Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically

by Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2024

Overview

From the author of Is There a Meaning in This Text? comes a call to embrace a “mere”—that is, a unified yet robust—Christian hermeneutic, outlining the principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, by all Christians.

How can we read the text of Scripture well, rightly, and faithfully? Theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer believes the two greatest challenges in developing a theory of interpretation are, first, the de facto variety of actual interpretations of the Bible and, second, the plurality of reading cultures—denominational, disciplinary, historical, and global interpretive communities—each with its own preferred frame of reference. A cynical observer might say that the one thing Christians have never agreed on is how to interpret the Bible, or even on the meaning of the “literal sense.”

In response, Vanhoozer offers Mere Christian Hermeneutics. The allusion to C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity is no accident. A “mere” Christian hermeneutic—that is, principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, and by all Christians—represents both a challenge and a promise. With this book, Vanhoozer seeks to fulfill the promise without degenerating into a bland ecumenical tolerance of conflicting opinions. Rather, he turns to the accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration, a key moment in the broader economy of God’s revelation, to suggest that spiritual or “figural” interpretation is not a denial or distortion of the literal sense but, rather, its glorification. He calls both church and academy to develop reading cultures that enable and sustain the kind of unity and the kind of diversity that “mere Christian hermeneutics” calls for and encourages.

Key Features

• Outlines the principles for reading the Bible as Scripture everywhere, at all times, by all Christians
• Seeks to fulfill the promise of mere Christianity without degenerating into a bland ecumenical tolerance of conflicting opinions

Product Details

• Title: Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically
• Author: Kevin J. Vanhoozer
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 424
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Jesus Christ › Transfiguration; Hermeneutics
• ISBNs: 9780310114512, 9780310234388, 0310114519, 0310234387
• Resource ID: LLS:MRCHRSTTHLGCLLY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-10-01T19:30:48Z

About Kevin J. Vanhoozer

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD, Cambridge University) is a research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He also served as Blanchard professor of theology at the Wheaton College and Graduate School (2009–2012) and senior lecturer in theology and religious studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (1990–98). He is the author of ten books, including Faith Speaking Understanding: Performing the Drama of Doctrine and Biblical Authority after Babel: Retrieving the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant Christianity—both Christianity Today Theology Books of the Year (2015, 2017). He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Systematic Theology, Journal for Theological Interpretation, and Pro Ecclesia and was the North American consultant for the second edition of the New Dictionary of Theology (IVP). He is married and has two daughters (and his doctoral students). He is an amateur classical pianist and avid reader, finding that music and literature help him integrate academic theology and spiritual formation into his everyday life.