The tension between reading Scripture as primarily a historically situated text on one hand and binding canon addressed to a community of faith on the other constitutes a crucial issue for biblical interpretation. Considering the ways the disciplines of Biblical Studies, Biblical Theology, Patristics, and Systematic Theology approach Scripture and biblical interpretation, the “Biblical Theology, Hermeneutics, and Theological Disciplines” study group, within the Institute of Biblical Research, established a four-year project aimed at clarifying the relationships between these diverse lines of inquiry into scriptural interpretation found in each of these disciplines. The goal of this project was to foster a sustained discussion where exploratory papers might be proposed, composed, and rewritten for final form using a collaborative process. This research project, and the present volume resulting from it, offers valuable insights into the integration of Biblical Studies and Theology as subdisciplines within the academy. The essays collected here fall naturally into the following sections: Exegetical Explorations, Reception-Historical Explorations, and finally Theological-Practical Explorations.
Editorial Review
‘Interdisciplinary reading’ may not sound particularly exciting, but as a veteran of similar campaigns myself, I know how fraught they can often be. I therefore congratulate the editors for putting together this collection of essays that chart the way forward to the promised land of theological interpretation of the Bible. I was particularly struck by the exemplary interpretive practice of Irenaeus, and by the importance of contexts other than those of the original historical authors.
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
