Revelation, Scripture and Church: Theological Hermeneutic Thought of James Barr, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Frei (Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies)

How is God involved with the Bible? And how does God's involvement with the generation of Holy Scripture and its use in the life of the Christian church figure into the human work of Scripture interpretation? This is the central question that this book seeks to address. In critical conversation with the influential hermeneutic programs of James Barr, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Frei, Topping demonstrates how God's agency has been marginalized in the task of scripture interpretation. Divine involvement with the Bible is bracketed out (Barr), rendered in generic terms (Ricoeur) or left implicit (Frei) in these depictions of the hermeneutic field. The result is that each of these hermeneutic programs are less than 'realist' interpretative proposals. "Talk of God" is eclipsed by the terminal consideration of human realities. Topping argues for the centrality of doctrinal description in a lively theological understanding of Scripture interpretation for the life of the church. Contents 8 Foreword 10 Preface 12 Introduction 14 1 Revelation and Biblical Interpretation: Divine Disclosure and the Constitution of Faith 22 James Barr: Cumulative Tradition and Its Soteriological Function 22 Paul Ricoeur: Manifestation and the Hermeneutic Constitution of Faith 44 Hans Frei: Apologetics, Christology and Anthropology 66 The Birth and Shape of Modern Doctrines of Revelation 68 2 The Bible as Holy Scripture: Construal and Authority 92 James Barr: The Bible as Faith-Structured Classic Model 92 Paul Ricoeur: The Bible as Polyphonic Intertext that Names God 117 Hans Frei: The Bible Read ‘Literally’ 143 3 The Church and the Bible Critically Read 170 James Barr: Critical Biblical Research and the Listening Church 171 Paul Ricoeur: Suspicious Hermeneutics and Submissive Communities 189 Hans Frei: The Critical Primacy of Sensus Literalis 207 Conclusion 226 Bibliography 230 Index 248 A 248 B 248 C 249 D 249 E 249 F 249 G 249 H 250 I 250 J 250 K 250 L 250 M 250 N 250 O 250 P 250 R 250 S 251 T 251 V 252 W 252 Y 252 Z 252 "How does God's involvement with the generation of Holy Scripture and its use in the life of the Christian church figure into the human work of Scripture interpretation? This is the central question that this book seeks to address. In critical conversation with the influential hermeneutic programs of James Barr, Paul Ricoeur and Hans Frei, Topping demonstrates how God's agency has been marginalized in the task of Scripture interpretation. Divine involvement with the Bible is bracketed out (Barr), rendered in generic terms (Ricoeur) or left implicit (Frei) in these depictions of the hermeneutic field. The result is that each of these hermeneutic programs is less than a 'realist' interpretative proposal. Talk of God is eclipsed by the terminal consideration of human realities. Topping argues for the centrality of doctrinal description in a lively theological understanding of Scripture interpretation for the life of the church."--Jacket