The Revelatory Text

by Schneiders, Sandra M.

• ISBN13: 9780814659434
• ISBN10: 0814659438
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Michael Glazier

Summary

In this major contribution to the study of the New Testament, Sandra Schneiders proposes a comprehensive hermeneutical theory for New Testament interpretation, which takes full account of the Bible as both sacred Scripture and as a historical-literary classic. Designed to spur reflection on the role of Scripture as revelatory text in the life of the Church and in the lives of individual believers, The Revelatory Text shows that an integral hermeneutical theory can ground a transformational hermeneutical praxis to make the biblical text available as a faith resource to the oppressed as well as to the privileged.

Author Biography

Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., S.T.D., is professor of New Testament studies and Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Preface to the Second Edition	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
The New Testament as Sacred Scripture
The Problem and Project of New Testament Interpretation	p. 11
Introduction to the Project	p. 11
The Objectives of New Testament Interpretation	p. 13
The Meaning of Meaning	p. 14
Hermeneutics as Inquiry into Interpretation	p. 17
The New Testament as Word of God	p. 27
The Linguistic Expression "Word of God": A Metaphor	p. 27
The Referent of "Word of God": Symbolic Revelation	p. 33
The Bible as Word of God: Sacrament	p. 40
Theological Reflection on Scripture as Word of God: The Sacred Character of the Bible	p. 43
Revelation	p. 44
Inspiration	p. 46
Infallibility and Inerrancy	p. 53
Authority and Normativity	p. 55
The Role of Faith in Biblical Interpretation	p. 59
The New Testament as the Church's Book	p. 64
The Meaning of the Claim	p. 64
The Meaning of Tradition and Its Relation to the New Testament	p. 66
Tradition and the Historical Consciousness of the Church	p. 67
Tradition as Foundation, Content, and Mode of the Church's Effective Historical Consciousness	p. 71
Foundation	p. 72
Content	p. 74
Mode	p. 78
The Role of Tradition in the Interpretation of the New Testament	p. 81
The Hermeneutical Dialectic Between Scripture and Tradition	p. 81
Canon as a Paradigmatic Instance of the Dialectical Relationship Between Scripture and Tradition	p. 87
Faith, Tradition, and the Interpretation of Scripture	p. 89
Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture
The World Behind the Text: History, Imagination, and the Revelatory Text	p. 97
Reformulating the Question of the "Historical Jesus"	p. 97
The Text and Its Subject Matter	p. 100
The Paschal Imagination as Agent and Object of the Revelatory Text	p. 102
The Relation Among the Three Levels: Actual, Historical, and Proclaimed	p. 108
Implications for Interpretation of the Relation of the Text to Its Subject Matter: The Problem of Methodology	p. 110
The Terminology	p. 110
Various Methodological Approaches to the Text	p. 114
Historical Approaches	p. 114
Literary Approaches	p. 116
Psychological and Sociological Approaches	p. 117
Ideology Criticism Approaches	p. 120
Theological, Religious, and Spirituality Approaches	p. 121
Exegesis, Criticism, and Hermeneutics	p. 122
Exegesis	p. 123
Criticism	p. 124
Hermeneutics	p. 125
Conclusion	p. 127
The World of the Text: Witness, Language, and the Revelatory Text	p. 132
Introduction	p. 132
The Text as Witness	p. 133
When Is Recourse to a Witness Necessary?	p. 133
Who Can Testify?	p. 134
What Is Testimony?	p. 134
How Does Testifying Occur?	p. 136
The Text as Language	p. 138
General Characteristics of Language	p. 138
The Text as Written Discourse	p. 140
The Analogy of Written Discourse with Dialogue	p. 140
Inscription and Distanciation	p. 142
Ideal Meaning Versus Authorial Intention	p. 144
The Text as Art Object and as Work of Art	p. 148
The Text as Classic	p. 150
Methodology and the Revelatory Text	p. 151
The World Before the Text: Meaning, Appropriation, and the Revelatory Text	p. 157
Interpretation	p. 157
Interpretation as Process: The Dialectic of Explanation and Understanding	p. 157
Interpretation as Product: Meaning	p. 161
Criteria of Valid Interpretation	p. 164
The World Before the Text	p. 167
Appropriation: Transformative Understanding of the Subject Matter of the Text	p. 169
From the First Naivete to the Second Naivete	p. 169
Understanding of Meaning as Appropriation	p. 172
Aesthetic Surrender	p. 172
Critical Existential Interpretation	p. 174
A Case Study: A Feminist Interpretation of John 4: 1-42	p. 180
Introduction	p. 180
The Approach: Feminist Critical Hermeneutics	p. 180
Starting Point of Feminist Criticism	p. 181
Feminist Criticism as Liberationist Criticism	p. 181
Suspicion and Retrieval	p. 182
Feminist Critical Strategy	p. 183
Translation	p. 184
Focusing on Texts with Liberating Potential	p. 184
Raising Women to Visibility	p. 185
Revealing the Text's "Secrets"	p. 185
Rescuing the Text from Misinterpretation	p. 186
Historical and Literary Presuppositions	p. 186
Historical Presuppositions	p. 186
Literary Presuppositions	p. 187
Theological Focus of the Story: Mission	p. 188
The Identity and Role of the Samaritan Woman: Christian Disciple-Apostle	p. 188
Results of Feminist Interpretation	p. 194
Hermeneutical Appropriation	p. 195
Scripture Index	p. 201
Index	p. 202
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