Biblical Exegesis
A Theology of Biblical Interpretation
MATTHEW LEVERING
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
All Rights Reserved
Designed by Wendy McMillen
Copyright © 2008 by University of Notre Dame
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levering, Matthew, 1971-
Participatory Biblical exegesis : a theology of Biblical interpretation / Matthew Levering.
p. cm. (Reading the Scriptures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-268-03406-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-268-03406-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-268-03408-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-268-03408-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Bible—Hermeneutics. 2. History—Religious aspects—Catholic Church. 3. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History. 4. History—Religious aspects—Catholic Church—History of doctrines. I. Title.
bs476.l49 2008
220.601—dc22
2007051041
READING THE SCRIPTURES
Gary A. Anderson, Matthew Levering, and Robert Louis Wilken
series editors
Late-Medieval Nominalism and Participatory Biblical Exegesis
Participatory Biblical Exegesis and God the Teacher
Participatory Biblical Exegesis and Human Teachers
Participatory Biblical Exegesis and Ecclesial Authority
This study had its beginnings in four invitations: from Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M. Cap., Daniel Keating, and John Yocum to contribute an essay on Aquinas’s Commentary on John for their book Aquinas on Scripture; from Robert Jenson (and Reinhard Hütter) to contribute an essay to Pro Ecclesia for a symposium on the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s “The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible”; from Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt and Jim Fodor to contribute a response to an essay by Catherine Pickstock for a symposium in Modern Theology; and from Stephen Fowl to speak to his session at the Society for Biblical Literature. I am deeply grateful to all these scholars for their generosity. Thanks also to Joseph Torchia, O.P. of The Thomist, who kindly accepted for publication an earlier version of chapter 5.
Various conversations laid the groundwork for this study. The insights of Michael Dauphinais, Fr. Matthew Lamb, and Fr. Francis Martin are visible, I think, on almost every page. As dean of faculty, Michael Dauphinais helped me find time to write the first draft of the manuscript in the spring of 2005. During that semester, Larry Goeckner, an undergraduate theology major at Ave Maria University, provided valuable assistance in obtaining secondary sources.
During the early stages of the manuscript, Bernhard Blankenhorn, O.P. offered criticisms that enabled me to realize what it was that I wanted to say. Jörgen Vijgen read the manuscript with his usual care and eye for ...
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About Participatory Biblical Exegesis: A Theology of Biblical InterpretationThe interpretation of Scripture has depended largely on the view of history held by theologians and exegetes. In Participatory Biblical Exegesis, Matthew Levering examines the changing views of history that distinguish patristic and medieval biblical exegesis from modern historical-critical exegesis. Levering argues for a delicate interpretive balance, in which history is understood both as a process that participates in God’s creative and redemptive presence and as a set of linear moments. He identifies a split between theological and historical interpretations of scripture beginning in the high Middle Ages, considerably earlier than the emergence of historical-critical methods in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Instead, he offers a vision of Scripture that is rooted in the exegetical practice of St. Thomas Aquinas and his sources but embraces historical-critical research as well. Participatory Biblical Exegesis provides an original theological basis for critical exegesis. It integrates the work of contemporary exegetes, philosophers, theologians, and historians to provide a compelling vision of biblical interpretation. |
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