287 - New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading

New Horizons in Hermeneutics:
The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading
By Anthony C Thiselton
Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1992. 703 pp. $29.99.

Thiselton, author of The Two Horizons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosophical Description with Special Reference to Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer and Wittgenstein, describes his new book as "an advanced textbook on hermeneutics." Its purpose is twofold: first, to describe and evaluate critically all the major models and approaches that characterize current hermeneutical theory and to contribute to such theory in the process; and, second, to suggest how these models and methods may be applied to biblical texts or to issues in biblical interpretation. The audience Thiselton envisions for his book is also twofold: an academic audience of teachers, students, and researchers, but also a wider audience in the Christian community at large, "those who address practical questions about the general use of the biblical writings with firm Christian concern." While the volume admirably serves the needs of the academic audience, however, constituting a veritable encyclopedia of hermeneutical theories-premodern, modern, and postmodern-Thiselton's nonacademic audience is less well-served. Those without some prior knowledge of theological and philosophical hermeneutics will tend to fall by the wayside. Some nonacademic readers will also be bemused by the interminable intellectual detour that the author finds it necessary to interpose between the biblical text and its practical application.

Those broadly familiar with hermeneutical terrain, however, will be impressed at how much of it Thiselton is able to cover. His versatility is remarkable, his erudition extraordinary. He ranges effortlessly from premodern theories of biblical interpretation to postmodernist theories of textuality and reading, and he discusses nearly everything of relevance in between. (Actually, the postmodern is discussed prior to the premodern and also prior to the modern. While Thiselton generally gives reasons for such moves and always seems to know exactly where he is going, this reviewer occasionally lost his sense of direction and had to backtrack looking for signposts.) In addition to the premodern chapter, which centers on allegorical interpretation, and the postmodern chapter, which centers on Barthes and Derrida, there are chapters on the theological hermeneutics of Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers, on the seminal hermeneutical work of Schleiermacher,

288 - New Horizons in Hermeneutics: The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading

on Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutical theories, on socio-critical theory (mainly that of Habermas), on the hermeneutics of liberation and feminist theologies, and on theories of reader-response. There are also shorter discussions of other major hermeneuticians, notably, Dilthey, Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer, and Betti, and numerous other thinkers with looser affiliations to hermeneutics, such as the speech-act theorists Austin, Searle, and Recanati.

Especially welcome to this reviewer were Thiselton's own readings of selected biblical texts (Pauline, for the most part) in light of some of the hermeneutical theories that he surveys and critiques. His penultimate chapter, for example, outlines ten different ways of reading biblical texts, under the general rubric, "The Hermeneutics of Pastoral Theology," which is also the title of his final chapter. Indeed, Thiselton's theological and pastoral interests dominate the entire book, although they rarely overpower it. They motivate him ultimately to reject Derrida and deconstruction, for example, but not without first showing us that he has read Derrida and not just his detractors. Thiselton rightly states that "we cannot attempt to formulate any theory of textuality simply on the basis of what may cohere with our theology. We must also evaluate theories of texts on their own terms." For the most part, this is what he has done. The result is a book, which, for comprehensiveness and sophistication, eclipses most, or all, of its competitors. Anybody involved in the academic study of biblical texts, at whatever level (except the undergraduate!) stands to benefit greatly from a close reading, or even a random raiding, of this massive resource.

Stephen D. Moore
Wichita State University
Wichita, KA