St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (Nov 2023)
Biblical Hermeneutics
Abstract
The changing shape of biblical hermeneutics in Christian theology over the centuries has encompassed an implicit premodern attention to interpretative possibility, an explicit modern response to interpretative disorder, and a postmodern willingness to explore interpretative options and commitments. Rather than trace these developments historically, this article seeks to explore some of the key concepts that recur in different formations throughout this history. First is the need to define ‘biblical hermeneutics’, in which the word ‘biblical’ can relate to either the object of attention (the biblical text) or the nature of the hermeneutical thinking itself. Secondly, the key concerns of biblical hermeneutics are explored by way of categories that have been most prominent in the modern philosophical tradition of hermeneutics. This includes attention to Hans-Georg Gadamer’s twin focus on method and truth, as well as scholarship’s extensive preoccupation with meaning, and more recently with readings and readers’ identities. In all these cases there is a question of whether hermeneutics is a descriptive project or includes a normative or evaluative element, resulting in options for singular or plural ‘meaning(s)’, ‘method(s)’, and so forth. A third focus concerns the ‘scientific’ status of biblical hermeneutics, asking whether it is rightly understood as a subset of general hermeneutics or as the paradigm case of interpretative engagement. This latter option was an implicit premodern perspective, revived in a new way by the work of Paul Ricoeur. Ricoeur’s own dual focus on hermeneutics as being both a philosophical and a theological project leads to a fourth consideration on how biblical hermeneutics may best be understood as being present in the life of the church. In one sense it is everywhere, but in another it is foregrounded at moments of interpretative advocacy and, in particular, conflict. The article concludes with a reflection on the gains and losses of thinking about biblical hermeneutics in this ecclesially focused way.
