Biblical Interpretation: History, Context, and Reality

More akin to science than to art, biblical interpretation eats its dead—consigning its past heroes to oblivion once new paradigms have passed them by. The history of the field has emerged as a separate discipline, and the question pondered by theologians and philosophers here is whether that history has merit of its own, or serves merely as raw material in the construction of a biblical theology for the contemporary context. Among the considerations are new garments for biblical Joseph, the incorporeality of God in Origin's exegesis, messianism in modern Jewish thought, and soteriological metaphysics in Schleiermacher's interpretations of Colossians 1:15-20. Four of the 11 essays are in German. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR