Hermeneutics defines the rules used to search out the meaning of Scripture. Throughout church history, interpreters have approached biblical interpretation in different ways, using different tools and methods. This book conveniently and accessibly surveys major biblical interpreters and approaches to hermeneutics from the patristic period to... Preface xi Introduction 1(3) Recommended Reading 4(3) CHAPTER ONE Texts and Readers: Reading and Writing 7(18) 1. Introduction 7(1) 2. Faith and Suspicion, Texts and Readers 8(8) 3. Reading and Writing 16(4) 4. The Hermeneutic Circle 20(3) Summary 23(1) Activities and Questions 23(2) CHAPTER TWO Midrash, the Bible, and the Early Church 25(20) 1. Midrash and Rabbinic Interpretation 25(3) 2. Hermeneutics in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament 28(6) 3. The Establishment of the Christian Canon and the Argument from Tradition 34(2) 4. The School of Alexandria and the School of Antioch 36(3) 5. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430) 39(4) Summary 43(1) Activities and Questions 44(1) CHAPTER THREE From Scholasticism to the Age of Enlightenment 45(24) 1. Medieval Hermeneutics: Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-74) 45(3) 2. Two Medieval Minds: Meister Eckhart and Thomas a Kempis 48(4) 3. Christian Humanism: Desiderius Erasmus (1466/9-1536) 52(4) 4. Martin Luther (1483 - 1536) and John Calvin (1509-64) 56(6) 5. The Age of Reason 62(3) Summary 65(1) Activities and Questions 66(3) CHAPTER FOUR Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Age of Romanticism 69(20) 1. The Bible and History 69(5) 2. Johann Salomo Semler (1725-91) and the Canon of Scripture 74(3) 3. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and the Romantic Spirit 77(4) 4. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, 1840 81(2) 5. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) and the Handwritten Manuscripts 83(3) Summary 86(1) Activities and Questions 86(3) CHAPTER FIVE The Nineteenth Century 89(10) 1. The Critical Spirit and the Will to Believe 89(2) 2. David Friedrich Strauss, DasLeben jew (1835-36) 91(1) 3. The Quest for the Historical Jesus 92(3) 4. Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) 95(2) 5. Science and Religion 97(1) Summary 97(1) Activities and Questions 98(1) CHAPTER SIX The Twentieth Century 99(20) 1. Introduction 99(1) 2. Karl Barth (1886-1986) and Rudolf Bultinann (1884-1976) 100(4) 3. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) 104(2) 4. Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) 106(2) 5. Paul Ricoeur (1913-) 108(3) 6. Toward the Postmodern: Jacques Derrida (1930-) 111(6) Summary 117(1) Activities and Questions 117(2) CHAPTER SEVEN Varieties of Postmodern Hermeneutics 119(14) 1. The Bible as Literature/the Bible in Literature 120(2) 2. Liberation and Responsibility 122(2) 3. Politics and Postcolonialism 124(1) 4. From Intertextuality to Film, Art, and the Body 125(5) Summary 130(1) Activities and Questions 130(3) Conclusion 133(6) The Sacred Text and the Future of Writing 133(3) Final Questions 136(3) Bibliography 139(3) Index of Names and Titles of Works 142(4) Index of Subjects 146