Study Programme - Hermeneutics

Christians instinctively appeal to the Bible in order to address issues of faith and conduct. However, Christians disagree on numerous issues and these disagreements often revolve around differing interpretations of the same biblical texts. This unit explores various interpretative methods and reflects on their usefulness for Christian biblical interpretation.

This unit is split into two modules.

HERMENEUTICS 1

1. Introduction
   The necessity of a model which accounts for both unity and diversity in interpretation and involves authors, texts and readers
2. Pre-critical Hermeneutics
   An examination of the allegorical interpretation of Origen and objections raised by Theodore of Mopsuestia and John Chrysostom
3. Historical Criticism
   An introduction to critical methods employed by historical criticism
4. Social-scientific Criticism
   The use of models and concepts from the social sciences to illuminate biblical texts
5. Narrative Criticism
   The use of literary criticism in reading biblical narratives as stories
6. Rhetorical Criticism
   An introduction to the use of classical rhetoric in biblical interpretation
7. Intertextuality
   An exploration of the ways in which texts draw upon and build on other texts
8. Canonical Criticism
   An introduction to the works of B.S. Childs and J.A. Sanders
9. Reader Response Criticism 1
   The crucial role of readers/hearers in the interpretative process
10. Reader Response Criticism 2
    Stanley Fish and the notion of interpretive communities

HERMENEUTICS 2

1. Hermeneutics of Suspicion & Retrieval
   A critical examination of Paul Ricoeur’s contribution to hermeneutics
2. Liberation Theology
   Reading texts from the perspective of the marginalised in society
3. Anabaptist Hermeneutics
   An introduction to Christocentric biblical interpretation
4. Feminist Theology
   Reading texts from feminist perspectives
5. Existentialist Hermeneutics
   A critical examination of Rudolf Bultmann’s contribution to hermeneutics
6. Speech-Act Theory
   A critical examination of the contributions of John Austin and John Searle to hermeneutics
7. Poststructuralism
   A critical examination of the contributions of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault to hermeneutics
8. The New Rhetoric
   An examination of the role of rhetoric as an exercise in power
9. Autobiographical & Postcolonial Criticism
   Reading texts from the perspective of one’s own history
10. Theological Interpretation
    Reading biblical texts as a Christian theologian