BIBL 550 - Hermeneutics

A. General Learning Objectives

• Understand and be able to explain the history of biblical interpretation.
• Discuss and describe the hermeneutical approaches of the 1st century CE.
• Identify key figures in biblical scholarship within the framework of hermeneutics and within the last several centuries and be able to outline and explain their hermeneutical approaches to Scripture.
• To grasp and be able to analyze linguistic, sociological, and cultural aspects of an evangelical/Pentecostal hermeneutic.

B. Specific Learning Objectives

As a result of the activities and study in this course, students should be able to:

• assess, evaluate, and discuss different hermeneutical approaches in the context of biblical scholarship over the past several centuries (e.g., in the form of classroom presentations).
• examine hermeneutical principles for a Pentecostal/Evangelical approach to hermeneutics and contrast them with other hermeneutical approaches.
• gather and organize hermeneutical elements for a Pentecostal/Evangelical interpretive approach to Scripture.
• construct one's own hermeneutical approach to Scripture, formulate it carefully, and conclude by classifying or evaluating it in light of other approaches.

• Introduction
• How do we understand?
• How do we exegete?
• History of hermeneutics
• Rabbinic hermeneutics
• Jesus as Teacher
• Pneumatic hermeneutics
• Elements of Pentecostal Hermeneutics
• Gospel and synoptic tradition

Textbooks:

Archer, Kenneth J. A Pentecostal Hermeneutic for the Twenty-First Century. London: T&T Clark International, 2004.

Cross, Terry. What Can Pentecostal Theology Offer Evangelical Theology. JPT 10.2 (2002), pp. 44-73.**

Hempelmann, Heinzpeter. Wie wir denken können. Wuppertal, 2000, Ss. 103-112.

Longenecker, Richard N. Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1975, pp. 6-35.**

Maier, Gerhard. Biblical Hermeneutics. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 1994, pp. 333-373.

_______. Biblische Hermeneutik. Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 1990, Ss. 295-331.

Maltese, Giovanni. Geisterfahrer zwischen Transzendenz und Immanenz. Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2013.**

Riesner, Rainer. Jesus als Lehrer. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1984, Ss. 102-352.

Smith, James K. A., Thinking in Tongues. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010.**

Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics. Zondervan, 1997, pp. 142-178; 204-236.

Yong, Amos. The Spirit of Creation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011).**

**Required Readings

Aichele, Georg et al. The Postmodern Bible. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.

Archer, Melissa L. “I Was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day”: A Pentecostal Engagement with Worship in the Apocalypse. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2015.**

Barthes, R. The Pleasure of the Text. Translated by Richard Miller. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, 1975.

Borg, M. and N. T. Wright. The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions. Harper San Francisco, 1999.

Branson, M. L. and C. R. Padilla, eds. Conflict and Context: Hermeneutics in the Americas. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986.

Bultmann, Rudolf. Jesus and the Word. Fontana Books, 1934.

__________. New Testament & Mythology and Other Basic Writings. Translated and edited by Schubert M. Ogden. Fortress Press, 1984.

Conzelmann, H. und A. Lindemann. Arbeitsbuch zum Neuen Testament, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1975.

__________. Interpreting the New Testament. An Introduction to the Principles and Methods of N.T. Exegesis. Peabody, 1988.

Croatto, J. S. Biblical Hermeneutics. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

Crossan, J. D. In Parables: The Challenge of the Historical Jesus. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1973.

Crossan, J. D. et al. The Jesus Controversy: Perspectives in Conflict. Philadelphia, PA: Trinity International Press, 1999.

Culler, Jonathan. On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982.

Davis, Ellen F. and Richard B. Hays, eds. The Art of Reading Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003.

Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination. Translated by B. Johnson. The University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Dieterich, Jörg, Hrsg. Streiflichter zur Wissenschaftstheorie. Friedensau, 1999.

Eagleton, T. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.

Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler. Bread Not Stone. Boston, NJ: Beacon Press, 1984.

__________. The Power of Naming. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996.

__________. Wisdom Ways. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1984.

Fredriksen, Paula. From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.

__________. Language, Hermeneutic, and the Word of God: The Problem of Language in the New Testament and Contemporary Theology. New York: Harper & Row, 1966; reprint: Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1979.

Frei, H. W. The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1974.

Frestadius, Simo. Pentecostal Rationality: Epistemology and Pentecostal Hermeneutics in the Foursquare Tradition. London/New York: T&T Clark, 2020.**

Froehlich, Karlfried. Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church. Translated and edited by K. Froehlich. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1984.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Philosophical Hermeneutics. Translated and edited by D.E. Linge. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 1976.

_________. Truth and Method. 2nd ed. Translated and revised by J. Weinsheimer and D.G. Marshall. New York, NY: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1975.

Gilligan, C. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Green, Chris E. W. Toward a Pentecostal Theology of the Lord’s Supper: Foretasting the Kingdom. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2012.

