Horizons in Hermeneutics: A Festschrift in Honor of Anthony C. Thiselton ed. by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew R. Malcolm

Abstract

Reviewed by: Horizons in Hermeneutics: A Festschrift in Honor of Anthony C. Thiselton ed. by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew R. Malcolm Patrick Gray stanley e. porter and matthew r. malcolm (eds.), Horizons in Hermeneutics: A Festschrift in Honor of Anthony C. Thiselton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013). Pp. xv + 301. $40. With the possible exception of Rudolf Bultmann, no name is more closely associated with the study of hermeneutics among NT scholars than that of Anthony Thiselton. As the editors observe (“An Introduction to a Celebratory Contribution” and “The Life and Work of Anthony Charles Thiselton”), Thiselton’s approach to biblical hermeneutics may be summarized as an attempt “to illuminate the transforming engagement of the horizon of the interpreter with the horizon of the biblical text” (p. x). Although terms like “horizon,” “transformation,” “engagement,” and even “hermeneutics” can be quite slippery, the essays appearing here nicely flesh out what they mean in theory and in practice. The unifying concerns of Thiselton’s prodigious scholarly output thus made it possible for the editors to produce a thematically coherent compilation that will be much more useful than the random assemblage of loosely related studies that typically comprise honorary volumes of this sort. The essays are grouped under three headings. “Facing the Other” includes the contributions of John Goldingay (“Poetry and Theology in Isaiah 56–66”), Robert Morgan (“Thiselton on Bultmann’s Sachkritik”), Mark L. Y. Chan (“Experience and the Transfiguration of Tradition in Paul’s Hermeneutical Christology”), Matthew R. Malcolm (“Kerygmatic Rhetoric in New Testament Epistles”), and Richard S. Briggs (“‘The Rock Was Christ’: Paul’s Reading of Numbers and the Significance of the Old Testament for Theological Hermeneutics”). “Engaging the Other” includes those of James D. G. Dunn (“The [End Page 742] Earliest Interpreters of the Jesus Tradition: A Study in Early Hermeneutics”), David Parris (“Metaphors, Cognitive Theory, and Jesus’ Shortest Parable”), and Richard H. Bell (“‘But We Have the Mind of Christ’: Some Theological and Anthropological Reflections on 1 Corinthians 2:16”). Finally, “Projecting Possibilities” includes those of Tom Greggs (“Reading Scripture in a Pluralist World: A Path to Discovering the Hermeneutics of Agape”), Stephen Fowl (“Scripture and the Divided Church”), Stanley E. Porter (“What Exactly Is Theological Interpretation of Scripture, and Is It Hermeneutically Robust Enough for the Task to Which It Has Been Appointed?”), and John B. Thomson (“‘Let Us Cook You Your Tea, Vicar!’ Church, Hermeneutics, and Postmodernity in the Work of Anthony Thiselton and Stanley Hauerwas”). Some contributors here stake out more provocative positions than others. Dunn, for example, distinguishes the hermeneutical strategies of the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Thomas by noting the former’s tendency to elaborate on the Synoptic tradition from the inside while the latter does so by introducing new and unrelated material from the outside. This difference was critical to the church’s decisions with respect to the canonical status of these writings. Chan, likewise, provides a salutary reminder that Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus was not an uninterpreted one but rather represented “a convergence of experience, scripture, tradition, and eschatological fulfillment” (p. 68). Fowl, on the other hand, makes the more audacious suggestion that, far from being the only or even the main cause of divisions within the church, different approaches to the interpretation of Scripture can play a vital role in healing ecclesial ruptures. Several essays range freely across traditional disciplinary boundaries, with Bell’s in particular standing out for its impressive integration of insights from philology, reception history, continental philosophy, and systematic theology. Thomson takes a somewhat more idiosyncratic approach, but he rightly sees in Hauerwas a figure with a long-standing emphasis on embodied discipleship who, like Thiselton, has exerted a profound influence on numerous biblical scholars and theologians alike. It is refreshing to see the authors take advantage of the unique opportunity afforded by the festschrift format to conduct experimental forays into various subjects in ways that are clearly inspired by Thiselton’s perspectives and concerns. Noteworthy along these lines are Malcolm’s attempt to adumbrate a rhetorical approach to Scripture that privileges content over form and Parris’s thick description of Luke 4:23 (“Physician, heal thyself!”) carried out with...