The Art of Reading Scripture

by Richard B. Hays; Ellen F. Davis

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2003

Overview

The Art of Reading Scripture is written by a group of eminent scholars and teachers seeking to recover the church’s rich heritage of biblical interpretation in a dramatically changed cultural environment. Asking how best to read the Bible in a postmodern context, the contributors together affirm “Nine Theses” that provide substantial guidance for the church. The essays and sermons that follow both amplify and model the approach to Scripture outlined in the Nine Theses.

Lucidly conceived, carefully written, and packed with fresh insights, The Art of Reading Scripture proposes a far-reaching revolution in how the Bible is taught in theological seminaries, calling pastors and teachers in the church to rethink their practices of using the Bible.

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

• Seeks to recover the church’s rich heritage of biblical interpretation
• Provides substantial guidance for reading the Bible in a postmodern context
• Calls pastors and teachers to rethink their practices of using the Bible

Contents

• “Teaching the Bible Confessionally in the Church” by Ellen F. Davis
• “Scripture’s Authority in the Church” by Robert W. Jenson
• “Reading Scripture as a Coherent Story” by Richard Bauckham
• “Uncovering a Second Narrative: Detective Fiction and the Construction of Historical Method” by David C. Steinmetz
• “Is Patristic Exegesis Still Usable? Some Reflections on Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms” by Brian E. Daley, SJ
• “Christ Was like St. Francis” by James C. Howell
• “Reading the Scriptures Faithfully in a Postmodern Age” by William Stacy Johnson
• “Preaching Scripture Faithfully in a Post-Christendom Church” by Christine McSpadden
• “Embodying Scripture in the Community of Faith” by L. Gregory Jones
• “Critical Traditioning: Seeking an Inner Biblical Hermeneutic” by Ellen F. Davis
• “Living Dangerously: Genesis 22 and the Quest for Good Biblical Interpretation” by R. W. L. Moberly
• “Joseph and the Passion of Our Lord” by Gary A. Anderson
• “Reading Scripture in Light of the Resurrection” by Richard B. Hays
• “How Can We Know the Truth? A Study of John 7:14-18” by R. W. L. Moberly
• “‘His Own Received Him Not’: Jesus Washes the Feet of His Disciples” by Marianne Meye Thompson
• “Vulnerability, the Condition of Covenant” by Ellen F. Davis
• “Self-Inflicted Violence” by Ellen F. Davis
• “Prisoner of Hope” by Ellen F. Davis
• “Who Is the God That Will Deliver You?” by Richard B. Hays
• “Netted” by Richard B. Hays
• “Whether We Live or Die, We Are the Lord’s” by Richard B. Hays

Top Highlights

“In brief, teaching Christians to read the Bible confessionally means equipping them to do three things: to read with a primarily theological interest; to read with openness to repentance; and to read with an understanding of the Old Testament witness to Christ.” (Page 10)

“Unlike the modern metanarratives, the biblical story accounts for history not in terms of immanent reason or human mastery but in terms of the freedom and purpose of God and of human freedom to obey or to resist God.” (Page 48)

“Yet a confessional reading sees in the Bible a different aim: first of all, to tell us about the nature and will of God, to instruct us in the manifold and often hidden ways in which God is present and active in our world; and second, to give us a new awareness of our selves and our actions, to show us that in everything, we have to do with God. In a word, the Bible’s aim is to do theology.” (Page 11)

“Nonetheless, in the present intellectual climate, I believe the Bible is often read ‘too historically’—that is, too narrowly so.” (Page 11)

“Thus, while not all Scripture is generically narrative, it can reasonably be claimed that the story Scripture tells, from creation to new creation, is the unifying element that holds literature of other genres together with narrative in an intelligible whole.” (Page 39)

Praise for the Print Edition

Ellen Davis and Richard Hays have given us access to a multidisciplinary conversation concerned with and exemplifying the genuine relocation of the Bible within the church—that is, as authoritative Scripture. The result is a bold, impassioned, open-ended invitation and guide to the craft of reading Scripture. This is must reading for Christian pastors, theological students, exegetes, theologians, and preachers.

—Joel B. Green, professor of New Testament Interpretation, Fuller Theological Seminary

Postmodernists, historical critics, and theologians here engage in thinking about how to read the Bible in a way that frees it from the captivity of postmodernism, historical criticism, and theology and returns it to the church as its true lifeblood. I especially commend this book to those who are interested in seeing how rich and deep can be a reading of the Bible that is truly done in community.

—Patrick D. Miller, professor of Old Testament Theology in the Department of Biblical Studies, Princeton Theological Seminary

These distinguished scholars go a long way forward toward recovering an exciting and coherent exegetical agenda for reading the Bible as Sacred Scripture.

—Brevard S. Childs, Emeritus Sterling Professor of Divinity, Yale Divinity School

With contributions from major figures across the disciplines, this book offers a superb look at the present state of play for a renewed theological interpretation of Scripture. Especially helpful is its attention—critical and not nostalgic—to the church’s earlier history of interpretation and the place that it might have in the late-modern recovery of theological reading.

—Christopher R. Seitz, professor of Old Testament and theological studies, University of Saint Andrews

Product Details

• Title: The Art of Reading Scripture
• Authors: Richard B. Hays, Ellen F. Davis
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2003
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 354
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible › Hermeneutics
• ISBNs: 9780802812698, 0802812694
• Resource ID: LLS:RTRDNGSCRPTR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-01-16T19:25:15Z

About the Authors

Richard B. Hays is dean and the George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is internationally recognized for his work on the letters of Paul and on New Testament ethics. His book The Moral Vision of the New Testament was selected by Christianity Today as one of the 100 most important religious books of the twentieth century.

Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina.