D
djeter
Guest
I was reading the thread “How do you know your interpretation of Scripture is correct?” because it is in line with some thoughts I had while reading Matthew Leverings Participatory Biblical Exegesis
Essentially Levering’s thesis is that beginning in the 14th century a fundamental shift occurred in the West. One form of biblical exegesis lost its appeal and another form became appealing. He develops strong reasons for considering a connection between biblical exegesis and metaphysical presuppositions regarding historical reality. First he explores the metaphysical shift that came about in the 14th century – a reading selection from the book here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/06/11/the-fourteenth-century-metaphysical-shift/
And then he gives an example of the old-style patristic-medieval exegesis as exemplified by St. Thomas Aquinas. He uses Aquinas’ Exegesis of John 3:27-36 emphasizing a radically participatory understanding of reality that draws together Trinitarian theology, Christology, the Church’s hierarchical structure, the transformative movement of deification, and eschatology.
Aquinas provides, in other words, a portrait of the biblical realities of creation and redemption into which the lives of believers are already incorporated (both metaphysically as creatures and Christologically-pneumatologically) and must be more fully incorporated until “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18) have been fully manifested.
You can find the Aquinas exegesis here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/06/17/aquinas%e2%80%99-exegesis-of-john-327-36/
Then Levering goes on to examples of representative commentaries on John 3:27-36 from the fourteenth through the twentieth centuries to view what was “lost,” or the “modern misfortune" (that’s you and me) as biblical scholar Catherine Pickstock described it — “the loss of an integrally conceptual and mystical path.”
I haven’t made the reading selections for the latter yet, but I thought I would give you all a heads up on the plan.
There are oodles of biblical exegesis floating about and I always wanted to find one that was true to our Catholic understandings and beyond that to understand what the problem with exegesis was to begin with. Levering’s book has been very helpful on that and I wanted to put some of what he spoke to in his book on my blog for others.
Anyways, hope you find all the above useful. It was for me.
dj
Essentially Levering’s thesis is that beginning in the 14th century a fundamental shift occurred in the West. One form of biblical exegesis lost its appeal and another form became appealing. He develops strong reasons for considering a connection between biblical exegesis and metaphysical presuppositions regarding historical reality. First he explores the metaphysical shift that came about in the 14th century – a reading selection from the book here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/06/11/the-fourteenth-century-metaphysical-shift/
And then he gives an example of the old-style patristic-medieval exegesis as exemplified by St. Thomas Aquinas. He uses Aquinas’ Exegesis of John 3:27-36 emphasizing a radically participatory understanding of reality that draws together Trinitarian theology, Christology, the Church’s hierarchical structure, the transformative movement of deification, and eschatology.
Aquinas provides, in other words, a portrait of the biblical realities of creation and redemption into which the lives of believers are already incorporated (both metaphysically as creatures and Christologically-pneumatologically) and must be more fully incorporated until “the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18) have been fully manifested.
You can find the Aquinas exegesis here:
payingattentiontothesky.com/2010/06/17/aquinas%e2%80%99-exegesis-of-john-327-36/
Then Levering goes on to examples of representative commentaries on John 3:27-36 from the fourteenth through the twentieth centuries to view what was “lost,” or the “modern misfortune" (that’s you and me) as biblical scholar Catherine Pickstock described it — “the loss of an integrally conceptual and mystical path.”
I haven’t made the reading selections for the latter yet, but I thought I would give you all a heads up on the plan.
There are oodles of biblical exegesis floating about and I always wanted to find one that was true to our Catholic understandings and beyond that to understand what the problem with exegesis was to begin with. Levering’s book has been very helpful on that and I wanted to put some of what he spoke to in his book on my blog for others.
Anyways, hope you find all the above useful. It was for me.
dj