The Bible in Human Transformation: Toward a New Paradigm in Bible Study

by Walter Wink

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2010

Overview

“Historical biblical criticism is bankrupt.” That startling affirmation began The Bible in Human Transformation when it first appeared in 1975. Wink asserts that despite the valuable contributions of the historical-critical method, we have reached the point where this method is incapable of allowing Scripture to evoke personal and social transformation today. More than 30 years later, Wink now looks back in a new preface over the developments in New Testament studies of the last few decades and renews his call for a transforming approach to biblical interpretation.

Whether you’re a pastor or layperson, this volume will enhance and expand your understanding of biblical interpretation. With Passage Guides, Word Studies, and a wealth of other tools from Logos, you can delve into God’s Word like never before!

Key Features

• Asserts that modern methods for studying and teaching Scripture are broken
• Offers fresh solutions for Bible study

Contents

• The Bankruptcy of the Biblical Critical Paradigm
• Is Biblical Study Undergoing a Paradigm Shift?
• Toward a New Paradigm for Biblical Study

Top Highlights

“Biblical criticism is not bankrupt because it has run out of things to say or new ground to explore. It is bankrupt solely because it is incapable of achieving what most of its practitioners considered its purpose to be: so to interpret the Scriptures that the past becomes alive and illumines our present with new possibilities for personal and social transformation.” (Pages 1–2)

“It was based on an inadequate method, married to a false objectivism, subjected to uncontrolled technologism, separated from a vital community, and has outlived its usefulness as presently practiced. Whether or not it has any future at all depends on its adaptability to a radically altered situation.” (Page 12)

“For scholarship it was disastrous because the questions asked of the texts were seldom ones on which human lives hinged, but those most likely to win a hearing from the guild.” (Page 9)

“The outcome of biblical studies in the academy is a trained incapacity to deal with the real problems of actual living persons in their daily lives.” (Page 5)

“Oppression, poverty, and suffering inhibit our freedom to move on to the real point of the gospel: to become fully human beings.” (Page vii)

Product Details

• Title: The Bible in Human Transformation: Toward a New Paradigm in Bible Study
• Author: Walter Wink
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
• Publication Date: 2010
• Pages: 96

About Walter Wink

Walter Wink (1935-2012) is a professor emeritus at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. His faculty discipline is Biblical interpretation. Wink earned his 1959 Master of Divinity and his 1963 Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Ordained a Methodist minister in 1961, he served as Pastor of First United Methodist Church, in Hitchcock, Texas from 1962–67. He then returned to Union Seminary as first Assistant, then Associate Professor of New Testament.