Abstract
Navigating today’s hermeneutical waters is demanding. The sheer variety of different approaches, presuppositions, texts, interpretations, methods, and communities is difficult to grasp. It is an even greater challenge to locate the Holy Spirit in the hermeneutical landscape of the Christian world. This chapter seeks to map the current topography of Christian hermeneutical approaches with the help of a metaphor of the hermeneutical sea in order to chart the course for a Spirit-oriented interpretation. Hermeneutics, or in a more general sense, interpretation, refers to an exploration of “how we read, understand, and handle texts, especially those written in another time or in a context of life different from our own.”1 For our particular purposes, Christian hermeneutics focuses on the interpretation of the biblical scriptures amidst the challenges of vast hermeneutical waters—a mix of revelation, texts, techniques, methods, communities, and interpretations constituting divergent tributaries, bays, and estuaries. All communities along the hermeneutical waters maintain particular presuppositions and practices, including theological and hermeneutical commitments.2 Some members in the broader evangelical world, particularly pentecostal and charismatic interpreters, emphasize the significance of the Spirit in providing truthful and relevant ecclesial and individual interpretations of God’s word and world. However, not all communities place equal importance on the pneumatic and pneumatological dimension of hermeneutics. In this chapter, I suggest that a Spirit-oriented hermeneutic is essential for successfully navigating the interpretive waves in the hermeneutical sea.
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Notes
Anthony Thiselton, Hermeneutics: An Introduction (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), 1, 4;
Anthony Thiselton, “Hermeneutics,” in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 283–87.
See Werner G. Jeanrond, Theological Hermeneutics: Development and Significance (New York: Crossroad, 1991);
Jens Zimmermann, Recovering Theological Hermeneutics: An Incarnational-Trinitarian Theory of Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004);
Amos Yong, Spirit-Word-Community: Theological Hermeneutics in Trinitarian Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2006);
Steven B. Sherman, Revitalizing Theological Hermeneutics (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014).
Cf. Allen F. Repko, Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory, 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: Sage, 2012), 27–28.
See Jon Mark Ruthven, On the Cessation of the Charismata: The Protestant Polemic on Post-Biblical Miracles, rev. ed. (Tulsa, OK: Word and Spirit Press, 2011).
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Pneumatology: The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 17.
See Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986; repr.), 531–32.
See Larry D. Hart, Truth Aflame: Theology for the Church in Renewal, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 15–16.
See Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable: Power & Renewal in the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1984).
Cf. Steven B. Sherman, Revitalizing Theological Epistemology: Holistic Evangelical Approaches to the Knowledge of God (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2008), 257.
See W. David Buschart, Exploring Protestant Traditions: An Invitation to Theological Hospitality (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006).
See Anthony Thiselton, The Hermeneutics of Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007).
See Clark H. Pinnock, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1999), 245.
See D. H. Williams (ed.), Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006).
See Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1993);
Craig Van Gelder, The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2000);
Jack Levison, Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life (Orleans, MA: Paraclete, 2012).
See Kevin L. Spawn and Archie T. Wright (eds.), Spirit and Scripture: Exploring a Pneumatic Hermeneutic (London and New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2012);
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 294–300.
For example, considering more closely the relationship between Scripture, Tradition, and Interpretation, as exemplified in D. H. Williams, Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006).
See Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009);
Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2009).
See John B. Cobb and Clark H. Pinnock (eds.), Searching for an Adequate God: A Dialogue between Process and Free Will Theists (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000).
See the insightful interaction in John B. Cobb and Clark H. Pinnock, (eds.), Searching for an Adequate God: A Dialogue between Process and Free Will Theists (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000).
For a clear exception, see Amos Yong, Discerning the Spirit(s): A Pentecostal-Charismatic Contribution to Christian Theology of Religions (New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2000). Yong, however, seeks to maintain clearly Evangelical (Pentecostal) Estuary moorings; thus he likely inhabits Community 3 or 4, rather than 5. John Hick, on the other hand, represents certain Swimmers who have moved beyond even the most extreme edge of Community 5.
See John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile (New York: HarperOne, 1998);
John Hick and Paul F. Knitter (eds.), The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 1987).
See Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, II.18; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.2.15. Cf. A. G. Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, trans. Mary Ryan (Cork, Ireland: Catholic University of America Press, 1987);
Arthur Holmes, All Truth Is God’s Truth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977).
See, for instance, Craig L. Blomberg and Stephen E. Robinson, How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1997);
Robert L. Millet and Gerald R. McDermott, Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2007).
See Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Trinity and Religious Pluralism: The Doctrine of the Trinity in Christian Theology of Religions (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2004).
See Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) (New York: HarperOne, 2010).
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© 2014 Wolfgang Vondey
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Sherman, S.B. (2014). Mapping the Hermeneutical Waters: The Holy Spirit and the Revitalization of Interpretation. In: Vondey, W. (eds) The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life. CHARIS: Christianity and Renewal—Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375995_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137375995_2
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