Reading Sacred Scripture: Voices from the History of Biblical Interpretation
Overview
Though well-known and oft-repeated, the advice to read the Bible “like any other book” fails to acknowledge that different books call for different kinds of reading. The voice of Scripture summons readers to hear and respond to its words as divine address. Not everyone chooses to read the Bible on those terms, but in Reading Sacred Scripture Stephen and Martin Westerholm (father and son) invite their readers to engage seriously with a dozen major Bible interpreters—ranging from the second century to the twentieth—who have been attentive to Scripture’s voice.
After expertly setting forth pertinent background context in two initial chapters, the Westerholms devote a separate chapter to each interpreter, exploring how these key Christian thinkers each understood Scripture and how it should be read. Though differing widely in their approaches to the text and its interpretation, these twelve select interpreters all insisted that the Bible is like no other book and should be read accordingly.
In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Key Features
- Engages with twelve of the most prominent interpreters of Christian Scripture
- Insists the Bible is like no other book and must be read accordingly
- Gives an overview of the multiple purposes of the Word of God
Contents
- The Voice of Scripture
- Before the Christian Bible
- Irenaeus
- Origen
- Chrysostom
- Augustine
- Aquinas
- Luther
- Calvin
- The Pietists and Wesley
- Schleiermacher
- Kierkegaard
- Barth
- Bonhoeffer
- Beyond the Sacred Page
Praise for the Print Edition
Reading Sacred Scripture offers encouragement to those who wish to read the Bible with the Church, and as such should be widely welcomed.
—Church Times
These theologically astute studies of some major interpreters of the Bible, classical and modern, are written with easy grace, clarity, and erudition lightly worn. This volume provides a fine account of Christian thought on the nature and reading of Scripture.
—John Webster, University of St. Andrews
Over the sweep of Christian history, how did twelve of the most influential commentators on Scripture—ranging from Irenaeus to Bonhoeffer—approach the interpretive task? Stephen and Martin Westerholm pay learned attention to this intriguing, important question in Reading Sacred Scripture. The Westerholms rightly insist that these towering figures neither designed nor desired to read the Bible ‘like any other book.’ What is more, this father-and-son authorial team ably demonstrates that a sympathetic reading of Scripture, wherein interpreters regard themselves as addressed by ‘the word of God,’ is more in keeping with the aims and claims of the biblical authors than proponents of ‘neutral, objective’ scriptural interpretation have often imagined. There is much wisdom in this informed book, which instructively weds biblical interpretation with spiritual formation. I warmly and enthusiastically commend it.
—Todd D. Still, Truett Seminary, Baylor University
In this marvelous book the Westerholms emphasize that God speaks to us through Scripture and calls us to obedient faith in his living and active word. They proceed to show how twelve brilliant theologians across the centuries have understood the nature and truth of God’s scriptural speech. What is most striking here is how different—in personality, emphases, tools, and theology—these twelve theologians are! Yet they all demonstrably enrich our faith and exegesis today, most wondrously turning our dull academic sense of the ‘history of exegesis’ into a lived encounter with friends and mentors in Christ.
—Matthew Levering, Mundelein Seminary
- Title: Reading Sacred Scripture: Voices from the History of Biblical Interpretation
- Authors: Martin Westerholm, Stephen Westerholm
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Pages: 480
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History
- ISBNs: 9780802872296, 0802872298
- Resource ID: LLS:RDNGSCRNTRPRTTN
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:36:57Z
About the Authors
Martin Westerholm is lecturer in systematic theology at Durham University, England, and author of The Ordering of the Christian Mind: Karl Barth and Theological Rationality.
Stephen Westerholm is professor of early Christianity at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.