Thiselton on Hermeneutics: Collected Works with New Essays
THISELTON
Anthony Thiselton’s masterful work in the field of hermeneutics has impacted a host of students and scholars over the past few decades. Especially influential was his 1980 book The Two Horizons, a call to take seriously the contexts of both the reader and the text. Thiselton’s work has continued to carry much weight, yet there has been no single place to go to access a helpful array of his writings — until now.

Thiselton on Hermeneutics provides expositions and critical discussions of hermeneutics as a multidisciplinary area. Biblical interpretation, philosophical hermeneutics, literary theory, and Christian theology genuinely interact in these forty-two studies to form a coherent whole. Thiselton’s unique interactive and multidisciplinary approach shines through the volume. Ten of these essays, almost a quarter of the collection, have not been published before or are very recent.

Theologians, biblical scholars, philosophers, and any other academics will appreciate the creative perspectives and insights of this pioneering scholar distilled here.

Contents:

Part I: Situating the Subject

1. Situating the Explorations: "Thirty Years of Hermeneutics" (1996)
2. Situating a Theoretical Framework: "Biblical Studies and Theoretical Hermeneutics" (1998)
3. Resituating Hermeneutics in the Twenty-First Century: A Programmatic Reappraisal (New essay)

Part II: Hermeneutics and Speech-Act Theory
4. An Initial Application and a Caveat: "The Supposed Power of Words in the Biblical Writings" (1974)
5. Speech-Act Theory as One Tool Among Many: "Transforming Texts" (1992)
6. Changing the World — Illocutions, Christology and "Directions of Fit": "Christological Texts in Paul" (1992)
7. More on Christology: "Christology in Luke, Speech-Act Theory, and the Problem of Dualism in Christology" (1994)
8. More on Promising: "The Paradigm of Biblical Promise as Trustworthy, Temporal, Transformative Speech-Acts" (1999)
9. A Retrospective Reappraisal of Work on Speech-Act Theory (New essay)


Part III: Hermeneutics, Semantics and Conceptual Grammar

10. Justification by Grace as Legal Fiction? "Language-Games and 'Seeing As': A Fresh Approach to Justification by Faith in Paul and James" (1980)

11. Descriptive, Evaluative, and Persuasive Meanings: "The Meaning of Σάρξ in 1 Corinthians 5:5: A Fresh Approach in the Light of Logical and Semantic Factors" (1973)

12. "Faith", "Flesh" and "Truth" as Context-Dependent Concepts: "Language-Games and Polymorphous Concepts" (1980)

13. Semantics Serving Hermeneutics: "Semantics and New Testament Interpretation" (1977)

14. Does the Bible Call All Cretans Liars? "The Logical Role of the Liar Paradox in Titus 1:12, 13: A Dissent from the Commentaries in the Light of Philosophical and Logical Analysis" (1994)

15. A Retrospective Reappraisal: Conceptual Grammar and Inter-Disciplinary Research (New essay)


Part IV: Lexicography, Exegesis and Reception History

16. Greek Lexicography and the Context of Argument: "The 'Interpretation' of Tongues? A New Suggestion in the Light of Greek Usage in Philo and Josephus" (1979)

17. Does Lexicographical Research Yield "Hebrew" and "Greek" Concepts of Truth? (1978), and How Does This Relate to Notions of Truth Today? (New summary)

18. Reception History or Wirkungsgeschichte? "The Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians: Exegesis and Reception-History in the Patristic Era" (2004)

19. Exegesis, Lexicography and Theology: "'Love, the Essential and Lasting Criterion', 1 Corinthians 13:1-7" (2000)

20. "Meanings and Greek Translation Relating to 'Spiritual Gifts' in 1 Corinthians 12–14: Some Proposals in the Light of Philosophy of Language, Speech-Act Theory and Exegesis" (Paper delivered 2000, new essay)

21. The Hermeneutics of Pastoral Theology: Ten Strategies for Reading Texts in Relation to Varied Reading-Situations (Excerpts, 1992, with new material)

22. A Retrospective Reappraisal: Lexicography, Exegesis and Strategies of Interpretation (New essay)


Part V: Parables, Narrative-Worlds and Reader-Response Theories

23. The Varied Hermeneutical Dynamics of Parables and Reader-Response Theory (Excerpts, 1985)

24. Parables, "World" and Eventful Speech: "The Parables as Language-Event: Some Comments on Fuchs's Hermeneutics in the Light of Linguistic Philosophy" (1970)

25. The Bible and Today's Readers: "The Two Horizons" and "Pre-Understanding" (1980)

26. Entering a Transforming World: "The New Hermeneutic" (1977)

27. Reader-Response is Not One Thing: "Types of Reader-Response Theory" (1992)

28. A Retrospective Reappraisal: Reader-Response Hermeneutics and Parable Worlds (New essay)


Part VI: Philosophy, Language, Theology and Postmodernity

29. Some Issues in Historical Perspective: "Language and Meaning in Religion" (1978)

30. The Peril of Uncritical Appropriation: "God as Self-Affirming Illusion? Manipulation, Truth and Language" (1995)

31. The Postmodern Self and Society: Loss of Hope and the Possibility of Refocused Hope (Extracts, 1995)

32. Two Types of Postmodernity: "Signs of the Times: Towards a Theology for the Year 2000 as a Grammar of Grace, Truth and Eschatology in Contexts of So-Called Postmodernity" (2000)

33. "Postmodern" Challenges to Hermeneutics: "'Behind' and 'In Front Of' the Text — Language, Reference and Indeterminacy" (2001)

34. Can "Authority" Remain Viable in a Postmodern Climate? "Biblical Authority in the Light of Contemporary Philosophical Hermeneutics" (Paper delivered 2002, new essay)

35. The Bible and Postmodernity: "Can a Pre-Modern Bible Address a Postmodern World?" (2003)

36. A Retrospective Reappraisal: Postmodernity, Language and Hermeneutics (New essay)


Part VII: Hermeneutics, History and Theology

37. Scholarship and the Church: "Academic Freedom, Religious Tradition and the Morality of Christian Scholarship" (1982)

38. Theology and Credal Traditions: "Knowledge, Myth and Corporate Memory" (1981)

39. Time and Grand Narrative? "Human Being, Relationality and Time in Hebrews, 1 Corinthians and Western Traditions" (1997–98)

40. Dialogue, Dialectic and Temporal Horizons: "Polyphonic Voices and Theological Fiction" and "Temporal Horizons in Hermeneutics" (1999)

41. God will be All in All: "Luther and Barth on 1 Corinthians 15: Six Theses for Theology in Relation to Recent Interpretation" (1995)

42. A Retrospective Reappraisal of Part VII: The Contributions of the Five Essays to Hermeneutics, and the Possibility of Theological Hermeneutics (New essay)

Index of Names and Subjects

ISBN: 9780802832368
Catalogue code: N/A
Publisher: WM B EERDMANS PUB CO - published 29/06/2006
Format: Hardback  

£48.99
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