ON FREI'S ECLIPSE OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

Abstract

Hans Frei's book deserves much more attention than it has yet received in historical, philosophical and literary circles. His text is best historical study we have in English of developments from Post-Renaissance hermeneutics to mod­ ern hermeneutics of Schleier mâcher and Hegel. Frei's fascinating interpretation is intertwined with a complex argument regarding problematic status of mod­ ern theological discourse. This argument rests upon conceiving the Bible as writ­ ing/' which thereby requires appropriate literary critical tools. Frei's philosophi­ cal perspective is inspired by Karl Barth and indebted to Gilbert Ryle, Peter Strawson and Stuart Hampshire. His literary critical approach is guided by monumental achievement of Erich Auerbach. And Frei's historical interpretation is wholly original—an imaginative reshaping of terrain of early modern in­ terpretation theory. Frei's fresh interpretation demonstrates specific ways in which forms of supernaturalism, historicism, classicism, moralism and positivism have imposed debilitating constraints on emergence of modern hermeneutics. These con­ straints resulted in a discursive closure which prohibited development of a perspective which viewed Biblical texts as literary texts depicting unique charac­ ters and personages. Instead, early modern hermeneutical discourse conceived such texts as manifestations of divine presence, sources for historical reconstruc­ tion, articulations of inner existential anxieties of their authors, bases for moral imperatives or candidates for verifiable claims. In a painstaking and often per­ suasive manner, Frei examines precriticai (a self-serving adjective coined by modern hermeneutical thinkers) interpretive procedures of Luther and Calvin, pietistic viewpoint represented by Johann Jacob Rambach, rationalistic approach of Spinoza and proto-heilsgeschichtliche outlook of Johannes Cocceius. At turn of 18th century, major split arises between narrative and subject matter, literal explicative sense and actual historical reference. In short, texts no longer render reality of history they depict. Following pioneering work of Mark Pattison and Sir Leslie Stephen, Frei locates crystalization of this split in England. With decline of Metaphysical poets, rise of Bunyan's allegorical stories and emergence of authority of scien­ tific discourse, Deist controversy—the search for external evidence for divine revelation—acquires a position of eminence in theological discourse. For Frei, this controversy constitutes beginning of modern theology.