Haacker, Klaus. Biblische Theologie als engagierte Exegese. Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 1993.

Habermas, Jürgen. On the Pragmatics of Communication. Edited by Maeve Cooke. Massachusetts: MIT, 1998.

Hegel, G. W. F. Reason in History. Translated by R.S. Hartman. The Liberal Arts Press, 1953.

Kaplan, D. M. Ricoeur’s Critical Theory. New York, NY: State University of NY Press, 2003.

Hempelmann, Heinzpeter. Wie die wahre Welt zur Fabel wurde. Christliches Wahrheitszeugnis und postmoderner Wahrheitspluralismus. 4 Bände. Witten, 2008 (Band 4).

__________. Wie wir denken können. Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 2000.

Kelly, S. Racializing Jesus: Race, Ideology and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship. Routledge, 2002.

Kwok, Pui-Ian and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza eds. Women’s Sacred Scriptures. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.

Land, Steven Jack. Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2010.**

Larkin, William J., Jr. Culture and Biblical Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1998.

Lentricchia, Frank. After the New Criticism. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1980.

Martin, Lee Roy. The Unheard Voice of God: A Pentecostal Hearing of the Book of Judges. JPSUP 32. Dorset: Deo Publishing, 2008.

McConnell, Frank, ed. The Bible and The Narrative Tradition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1986.

McQueen, Larry R. Joel and the Spirit: The Cry of a Prophetic Hermeneutic. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2009.

Moore, Rickie D. The Spirit of the Old Testament. JPTSup 35. Dorset: Deo Publishing, 2011.

Moore, S. D. Literary Criticism and the Gospels: The Theoretical Challenge. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1989.

_________. Poststructuralism and the New Testament: Derrida and Foucault at the Foot of the Cross. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994.

Moore-Jumonville, R. The Hermeneutics of Historical Distance: Mapping the Terrain of American Biblical Criticism, 1880-1914. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002.

Mosala, I. J. Biblical Hermeneutics and Black Theology in South Africa. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989.

Mouton, E. Reading a New Testament Document Ethically. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.

Palmer, R. E. Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1969.

Pelikan, J. Jesus through the Centuries: His Place in the History of Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.

Pope-Levison, P. and J. R. Levison. Jesus in Global Contexts. Louisville, KY.: Westminster, John Knox Press, 1992.

Potok, C. In the Beginning. Fawcett Crest, NY: Ballantine Books, 1975.

Ricoeur, Paul. Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination. Translated by D. Pellauer. Edited by M. I. Wallace. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1995.

_________. Freud & Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation. Translated by D. Savage. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1970.

_________. From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics, II. Translated by K. Blamey and J.B. Thompson. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1991.

_________. Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation. Edited and translated by John B. Thompson. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 1981.

_________. Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Fort Worth, TX: Texas Cristian University Press, 1976.

_________. Oneself as Another. Translated by K. Blamey. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992.

_________. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. New York, NY: Penguin, 1978.

Said, E. W. Culture and Imperialism. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1993.

Schottroff, Luise, S. Schroer, and M. T. Wacker. Feminist Interpretation: The Bible in Women’s Perspective. Translated by M. Rumscheidt. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1998.

Schnabel, E. J. und Heinz-Werner Neudorfer. Das Studium des Neuen Testaments. 2 Bände. Wuppertal: Brockhaus, 1999.

Stadelmann, Helge. Evangelikales Schriftverständnis: Die Bibel verstehen – der Bibel vertrauen. Muldenhammer Hammerbrücke: Jota Publications, 2005.

Stuhlmacher, Peter. Jesus of Nazareth; Christ of Faith. Translated by S. Schatzmann. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993.

_________. Vom Verstehen des Neuen Testaments. NTD 6. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986.

Sugirtharajah, Rasiah S. The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial, and Postcolonial

Encounters. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

_________. Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Thomas, John Christopher. The Apocalypse: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Cleveland, TN: CPT Press, 2012.

_________. The Spirit of the New Testament. Dorset: Deo Publishing, 2005.

Segovia, Fernando F. and Mary Ann Tolbert, eds. Teaching the Bible: The Discourses and Politics of Biblical Pedagogy. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.

Thiselton, Anthony C. New Horizons in Hermeneutics. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997.

_________. Two Horizons. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980.

Via, Dan Otto. The Parables: Their Literary and Existential Dimension. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1967.

Wariboko, Nimi. The Pentecostal Hypothesis: Christ Talks, They Decide. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020.**

Weaver, Walter P. The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century: 1900-1950. Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1999.

Wessels, Antonie. Images of Jesus: How Jesus Is Perceived and Portrayed in Non-European Cultures. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990.

West, Cornel. The Cornel West Reader. New York, NY: Basic Civitas Books, 1999.

_________. Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1982.

Wilder, Amos N. Early Christian Rhetoric: The Language of the Gospel. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1971.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. On Certainty. Edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright. New York, NY: Harper Torchbooks, 1969.