Category Archives: theology

The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis

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As webpages and resources get memory holed by the internet, some of my old links become outdated. Steinmetz’s important article is one such example, originally hosted here. I’ve reproduced it below, with no editing or alteration from the original permission. You can find a digital scan of the article here. Tolle lege!

The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis

By David C. Steinmetz

Article Originally appeared in “Theology Today” Vol. 37, April 1980, No.1, pages 27-28. All rights belong to Theology Today. Published here with permission.

“The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues is false. Until the historical-critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the nature of the text which it is interpreting, it will remain restricted-as it deserves to be-to the guild and the academy, where the question of truth can endlessly be deferred. “

IN 1859 Benjamin Jowett, then Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford, published a justly famous essay on the interpretation of Scripture.1 Jowett argued that “Scripture has one meaning-the meaning which it had in the mind of the Prophet or Evangelist who first uttered or wrote, to the hearers or readers who first received it.”2 Scripture should be interpreted like any other book and the later accretions and venerated traditions surrounding its interpretation should, for the most part, either be brushed aside or severely discounted. “The true use of interpretation is to get rid of interpretation, and leave us alone in company with the author.”3

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Athanasius to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms

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THE LETTER OF ATHANASIUS,
OUR HOLY FATHER,
ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA,
TO MARCELLINUS
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PSALMS

The following letter by Athanasius (296 – 383 AD) to Marcellinus was previously hosted online here, but is no longer available. It is republished via Internet Archive for the sake of readers. No edits have been made. Tolle lege!

My dear Marcellinus,

YOUR steadfastness in Christ fills me with admiration. Not only are you bearing well your present trial, with its attendant suffering; you are even living under rule and, so the bearer of your letter tells me, using the leisure necessitated by your recent illness to study the whole body of the Holy Scriptures and especially the Psalms. Of every one of those, he says, you are trying to grasp the inner force and sense. Splendid! I myself am devoted to the Psalms, as indeed to the whole Bible; and I once talked with a certain studious old man, who had bestowed much labour on the Psalter, and discoursed to me about it with great persuasiveness and charm, expressing himself clearly too, and holding a copy of it in his hand the while he spoke. So I am going to write down for you the things he said.

SON, all the books of Scripture, both Old Testament and New, are inspired by God and useful for instruction[2 Tim 3:16], as it is written; but to those who really study it the Psalter yields especial treasure. Each book of the Bible has, of course, its own particular message: the Pentateuch, for example, tells of the beginning of the world, the doings of the patriarchs, the exodus of Israel from Egypt, the giving of the Law, and the ordering of the tabernacle and the priesthood; The Triteuch [Joshua, Judges, and Ruth] describes the division of the inheritance, the acts of the judges, and the ancestry of David; Kings and Chronicles record the doings of the kings, Esdras [Ezra] the deliverance from exile, the return of the people, and the building of the temple and the city; the Prophets foretell the coming of the Saviour, put us in mind of the commandments, reprove transgressorts, and for the Gentiles also have a special word. Each of these books, you see, is like a garden which grows one special kind of fruit; by contrast, the Psalter is a garden which, besides its special fruit, grows also some those of all the rest.

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Gospel Meditation

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From Walter Marshall’s Gospel Mystery of Sanctification:

Meditation on such things as these is indeed very useful to press upon our consciences the strictness of our obligation to holy duties, and to move us to go by faith to Christ for life and strength to perform them. But, that we may receive this life and strength, by which we are enabled for immediate performance, we must meditate believing on Christ’s saving benefits, as they are discovered in the gospel; which is the only doctrine which is the power of God to our salvation, and by which the quickening Spirit is ministered to us, and that is able to build us up, and give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified (Rom. 1:16; II Cor. 3:6; Acts 20:32). You must take special care to act faith in your meditation; mix the Word of God’s grace with it, or else it will not profit you (Heb. 4:2). And if you set the lovingkindness of God frequently before your eyes, by meditating on it believingly, you will be strengthened to walk in the truth (Ps. 26:3); and, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, you will be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Cor. 3:18). This kind of meditation is sweet, and delightful to those that are guided to it by the spirit of faith, and it needs not the help of such artificial methods as the vulgar cannot easily learn. You may let your thoughts run in it at liberty, without confining them to any rules of method. You will find your souls much enlivened by it, and enriched with the grace of God; which cannot be effected by any other kind of meditation, though it be never so methodical, and curiously framed according to the rules of art.

