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Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach
“Finally someone has written an introductory text on the principles of biblical hermeneutics that contains a sophisticated grasp of the latest debates within the larger field of interpretation theory. . . . Tate has provided a text for graduate and upper division undergraduate courses in biblical interpretation that is understandable, interesting, and relevant.”
—David Penchansky, University of St. Thomas
—David Penchansky, University of St. Thomas
276 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1991
23 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
W. Randolph Tate
5 booksW. Randolph Tate (PhD, Florida State University) is professor of humanities at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, where he has taught for more than twenty-five years. He is the author of several books, including Biblical Interpretation: An Integrated Approach, 3rd ed.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 27, 2018
I struggle to find the right rating for this book because it seems clear to me that the writer didn’t write it with the intention for it to be read by the average layman, or at least that is what I would assume, if I am incorrect in that assumption then this book deserves one star rather than two. Biblical Interpretation was a gift from a fellow church member when I first started going my church regularly, and while his gesture in giving me this book was very kind, I can only imagine how much of a struggle reading this would be for the average person.
As mentioned in the paragraph above, Biblical Interpretation is a very hard book to read. It is a book that was clearly written by a scholar due to his use of language and phrasing but I find it hard to believe that many people other than fellow scholars and their students would find the book to be an enjoyable read. Now, I don’t want to be the person who says that any book that uses ten-dollar words is automatically bad, nor would I make the claim that all books should be written in plain language. Rather, my point is that whatever style the author writes in their book has to be engaging, and something that the prospective reader is going to want to continue to read.
Biblical Interpretation is not a book that anyone is going to want to read for long stretches of time, or probably even want to go out of their way to read in the first place. It’s tone, style, and language merely communicate the fact that the author is smart and do nothing to try and make his intelligence something that you want to experience. In fact, there really isn’t any way to tell if the author himself enjoys the topic that he’s writing about as everything from beginning to end is presented in just about as dry a way as possible, there is no energy, excitement, or enjoyment to be found, merely information displayed on a page.
As a non-fiction author, there is still a responsibility to the reader to make your book something they want to read. Anybody in the world could have access to an incredible story or finding that they want to transform into a book or a report but the author of said book or report doesn’t have the ability to convey their story or finding in a way that is engaging then they effectively cut their audience by more than half. No one wants to feel like they’re going to school when they pick up a book that covers a topic that they’re genuinely interested in, they want to learn but they want to have some sort of an enjoyable time while they’re doing so, and that is the major difficulty with this book.
The information here is all genuinely fascinating, and it’s a topic that I have a genuine interest in and have enjoyed reading about in the past, but its presentation is a major flaw. Reading about styles of writing in the ancient world, historical methods of applying the biblical text, and the major studies that have been done to uncover what the Bible means are truly fascinating things to read about and understand but here any fascination is removed by the cold and unfeeling way in which it’s presented. Is the entire book bad? No, there are moments where I was genuinely interested in what the author was talking about, but that was in spite of the writing style and my interest was continually hampered by the fact that I had to try and get past the cold intellectualism of the words on the page.
I also have reservations about whether or not the level of analysis presented is any actual benefit to the Christian person. In some ways reading this particular book can leave the Christian feeling as though the Bible is just another book in the canon of ancient literature when, whether you’re a believer or not, it obviously stands apart from the crowd. Such heavy analysis, at least to me, takes away the mystery and majesty that is inherent to the biblical text and leaves no room for the reader to connect to it in a personal way, despite there being chapters here that attest to the opposite. Perhaps it was the cold way the information was presented but I ask myself if people really need to understand the importance of how wells were used in ancient literature to understand the stories in the Bible that take place by a well.
In my review of Forgotten God I mentioned how I think that Francis Chan can skew too far into the camp that focuses on feelings rather than information, and how that can hamper a reader’s ability to fully understand the concepts that an author is talking about. Here I have to say that Mr. Tate had done the exact opposite and skewed far too hard into being too informational to the point that it will most likely alienate more readers than it will attract. A proper balance between writing like Mr. Tate and Mr. Chan will yield the best possible results to reach the largest group of people.
There is certainly a place for books about interpreting the Bible in the Christian bookshelf, but there is a reason that this book, and its author, is one that no one is aware of. In all my research I have been hard pressed to find someone who knows of or has genuinely found a lot of value to be mined here. If you’re someone who is serious about interpretive methods for the Bible and likes writing that is primarily intellectual then you’re probably going to absolutely love this book. For those who are interested in biblical interpretation but are not the person I’ve just described, perhaps you would be better served taking a class or reading a commentary, those tend to be far more enjoyable.
