance, for instance, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson suggest that human cognition is a biological function whose mechanisms result from a process of natural selection: ''Human beings are efficient information-processing devices''.For Sperber and Wilson, language is essentially a cognitive rather than communicative tool that enables an organism (or device) with memory to process information.On the other hand, George Steiner claims, on the basis of his experience of transcendence in literature, that ''God underwrites language''.Such disparate analyses should give philosophers pause. They also raise the question as to whether Christians should not approach the study of language from an explicitly Christian point of view. Such, however, is the intent of the present article: to reflect on language from out of the convictions of Christian faith.Craig Bartholomew has recently called for those interested in the theological interpretation of Scripture to clarify just how the relation of philosophy to theology bears on biblical study.Here we probably do not want to follow Tertullian''s suggestion, stated in the form of a rhetorical question, that Jerusalem (theology) has nothing to do with Athens (philosophy). We would do better to follow Alvin Plantinga''s advice to Christian philosophers not to let others -- people with non-Christian world-views -- set the agenda, but to pursue their own research programs. What is needed, he says, is ''less accommodation to current fashion and more Christian self-confidence''.Indeed.Why should Christian faith be excluded from the search for understanding when other faiths -- including modernity''s faith in instrumental reason, empiricism and naturalism -- are not?Christian theology takes faith in the revelation of Jesus Christ, attested in the Scriptures, as its ultimate criterion for judging what is true, good and beautiful. While not at all turning our back on the results, assured or not, of modern learning, it is important to acknowledge that all of us, Christians and non-Christians alike, come to the data with interpretive frameworks already in place. The present essay approaches the ''data'' concerning language and interpretation with an interpretive framework largely structured by theological concepts. Instead of excluding considerations of Christian doctrine from my inquiry, I intend to make explicit use of them. This is not to turn one''s back on philosophy, but to let human reason be guided and corrected by Christian doctrine, and by the language and literature of Scripture itself. Only by first conducting ''theological investigations'' of language and literature in general can we then come to discuss, with philosophy, the task of interpreting Scripture.The most fruitful recent development for the dialogue about language between philosophy and theology is undoubtedly the emphasis on language as a species of human action: speech acts. Examining what people do with language represents a fascinating case study for the broader dialogue between philosophy and theology. Of course, the idea that humans do things in speaking was well known to the very earliest biblical authors, even without the analytic concepts of speech-act philosophy.The present essay evaluates the extent to which speech-act philosophy approximates and contributes to what theologians want to say about language. This is not to say that speech-act categories will dominate the discussion. On the contrary, we will see that Christian convictions concerning, say, divine authorship, the canon and the covenant, will lead us to both modify and intensify the typical speech-act analysis. My goal is to let the ''discourse of the covenant'' (e.g., Scripture) inform and transform our understanding of the ''covenant of discourse'' (e.g., ordinary language and literature).The first, and longer, part of the chapter explores what I shall call the ''covenant of discourse'': a philosophy and theology of communication. My hope is to achieve a certain consensus about language and understanding based on a strategic appropriation of certain philosophical concepts that will be amenable to Christian biblical scholars and theologians.In the second part of the chapter, I turn to the ''discourse of the covenant'', that is, to a consideration of the Bible as written communication. Dealing with the canon -- a complex, intertextual communicative act -- will lead us to modify and develop our understanding of how biblical language works in ways that again go beyond typical speech-act theory. However, the benefit of using speech-act categories to describe the divine discourse in Scripture will also become apparent. Throughout the essay I examine not only what speech acts are, but the implications for looking at language as a form of human action as well, particularly for the sake of interpretation. Here too the leading theme of covenant proves helpful, insofar as interpretation is largely a matter of fulfilling one''s covenantal obligation towards the communicative agents, canonical or not, who address us.

Details ISBN0310234123 Pages 464 Publisher Zondervan Language English ISBN-10 0310234123 ISBN-13 9780310234128 Media Book Series Number 02 Year 2001 Short Title AFTER PENTECOST LANGUAGE & BIB Format Paperback Residence ENK Birth 1961 Place of Publication Grand Rapids Country of Publication United States Edited by Karl Möller Subtitle Language and Biblical Interpretation DOI 10.1604/9780310234128 Imprint Zondervan Academic AU Release Date 2001-12-10 NZ Release Date 2001-12-10 US Release Date 2001-12-10 UK Release Date 2001-12-10 Author Karl Möller Series Scripture and Hermeneutics Series Publication Date 2001-12-10 Alternative 9780310144748 DEWEY 220.6014 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this

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