Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity

Title

Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity

Files

School/Department

Cook School of Intercultural Studies

Description

Have Western exegetes turned an Eastern book into a Western one? Has our fondness for a fixed printed text capable of being analyzed with precision and exactitude blinded us to other hermeneutic possibilities? Does God require all people to be able to analyze grammar to interpret Scripture? Does God assume all people can interpret Scripture through oral means? The authors recognize the effects of centuries of literacy socialization that produced a blind spot in the Western Christian world—the neglect by most in the academies, agencies, and assemblies of the foundational and forceful role orality had on the biblical text and teaching. From the inspired spoken word of the prophets, including Jesus (pre-text), to the elite literate scribes who painstakingly hand-printed the sacred text, to post-text interpretation and teaching, the footprint of orality throughout the entire process is acutely visible to those having the oral-aural influenced eyes of the Mediterranean ancients.Could oral hermeneutics be the “mother of relational theology”? Dr. Steffen is professor emeritus of intercultural studies at Biola University.

Keywords

Hermeneutics;

ISBN

978-1532684807

Publication Date

4-1-2020

Document Type

Book

Publisher

Wipf and Stock

City

Eugene

Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity


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