http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2008/09/19/reading-the-old-testament-with-the-ancient-church/ Ancient Wisdom Today: seeking to understand the past to make sense of the present Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:27:08 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2008/09/19/reading-the-old-testament-with-the-ancient-church/comment-page-1/#comment-116 Maer Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:23:43 +0000 http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/?p=40#comment-116 Phil – I read your post with much benefit. If I read your post correctly, it seems that we can say that the Church Fathers’ exegesis is helpful not least because they are getting at the heart of the reality to which the text points. In other words, we need to think “about the content of their particular message in the context of the content of all the messages contained in the Bible.” This makes sense. My only observation, as far as patristic exegesis is concerned, is that it seems to me that the particularity of the message often gets short shrift and the hermeneutical spiral suffers in the process. Thank you for pointing me to your bibliography, I have become a fan of Chris Seitz and you will be happy to know that I will be reading Childs’ intro to the OT soon. Perhaps we can interact more then. Phil – I read your post with much benefit. If I read your post correctly, it seems that we can say that the Church Fathers’ exegesis is helpful not least because they are getting at the heart of the reality to which the text points. In other words, we need to think “about the content of their particular message in the context of the content of all the messages contained in the Bible.” This makes sense. My only observation, as far as patristic exegesis is concerned, is that it seems to me that the particularity of the message often gets short shrift and the hermeneutical spiral suffers in the process. Thank you for pointing me to your bibliography, I have become a fan of Chris Seitz and you will be happy to know that I will be reading Childs’ intro to the OT soon. Perhaps we can interact more then.

]]> http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/2008/09/19/reading-the-old-testament-with-the-ancient-church/comment-page-1/#comment-115 Phil Sumpter Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:54:26 +0000 http://maer.vidanovaphilly.org/?p=40#comment-115 There's a lot of work going on on patristic hermeneutics and it's finding a bit of a come back. The idea is that you "pierce" the text to the ultimate reality to which it only fragmentarily witnesses. Reading Jesus into the OT, for example, is legitimate because it approaches the text from the context of the fullness of revelation found in the whole canon. Though not literally present, he's "ontologically" present. I think that these kinds of considerations ought to lie at the heart of current Christian attempts to work out a "theological hermeneutic," as I mentioned in my own post <a href='http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/2008/09/need-for-ontological-categories-in.html' rel="nofollow">The need for ontological categories in biblical exegesis</a>. I posted a brief bibliography of the subject <a href='http://narrativeandontology.blogspot.com/2008/08/bibliography-for-figural-reading-of.html' rel="nofollow">here</a>. There’s a lot of work going on on patristic hermeneutics and it’s finding a bit of a come back. The idea is that you “pierce” the text to the ultimate reality to which it only fragmentarily witnesses. Reading Jesus into the OT, for example, is legitimate because it approaches the text from the context of the fullness of revelation found in the whole canon. Though not literally present, he’s “ontologically” present. I think that these kinds of considerations ought to lie at the heart of current Christian attempts to work out a “theological hermeneutic,” as I mentioned in my own post The need for ontological categories in biblical exegesis. I posted a brief bibliography of the subject here.

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