Comments on: Kevin Vanhoozer responds to my implementation query

By: Earl

Earl — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:39:59 +0000

Kent, that makes sense. Somehow I missed the boat on that one.

By: Kent Eilers

Kent Eilers — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:09:20 +0000

Earl, I am not sure Vanhoozer is saying anything more than most of us would who preach the Scriptures in the real world would want to say: preaching should relate the world of the Bible to the world in which we live – at the same time not domesticating the gospel and also not sticking one’s head in the sand concerning the culture.

It reminds me of what Karl Barth said concerning the Bible and the newspaper: “One broods alternately over the newspaper and the New Testament and actually sees fearfully little of the organic connection between the two worlds concerning which one should now be able to give a clear and powerful witness” in Revolutionary Theology in the Making, p. 45.

By: Earl

Earl — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:42:43 +0000

“If I were a pastor, I would try to exposit biblical passages in such a way that my sermons would illumine not only the text, but the world in which we live.”

This makes me rather uncomfortable. I come from a hermeneutic where I first and foremost attempt to reconstruct the biblical author’s initial thoughts and concepts, so exegetical methods with the explicit attempt to relate it to modern society seems to be putting the cart before the horse.

Vanhoozer may not have been implying this, so I’m not necessarily disagreeing with anything- just voicing concern. Theology and interpretations not rooted in the life of a community are ventures in futility, but I’m concerned that Vanhoozer’s goal might eventually overwhelm his method in a Machiavellian ‘the ends justifies the means’ manner.

What are the thoughts of others? Am I missing the point?

Earl