Exegesis

About: Exegesis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3017 publications have been published within this topic receiving 25212 citations. The topic is also known as: Bible interpretation.

The Arts, Midrash, and Biblical Teaching.

Abstract: . Biblical texts have been handed on to us through a long history of interpretation. Awareness of this rich but complex process is one of the goals of biblical teaching. Since the earliest centuries of the church there has been a parallel history of artistic interaction with the biblical text. These artistic treatments of biblical subjects have had a great cultural impact and have deeply influenced public perceptions and understandings of the Bible. Unfortunately, seldom does this history of artistic interpretation become a part of Bible courses. In this paper, I reflect on learnings from a serious effort to take artistic resources and methodologies into account in teaching Hebrew Bible in a theological school. My most successful efforts have employed the ancient Jewish interpretive method of midrash. Use of midrash opens new, imaginative possibilities that can enliven and extend our usual exegesis of texts. More specifically, midrash provides the ideal category for understanding artistic interactions with biblical texts. Through midrash students can understand artists to be both profound respecters of the power and integrity of biblical texts, while at the same time extending and entering into imaginative encounter with those texts. This article will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book Arts, Theology, and the Church: New Intersections.

God Has Made It Plain to Them: An Indictment of Rome's Hermeneutic of Homophobia:

Abstract: Roman Catholic exegesis is carried out in an explicitly ecclesial context involving formally recognized methods of interpretation and a long history of tradition, theology, culture and religiously authoritative teaching. Within this framework, the issue of homosexuality and same-gender marriage is evaluated with particular attention to Paul's indictment of the gentiles in Romans I. This article attempts to highlight the dissonance between the Church's historical-critical approach to biblical exegesis and the authoritative teachings on homosexuality that have been disseminated from Rome. The root of this dissonance is located in an identifiable and systemic homophobia pervasive throughout the Roman Catholic hierarchy. A solution to the problem is suggested in the application of Reimund Bieringer's hermeneutic of the “Normativity of the Future.” The article concludes by highlighting the most salient elements of this study in a pointed critique of the tragic pastoral ramifications of Rome's current position ...

Luther as Narrative Exegete

Abstract: Narrative and canonical methods of biblical interpretation are currently at the forefront of contemporary theological discussion. This approach is having an impact not only on biblical studies but also on systematic theology; thus it shows great promise for facilitating dialogue among the various theological disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to note affinities between this popular new approach and the exegetical work of one of the sixteenth-century, precritical Reformers, Martin Luther. In so doing we can suggest the contemporary systematic relevance of Reformation exegesis. In order to accomplish this I shall begin by describing the components of narrative exegesis, or at least the components of a particular kind of narrative exegesis which seems to have affinities to Luther's hermeneutics.