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3 results

  • 1 - Hermeneutics and Theology

  • Edited by Michael N. Forster, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Kristin Gjesdal, Temple University, Philadelphia
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to Hermeneutics
    Published online:
    27 December 2018
    Print publication:
    03 January 2019, pp 11-36
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  • Summary

    Starting from comments on the biblical texts as the “texts to be read” in biblical hermeneutics, the chapter addresses the encounter between Enlightenment thought and the theological tradition in order to explain three major hermeneutical challenges: first, the biblical narratives were no longer regarded as the key to the history of humankind, but as witnesses to particular religious cultures across many centuries in antiquity. Second, the biblical texts came to be contrasted with the philosophical concept of a natural religion which in turn included the idea of a natural law, i.e., a universalist concept of ethics. Third, the role of the reader in the hermeneutical process was redefined through an orientation toward the experience of the “inner truth” of scriptural texts rather than a reliance on formal demonstrations of ecclesiastical truth claims. Against the background of pre-Enlightenment hermeneutical models in which the “circumstances” of the origin of the texts as well as the question of the thematic “centre” and relevance of individual biblical texts had already been addressed, the philosophical claims raised by Immanuel Kant are brought into focus.

  • 10 - Herder's Biblical Studies

  • Edited by Hans Adler, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wulf Koepke, Texas A & M University
  • Book:
    A Companion to the Works of Johann Gottfried Herder
    Published by:
    Boydell & Brewer
    Published online:
    28 February 2023
    Print publication:
    30 April 2009, pp 233-246

  • Summary

    Preliminary Observations

    HERDER'S WORK ON THE BIBLE has a distinctly theological thrust. Thus he asserted in the opening statement of his encyclopedic Briefe, das Studium der Theologie betreffend (Letters Concerning the Study of Theology) of 1780–81: “Es bleibt dabei, mein Lieber, das beste Studium der Gottesgelehrsamkeit ist Studium der Bibel” (There is no denying it, my good man, the best study of theology is the study of the Bible …). Taking this idea even further, he suggested that ideally “jeder gute Theolog sich seine Bibel selbst müßte übersetzt haben” (STh 357; every good theologian ought to have translated his Bible himself). Biblical studies must not get lost in irrelevant detail: alluding to a quotation by Basilius the Great (329–79), Herder coined the motto “theologein dei, ou philologein monon” — theological reasoning is required, not only philological reasoning (STh 416). The competent reader of the Bible — and, according to Herder, every Christian is such a reader, not just the Christian theologian (STh 367) — ought to strive for an understanding of the meaning of the words (die Wörter; Latin: verba) as well as what they refer to (die Sache; Latin: res).

    This is one aspect of Herder's work on the Bible. A second, equally important aspect is his comparative view of biblical texts as literary works of art that are not lacking in stylistic and intellectual quality when compared to the writings of the classical Greek or Roman authors. Herder’s approach to the Bible, notably the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament, was as much that of a literary critic as that of a theologian. Attempts to take the Bible into account in literary criticism can already be found in early manuscripts such as the essay Von der Ode or the Versuch einer Geschichte der lyrischen Dichtkunst (Essay on a History of Lyrical Poetry) as well as the so-called fragments Über die neuere Deutsche Literatur (On Recent German Literature), which otherwise focused on ancient Greek and Roman authors and the challenge their works offered for modern writers.