60 hermeneutics.92 Therefore, there is some urgency to restore for the Christian biblical interpreter a theological understanding of Scripture. C. M. Wood rightly points out, “As theological inquiry, theological hermeneutics is critical reflection upon Christian understanding.”93 Thus, in this section we will explore three aspects that nourish our theological understanding of texts: (1) Divine discourse, (2) Intertextuality, and (3) Canonical-linguistic approach: theo-drama.
92Stephen E. Fowl, Engaging Scripture: A Model for Theological Interpretation (Malden: Blackwell, 1998); idem, The Theological Interpretation of Scripture (Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997); John Webster, “Hermeneutics in Modern Theology: Some Doctrinal Reflections,” SJT 51 (1998): …show more content…
Thus, in this respect it is vital to appreciate the various and complex literary genres and devices in the biblical text.
Second, the divine discourse testifies to the triune God in communicative action. Vanhoozer explains triune communicative action:
The Father initiates communication; the Son is the content of the communication; the Spirit is the efficacy of the communication. The triune God is the paradigmatic communicative agent: only God can communicate so as always to accomplish his purpose (Isa. 55:11).99
God is providentially involved with the human authors of Scripture and progressively reveals himself in human history. God’s intentional action is to send his Son according to his eternal counsel. The divine discourse sets forth the redemptive action of God in Jesus Christ–triune economies of redemption and covenantal relations between God and His people.100 Jesus Christ is the culmination of God’s communicative action. The Holy Spirit illuminates
99Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 65. Cf. Jens Zimmermann, Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: An Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, …show more content…
VanGemeren asserts, “The history of God’s self-involvement through his mighty acts of redemption and revelation forms the subject of so-called redemptive history. The redemptive-historical approach assumes that the Bible was primarily given not to convey history or morals but to record God’s fidelity to the nations, the patriarchs, Israel, and the church of Jesus Christ” (p. 31). Thus, Christian hermeneutics should relate to a Christological concern. However, the way in which the Old Testament testifies Christ needs more sophistication. See also, B. S. Childs, “Gerhard von Rad in American Dress,” in The Hermeneutical Quest: Essays in Honor of James Luther Mays on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (ed. Donald G. Miller; Allison Park, Pa.: Pickwick Publications, 1986), 77-86; Francis Watson, Text, Church and World,