Partisan Politics Can Destroy Your Faith

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Do you know the political zealot, whose faith in Christ has taken a back seat to faith in “the Cause?” The one who’s love for Him who is “the Name above all names,” now only gets excited for the Nation?

It starts subtly. Disappointment over the pandemic. Distrust in our institutions. A compromised church. Illegal actions in law enforcement. The faith delivered once for all helps you see political connections, and partisan challenges. After all, you think, its important to live out your faith in every sphere of life, including partisan politics, right?

But soon the political inferences that came from your faith take the driver’s seat, and the daily devotional or private worship is replaced with the daily rally cry and public call to action.

In his fictional The Screwtape Letters (1942), C.S. Lewis literally plays devil’s advocate, penning fictive letters from a senior demon (“Screwtape”) to his junior colleague of evil (“Wormwood”). The goal of these letters is to undermine a Christian individual that Wormwood is hopelessly attempting to lead astray. The “Enemy” is God, according to these demons, “the patient” is the teetering Christian, and making the patient “ours” is tantamount to bringing him to hell. The following letter on politics, extreme factions, and letting faith become a means to a political end, are right on point. “My dearest Wormwood…”

I had not forgotten my promise to consider whether we should make the patient an extreme patriot or an extreme pacifist. All extremes, except extreme devotion to the Enemy, are to be encouraged. Not always, of course, but at this period. Some ages are lukewarm and complacent, and then it is our business to soothe them yet faster asleep. Other ages, of which the present is one, are unbalanced and prone to faction, and it is our business to inflame them…

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Sic Semper Draconis

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Sic semper tyrannis (“thus always to tyrants”) was the cry of Brutus when he assassinated Julius Caesar. It is a cry for freedom in the face of tyrannical use of power, destroying an Empire for the free Republic. But behind every tyrant is the Dragon; deceiving Eve in the Garden, and deceiving tyrants – Pharaoh, Nero, Hitler – to make war on the children of promise. When a daughter of Eve gave birth to the Dragon Slayer, followers of Jesus know that we overcome the Dragon by the blood of the Lamb. Since Jesus has “overcome the world” (John 16:33) of tyrants, we trust that by His Spirit we ourselves are born of God and have overcome the world in Him (I John 5:4). In Christ we are more than conquerors over the Dragon, and “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Rom 16:20).

Semper Reformanda: Trauma?

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Not many years ago, we were told we needed a new reformation, this time of deeds, not creeds. That was Rick Warren in 2005, some 17 years ago using church growth methods. The emergent movement took postmodern thought and said we need a new trajectory, a reformation not from a new (biblical/theological) center, but with a new direction.

Now we are a long way from those naïve decades, and so a new call arises:

Now comes the call for yet another reformation, this time employing the most up-to-date methods of the zeitgeist: trauma, structural/systemic measurements, and intersectionality.

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Faith & Reason

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Fides et ratio, faith and reason. Christians adopt the position of fides quaerens intellectum – “faith seeking understanding.” Or, showing their hand a bit more, credo ut intelligam – “I believe that I may understand” (Anselm). While reason may distinguish humanity from the animal kingdom, Christians have distinguished ourselves by remembering the importance of faith. Rather than allowing our reason to dominate our decisions and days, or even trying to hold the two in an uneasy tension, divine revelation requires us to shape our understanding and experience of the world, and we aim for a reason that submits to revelation as received in faith.

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Political Power Chastened By Scripture

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“[The Advent story in Luke’s Gospel] also introduces the reader to some of the most powerful political powers of the time–and indeed, of all time.

Only then to ignore them.”

That’s how Rev. Bruce Clark begins his article at Mere Orthodoxy entitled “Advent and the Near Irrelevance of Political Power.” He points out that Luke – under the Holy Spirit – spends a great deal of time on shepherds, old fuddy-duddies like Simeon and Anna, but when Luke gets to Caesar:

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Charles Murray On the Social Impact of Christianity

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Everything I’ve written about intelligence starting with The Bell Curve has said explicitly: do not confuse IQ with moral worth. It just, you know… One of the problems here is the decline of religiosity, and I’m thinking specifically of Christian theology, which has as its central tenant that God does not judge people by their good works nor by their IQ scores, that this is irrelevant to human worth. And, it also teaches you to be very humble about your own frailities, your own mistakes, your own sins and the rest of it. There was built into Christians, serious Christians, an understanding, a gut level understanding of that truth, about moral worth and IQ just being separate planets.

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