As mentioned in the paragraph above, Biblical Interpretation is a very hard book to read. It is a book that was clearly written by a scholar due to his use of language and phrasing but I find it hard to believe that many people other than fellow scholars and their students would find the book to be an enjoyable read. Now, I don’t want to be the person who says that any book that uses ten-dollar words is automatically bad, nor would I make the claim that all books should be written in plain language. Rather, my point is that whatever style the author writes in their book has to be engaging, and something that the prospective reader is going to want to continue to read.
Biblical Interpretation is not a book that anyone is going to want to read for long stretches of time, or probably even want to go out of their way to read in the first place. It’s tone, style, and language merely communicate the fact that the author is smart and do nothing to try and make his intelligence something that you want to experience. In fact, there really isn’t any way to tell if the author himself enjoys the topic that he’s writing about as everything from beginning to end is presented in just about as dry a way as possible, there is no energy, excitement, or enjoyment to be found, merely information displayed on a page.
As a non-fiction author, there is still a responsibility to the reader to make your book something they want to read. Anybody in the world could have access to an incredible story or finding that they want to transform into a book or a report but the author of said book or report doesn’t have the ability to convey their story or finding in a way that is engaging then they effectively cut their audience by more than half. No one wants to feel like they’re going to school when they pick up a book that covers a topic that they’re genuinely interested in, they want to learn but they want to have some sort of an enjoyable time while they’re doing so, and that is the major difficulty with this book.
The information here is all genuinely fascinating, and it’s a topic that I have a genuine interest in and have enjoyed reading about in the past, but its presentation is a major flaw. Reading about styles of writing in the ancient world, historical methods of applying the biblical text, and the major studies that have been done to uncover what the Bible means are truly fascinating things to read about and understand but here any fascination is removed by the cold and unfeeling way in which it’s presented. Is the entire book bad? No, there are moments where I was genuinely interested in what the author was talking about, but that was in spite of the writing style and my interest was continually hampered by the fact that I had to try and get past the cold intellectualism of the words on the page.
I also have reservations about whether or not the level of analysis presented is any actual benefit to the Christian person. In some ways reading this particular book can leave the Christian feeling as though the Bible is just another book in the canon of ancient literature when, whether you’re a believer or not, it obviously stands apart from the crowd. Such heavy analysis, at least to me, takes away the mystery and majesty that is inherent to the biblical text and leaves no room for the reader to connect to it in a personal way, despite there being chapters here that attest to the opposite. Perhaps it was the cold way the information was presented but I ask myself if people really need to understand the importance of how wells were used in ancient literature to understand the stories in the Bible that take place by a well.
In my review of Forgotten God I mentioned how I think that Francis Chan can skew too far into the camp that focuses on feelings rather than information, and how that can hamper a reader’s ability to fully understand the concepts that an author is talking about. Here I have to say that Mr. Tate had done the exact opposite and skewed far too hard into being too informational to the point that it will most likely alienate more readers than it will attract. A proper balance between writing like Mr. Tate and Mr. Chan will yield the best possible results to reach the largest group of people.
There is certainly a place for books about interpreting the Bible in the Christian bookshelf, but there is a reason that this book, and its author, is one that no one is aware of. In all my research I have been hard pressed to find someone who knows of or has genuinely found a lot of value to be mined here. If you’re someone who is serious about interpretive methods for the Bible and likes writing that is primarily intellectual then you’re probably going to absolutely love this book. For those who are interested in biblical interpretation but are not the person I’ve just described, perhaps you would be better served taking a class or reading a commentary, those tend to be far more enjoyable.
February 21, 2017
Insightful but not enjoyable. Eh...2.5
August 9, 2012
Excellent overview of interpretation and interpretive methods, with extensive bibliography. Key terms are in bold when they are defined. Tate breaks down interpretive approaches to the world behind the text, the world within the text, and the world in front of the text, with discussion and concrete examples of methods which focus primarily on one of these worlds. He also discusses the integration of these worlds in interpretation, offering an extended example of an integrated interpretation of Mark's gospel. I plan to use this as a course textbook this fall, and will update my thoughts come December!
April 30, 2016
Много читаво написана и полезна книга. Подходът й е доста по-различен от повечето помагала по херменевтика, но крайният резултат е повече от добър. Материалъ, койт покрива е много голям. Използваната литература е в по-голямата си част сравнително стара, но не и остаряла като съдържание.
Изненадан съм, че до този момент не съм я срещал като препоръчано помагало. Вероятно една от причините е, че е написана от неутрална, а не от консервативна християнска гледна точка (Обръщам внимание, че това не означава задължително либерална, а именно неутрална).
Изненадан съм, че до този момент не съм я срещал като препоръчано помагало. Вероятно една от причините е, че е написана от неутрална, а не от консервативна християнска гледна точка (Обръщам внимание, че това не означава задължително либерална, а именно неутрална).
May 17, 2010
For school: Biblical Studies I
February 6, 2016
A great introduction to different interpretation methods. I recommend it to those who are serious about in depth Biblical studies.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews