Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology - Edited by Gary T. Meadors (original) (raw)
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Religious Studies Review, 2013
revision of former beliefs. However, good tethers are like strong belief systems: their formulations have been calculated to absorb a reasonable range of anticipated alternatives that warrant the reliability of the original set of beliefs. Yet during true peer disagreement, even experts (with equivalent skills and knowledge) would be less epistemically confident regarding the adequacy of their formulations, although this does not necessarily lead to the abandonment of beliefs. Kraft applies this process of epistemic adjudication observable in ordinary disagreement to religious disagreements, and argues that religious diversity compels one to draw from internal and external sources of knowledge to maintain justified belief while negotiating legitimate challenges. This book is a must read for especially epistemologists, analytic philosophers, and ecumenists interested in the dynamics underlying religious disagreements.
Biblical Theology is a much talked-about enterprise pursued with little agreement on method or goal. Biblical Theology’s lack of definition is out of proportion to the potential importance of its findings both for the academy and the church. Rather than offering a new definition of Biblical Theology, this paper sketches a framework for such a definition by describing various theories and practices of “whole Bible” Biblical Theologies published since 2000. Using the categories developed in Understanding Biblical Theology (Zondervan, 2012), this paper categorizes a range of recent offerings by plotting them on a spectrum extending from more historical to more theological. Noting especially how each work settles issues of historical diversity versus theological unity, the descriptive versus prescriptive nature of the discipline, whether Biblical Theology is an academic or ecclesial discipline, and especially the kind and degree of unity/disunity between the Old and New Testaments, this paper will isolate the weaknesses of each work. Here a pervasive weakness surfaces, namely, the failure to consider the canon as a criterion for Biblical Theology. Upon isolating this and other shortcomings, the paper will conclude by arguing for a broader, more eclectic approach to Biblical Theology—one that balances both historical and theological concerns as a fitting way forward.
Biblical Authority and Christian Praxis
This article develops a model of biblical authority for Christian praxis that takes fully into account its problematic dimensions. It argues that the Bible is to be understood as a means of grace which emerged out of a complex historical and interpretative process and that this process provides the model for how it can function authoritatively today. In particular it argues that five paradigmatic narratives emerge out of the process which decisively shaped Israel and the early churches understanding of God and God’s purposes in the world. Contemporary must engage in a creative response to our contexts shaped by the reinterpretation of these narratives
Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2018
pp., pb £??.?? Lee's Today When You Hear His Voice is an exploration into theological hermeneutics, seeking to address questions about how contemporary Christians can appropriate ancient Scripture. Lee's method is to hear how the book of Hebrews reads the Old Testament as Scripture, comparing this with the hermeneutical approaches of Augustine and Calvin. Over the course of the first four chapters, Lee argues that, in contrast to Augustine's mode of reading the Old Testament as signs, or Calvin's insistence on literal, Christological readings, Christian readers can follow the lead of the author of Hebrews, who reads the Old Testament as divine address, a living Word which speaks into the present. Two final chapters develop theologically the notion of divine address in conversation with a broader, modern theologies of scripture and hermeneutics. As an expansion and revision of a PhD dissertation, it is a thorough and detailed exposition, workman-like in its approach.
Review of Biblical Literature, 2019
Description: This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present "state of the question" The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where "canon"--but also "Scripture" and "theology"--seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality. Biblical Theology will aim to be true to the evidence of the text: it will not always see clearly, but it will rely on the best of biblical criticism and theological discernment to help it. That is the spirit with which this present volume is imbued. Subjects: Methods, Theological Approaches, Biblical Theology