Overview
In this newly revised and expanded edition of the 1993 Christianity Today Critics' Choice Award winner in theology and biblical studies, Grant Osborne provides seminary students and working pastors with the full set of tools they need to move from sound exegesis to the development of biblical and systematic theologies and to the preparation of sound, biblical sermons.
Osborne contends that hermeneutics is a spiral from text to context--a movement between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader that spirals nearer and nearer toward the intended meaning of the text and its significance for today.
He develops his thesis in each of three sections: the first covering general hermeneutics (grammar, semantics, syntax, backgrounds), the second covering hermeneutics and genre, and the third covering applied hermeneutics. Along the way, he offers assessments of recent developments from redaction criticism to reader response criticism. In two appendixes he also addresses the contemporary philosophical challenges to fixed meanings in texts and discusses the implications of this debate for biblical authority.
Well-established as the standard evangelical work in the field since its first publication in 1991, this updated edition of The Hermeneutical Spiral meets the needs of a new generation of students and pastors. General revisions have been made throughout, new chapters have been added on Old Testament law and the use of the Old Testament in the New, and the bibliography has been thoroughly updated.
Praise for the Print Edition
[The Hermeneutical Spiral] will become a standard seminary-level textbook and is a must for all academic bookstores.
—John Kohlenberger III
The Hermeneutical Spiral is the best introduction to the practice of Biblical interpretation to come along in years, perhaps ever. If you have been wondering which one of a plethora of recent books on hermeneutics to add to your bookshelf, make it Osborne’s.
—Ted Dorman, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Seminary students, pastors, and teachers alike will benefit from the rich resources of this volume.
—John A. Jelinek, Michigan Theological Journal
Each chapter of Osborne’s book is a worthwhile entrée from the hermeneutical menu he is serving. . . One can expect this title to crop up in the footnotes and bibliographies of good books on every aspect of hermeneutics for years to come.
—Bibliotheca Sacra
Product Details
- Title: The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation
- Author: Grant R. Osborne
- Edition: Revised and Expanded
- Publisher: InterVarsity
- Publication Date: 2006
- Pages: 624
About Grant R. Osborne
Grant R. Osborne (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen) is professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and series editor for the IVP New Testament Commentary Series.
He has written The Resurrection Narratives and Three Crucial Questions about the Bible. He has also authored commentaries on Revelation, Romans, and John. He coauthored Handbook for Bible Study and The Bible in the Churches. Osborne is editor of the IVP New Testament Commentary series and the Life Application Bible Commentary. Dr. Osborne was also one of six editors in charge of the New Living Bible.