Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible

by Michael J. Gorman (editor)

Top-notch biblical scholars from around the world and from various Christian traditions offer a fulsome yet readable introduction to the Bible and its interpretation. The book concisely introduces the Old and New Testaments and related topics and examines a wide variety of historical and contemporary interpretive approaches, including African, African-American, Asian, and Latino streams. Contributors include N. T. Wright, M. Daniel Carroll R., Stephen Fowl, Joel Green, Michael Holmes, Edith Humphrey, Christopher Rowland, and K. K. Yeo, among others. Questions for reflection and discussion, an annotated bibliography, and a glossary are included.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Religion, Christian, History, Christianity

466 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 6, 2017

About the author

Michael J. Gorman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar. He is the Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University. From 1995 to 2012 he was dean of St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute.

Gorman specializes especially in the letters, theology, and spirituality of the apostle Paul. He is associated with the "participationist perspective" on Paul's theology. His additional specialties are the book of Revelation, theological and missional interpretation of Scripture, the gospel of John, and early Christian ethics. Gorman was born and raised in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, graduating from Glen Burnie High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in French from Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He received the Master of Divinity and Doctor of Philosophy cum laude in New Testament from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was also a teaching fellow in New Testament and an instructor in New Testament Greek. He has also been a visiting professor at Duke Divinity School, Regent College, Carey Baptist College (New Zealand), Wesley Theological Seminary, and two theological schools in Africa. Gorman has led several study trips to Greece/Turkey/Rome and to France/Switzerland. A United Methodist, Gorman is an active layperson and a popular teacher at colleges, seminaries, churches, and conferences representing many traditions. In the mid-2010s, despite still being a Methodist, Gorman began teaching in a Roman Catholic context. His older son, Rev. Dr. Mark Gorman, is a pastor and theologian who is also on the faculty of St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute.

Gorman is the author of nearly twenty books and more than sixty articles on Biblical interpretation and on ethics.

Reviews

[Joe Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Scripture together, and wrestling with its significance, is a central practice for many Christian communities, especially ones tracing their heritage to the churches that grew out of the Protestant Reformation. “The essential form of the common life,” Ellen F. Davis suggests, “is in the broadest sense a conversation in which members of the community explore and debate the meaning of their sacred texts” (Preaching the Luminous Word, 90). Of course, getting acquainted with the world of biblical scholarship, and seeking to relate to the Bible seriously as both a subject of rigorous, critical study and as a means of encounter with God, can sometimes be a difficult task.

The essays gathered together in Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible seek to make the path into the realm of scholarly biblical studies less steep. As Michael Gorman explains in the introduction, the aim is to help readers explore “the breadth and depth of Sacred Scripture,” approaching the text alongside others “from familiar surroundings as well as those from other centuries and locations” (xxii). It seems to me that one of the strengths of this book can in fact be seen in its title, which suggests a frank recognition of the ways in which reading Scripture and engaging in interpretation are always bound up with each other.

Getting Acquainted with the Bible and Its Readers

Since one of the hopes of Scripture and Its Interpretation is to orient readers to the Bible as a whole, a significant section of the book is taken up with essays that examine various aspects of the Old and New Testaments themselves. These chapters are of course by no means exhaustive, but they do briefly give some context for the formation of the narratives included in Scripture, along with an introduction to noteworthy non-canonical collections of writings significant for scholarly study, such as the documents discovered at Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls (97). Other essays include ones that briefly explore relevant geographical contexts as well as a short sketch examining how biblical manuscript traditions were passed down and translated into other languages throughout the long and varied history of Christianity. Broadly speaking, what can be said for these essays can be said for the book as a whole: in general, they show an openness to the influence of historical studies and the fruits of critical scholarship, seeking to integrate them with a spiritual perspective that approaches the Bible as “both human book and sacred text” (4).

