The Hermeneutics of Doctrine
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THE HERMENEUTICS OF DOCTRINE

Anthony C. Thiselton

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2007 Anthony C. Thiselton

All rights reserved

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thiselton, Anthony C.

The hermeneutics of doctrine / Anthony C. Thiselton.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8028-2681-7 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Hermeneutics—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Theology. I. Title.

BR118.T487 2007

230.01—dc22

2007028518

www.eerdmans.com

Contents

acknowledgments

abbreviations

introduction: From Abstract Theory to Life-Related Hermeneutics

Part I: Reasons to Explore the Hermeneutics of Doctrine

1. From Free-Floating “Problems” to Hermeneutical Questions from Life

1.1. Gadamer’s Contrast between “Problems” and “Questions That Arise”

1.2. Christian Confessions and Their Life-Contexts: From the New Testament to the End of the Second Century

2. Dispositional Accounts of Belief

2.1. Mental States and Dispositional Belief in Wittgenstein, and Belief in First John

2.2. Dispositional Accounts of Belief in H. H. Price, and “Half-belief” in Jonah

2.3. From the New Testament to Patristic Doctrine: Continuities of Dispositional Responses

3. Forms of Life, Embodiment, and Place

3.1. Communal Confessions in Israel’s Life and Embodiment in the Biblical Writings

3.2. Embodiment in Christian Traditions, Disembodiment, and Place

3.3. “Life” and “Forms of Life” in Hermeneutics: Dilthey, Apel, and Wittgenstein

4. The Hermeneutics of Doctrine as a Hermeneutic of Temporal and Communal Narrative

4.1. Time, Temporality, and Narrative: The Living God

4.2. Christian Doctrine as Dramatic Narrative: Hans Urs von Balthasar

4.3. Doctrine as Drama in Kevin Vanhoozer’s Canonical-Linguistic Approach

5. Formation, Education, and Training in Hermeneutics and in Doctrine

5.1. Formation, Education, and Training in Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Betti

5.2. Training and Application in Wittgenstein; Training and Performance in Wells

5.3. More on Education in Wittgenstein and Gadamer and Its Relevance to Doctrine

6. Formation through a Hermeneutic of Alterity and Provocation

6.1. Formation through Encounter with the Other: Jauss on Reception and Provocation

6.2. Formation, Hermeneutics, and Public Discourse in Doctrine: Tracy and the Classic

6.3. More Explicit Language on Doctrine as Formative: Evaluation and Critique

Part II: Replies to Possible Objections

7. Dialectic in Hermeneutics and Doctrine: Coherence and Polyphony

7.1. Coherence and Contingency: A Possible Source of Tension?

7.2. Does a Communal, Contingent, Hermeneutical Approach Exclude Epistemology?

7.3. Different Understandings of Dialectic, Systems, Polyphony, and Canon: Bakhtin

8. Can Doctrine as “Science” Remain Hermeneutical and Promote Formation?

8.1. Science, Theological Science, and Hermeneutical ...

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About The Hermeneutics of Doctrine

Drawing on the resources of contemporary hermeneutical theory, Anthony Thiselton in this volume masterfully recovers the formative and transformative power of Christian doctrine.

The past 35 years have witnessed major steps forward in the use of hermeneutics in biblical studies, but never before has hermeneutics made a comparable impact on the formulation of doctrine and our engagement with it. Indeed, no other book explores the interface between hermeneutics and Christian doctrine in the same in-depth way that this one does. Throughout the book Thiselton shows how perspectives that arise from hermeneutics shed fresh light on theological method, reshape horizons of understanding, and reveal the relevance of doctrine for formation and for life.

Arguably the leading authority worldwide on biblical and philosophical hermeneutics, Thiselton has written widely acclaimed works in the areas of biblical studies and philosophical theology. His probing interaction in The Hermeneutics of Doctrine with numerous other great thinkers—Gadamer, Ricoeur, Lindbeck, Balthasar, Vanhoozer, Pannenberg—and his original perspectives will make this volume a valuable resource for scholars and advanced students.

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