Mere Christian Hermeneutics

Kevin J. Vanhoozer (PhD, Cambridge University) is Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Before that he was Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author or editor of over twenty books, including Is There a Meaning in This Text?, First Theology, the Drama of Doctrine, and Remythologizing Theology. He serves as theological mentor for the Augustine Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians, and is a member of the Lausanne theology working group on hermeneutics for Seoul 2024.

'Mere Christian Hermeneutics puts theological interpretation on the offensive side of the ball. The various critical approaches spawned by the historicist hegemony of the last two centuries come with their methods and variegated vis-and agrave;-vis. The temptation is to situate theological interpretation within this scholarly fray, maneuvering it in conversation with or over against these competing options. Vanhoozer doesn't play by these rules because the stakes are too high. If God is the authorizing agent of all Scripture, Old and New Testaments, then everything changes. This confession of faith places all methods and approaches in service of this organon of Scripture's nature. From Vanhoozer's vantage point, Holy Scripture remains on the short side of the Mount of Transfiguration if readers are canonically unaware and redemptively irresponsible. Mere Christian Hermeneutics calls on its readers to ascend the mount of a transfigured text, to see Jesus just as he is. The church and its members--and academics too!--would do well to go hiking with Professor Vanhoozer up this mountain. Who knows? Perhaps we will be transfigured as well. I certainly hope so.'