The Spirit and the Letter: A Tradition and a Reversal (T & T Clark Theology)

Paul's Statement That 'letter Kills But The Spirit Gives Life' [2 Corinthians 3.6] Has Had An Extraordinary Impact On Christian Thought Through The Ages. It Has Been Read Both As Affirming The Saving Power Of The New Covenant In Comparison To The Old, And As A Key To Hidden, Spiritual Meanings In The Text Of Scripture. It Is, However, An Ambiguous Phrase, Followed By A Tangled Story. This Book Explores The Pauline Distinction Both In Its Original Context And In Its Aftermath In The Early Church, The Reformation And Modern Biblical Studies. It Then Considers A Postmodern Reversal, Where Ideas Of 'spirit' Are Often Seen As 'deadly' And The Openness Of The 'letter' Or Text As Life-affirming, And It Draws Conclusions For Spirit In The World. Part 1. The Project. Whatever Happened To A Pauline Text? : 2 Cor. 3.6 And Its Afterlife / Paul Fiddes And Günter Bader -- Part 2. Spirit And Letter : A Tradition. 'spirit' And 'letter' In The New Testament / Michael Wolter -- Spirit And Letter : Mapping Modern Biblical Interpretation / Robert Morgan -- From The Letter To The Spirit To The Letter : The Faith As Written Creed / Wolfram Kinzig -- Spirit And Letter In Origen And Augustine / Morwenna Ludlow -- Part 3. Letter And Spirit : A Reversal. The Late-modern Reversal Of Spirit And Letter : Derrida, Augustine And Film / Paul S. Fiddes -- Spirit And Letter : Letter And Spirit In Schleiermacher's Speeches 'on Religion' / Günter Bader -- Inspired Reading, Speaking And Listening : Letter And Spirit In Preaching / Michael Meyer-blanck -- Letter And Spirit Adrift : Kafka, Scholem, And The Late-modern Crisis Of Hermeneutics / Jochen Schmidt -- Part 4. Conclusion : Spirit In The World. Spirit, Letter And Body / Oliver Davies. Edited By Paul S. Fiddes With Günther Bader. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents Preface Acknowledgements Contributors Part One The Project 1 Whatever Happened to a Pauline Text? 2 Cor. 3.6 and its Afterlife 1 Two traditional models of interpretation 2 The challenge to tradition 3 A third model: Change of media 4 A text open to spirit 5 The significance of the sign 6 Derrida, reversal and antipolarization 7 The Romantic reversal 8 Living with the wounds of discourse 9 Spirit in the world 10 Spirit and letter: Overcoming polarization Part Two Spirit and Letter: A Tradition 2 ‘Spirit’ and ‘Letter’ in the New Testament 1 Tracking the words 2 Current readings of the antithesis between letter and spirit 3 2 Cor. 3.6 4 Rom. 2.29 5 Rom. 7.6 6 Conclusion 3 Spirit and Letter: Mapping Modern Biblical Interpretation 1 A new use for old terms: Introducing a proposal 2 From Paul, through Origen and Luther to modernity: The proposal defended 3 Modern biblical interpretation: The proposal applied 4 From the Letter to the Spirit to the Letter: The Faith as Written Creed 1 From the letter to the spirit to the letter 2 The origins of Christian confession 3 The ‘rule of faith’ in anti-heretical polemics 4 The emergence of the fixed creed 5 Epilogue: Back to the spirit? 5 Spirit and Letter in Origen and Augustine 1 Origen and three kinds of meaning 2 Origen and two ways of reading 3 Origen and reading as transformative practice 4 Augustine and the meaning of the author 5 Augustine and reading the signs properly Part Three Letter and Spirit: A Reversal 6 The Late-modern Reversal of Spirit and Letter: Derrida, Augustine and Film 1 The deadly dominance of the subject 2 The deadly dominance of the book 3 The deadly dominance of the voice 4 Life-giving death in the text 5 The spirit that gives life 6 Trinity, spirit and life 7 Spirit and Letter – Letter and Spirit in Schleiermacher’s Speeches ‘On Religion’ 1 Dead letter 2 Theology 3 Written text 4 An excursus on Plato and Paul 5 Critique of writing and critique of language 6 Peripeteia: Kant’s spirit and Kant’s letter 7 The art of language and the art of music 8 Allegory, wit and irony 9 Religion – religion without religion 10 Living letter 8 Inspired Reading, Speaking and Listening: Letter and Spirit in Preaching 1 Preaching as conversation in the spirit 2 The distinction between letter and spirit in the context of practical theology 3 The play between text, history and interpretation in preaching 4 The two-term hermeneutic of text and experience in preaching 5 Text, history and interpretation: A three-term model of preaching 9 Letter and Spirit Adrift: Kafka, Scholem and the Late-modern Crisis of Hermeneutics 1 The crisis of ‘letter’ and ‘spirit’ as a feature of late-modernity 2 Fatal celebrations of ‘spirit’ 3 Kafka, Scholem and the necessary decay of tradition 4 Meaning in the midst of the violation of meaning 5 Meanings from the abyss Part Four Conclusion: Spirit in the World 10 Spirit, Letter and Body 1 Two kinds of memory and history 2 A ‘first history’: The history of spirit 3 A return to the ‘second history’: Reading the letter 4 Spirit in letter Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Bibliography Index of Scripture Index of Names