The latter (and longer) sections of Scripture and Its Interpretation shift from directly looking at the biblical texts to exploring how Christians across the centuries and around the world have read and made sense of the Bible, as well as exploring how Scripture relates to various aspects of contemporary life (151-152; 337). Amongst these essays, a number of them reflect on what it looks like to interpret Scripture from the perspectives of Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Pentecostalism. It’s in these sections that the diversity of the contributors included in Scripture and Its Interpretation comes especially through as a strength.

By using scholars writing from within the traditions being discussed, readers are able to get a glimpse of how these traditions look from the inside, as it were. Some of these chapters did feel incomplete, but they may merely be victims of the scale of the subject matter they are attempting to summarize. After all, how could one condense the relationship of any of these streams of Christianity with Scripture into a single brief discussion and not be left wishing for more ground to be covered? It should also be said, though, that the reading guides included at the end of each chapter do give some solid suggestions for those wishing to pursue further studies, and this does help to remedy the situation somewhat. The survey of Christian reading practices across global cultures included in the book is also valuable for those introducing themselves to the study of the Bible, since it’s imperative that readers listen to the voices of those living around the world, especially among more marginalized communities that are too-often ignored. I wish that the roots of liberation theology in a South American context had been more deeply explored, however.

Conclusion

Throughout the pages of Scripture and Its Interpretation, readers are given some good metaphors for imagining how to relate to the Bible fruitfully. In his essay looking at spirituality and the Bible, for example, Gorman suggests that many readers of Scripture would find it helpful to embrace a “second naïveté” (I believe this phrase was coined by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur). Doing this entails the commitment to approach the Scriptures “with the informed freedom of one who knows the intellectual challenges but nonetheless chooses to open oneself fully to the text as a place for encountering God” (342-343). As with many things, this sounds to me like something that when done reflectively, in a spirit of curiosity and love, is the welcome work of a lifetime.

Among the other metaphors for thinking about scriptural interpretation that may be helpful for some readers, the writers in this book suggest seeing the Bible as both a single, coherent book and a diverse library of many texts, and they also bring up the British scholar Richard Bauckham’s framework of seeing Scripture as both a “plurality of narratives” that when gathered together tell something of a “coherent single story” (19). To these images I would also add Walter Brueggemann’s language of testimony, counter-testimony, and dispute, and Peter Enns’s incarnational analogy of the Bible as being both human and divine, as being healthy possibilities for thinking about how to read Scripture well.

In the end, Scripture and Its Interpretation is a helpful resource for those who want to delve further into the scholarly study of the Bible. In the same book we referenced near the beginning of this review, Ellen Davis characterizes a trusting relationship with Scripture as one that “expresses itself in a conviction that, no matter how strange or unappealing a given passage may be, there is something in it for us, something to be gained from the work of painstaking, acute listening” (Preaching the Luminous Word, 90). For those working towards cultivating this kind of reading approach, one that takes both the modern world and Christian spirituality seriously, Scripture and Its Interpretation makes for a fairly solid starting place, and it’s worth taking the time to read with a pen in hand.

*Disclosure: I received this book free from Baker Academic for review purposes. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.

[Mark Stacy II · Rating 4 out of 5]

To those who may want to read this book based on my rating, **please read this review**

First, let me say that I agreed with almost nothing in this book. The rating reflects that I believe the book is an excellent resource as it accomplishes what it intends, and that is to introduce the reader to various views and hermeneutical methods.

This is a three part book.

Part 1 was bad. You could throw it out.

Part 2 is bad as well, but it is at least helpful. It demonstrates the various terrible hermeneutical methods people use in interpreting the Bible. This is really why I gave it the rating I did. Again, I agree with none of it, and I will fight this stuff anywhere I see it, whether in books by people in my own organization or elsewhere.

Part 3 was a mixed bag of mostly bones, but you may be able to get a few bites of meat there.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible edited by Michael J. Gorman is a tour de force collection of introductory essays aimed to familiarize readers with the Christian Bible form a historical and hermeneutical perspective. The book includes essays by an extraordinary group of contributors from around the globe, including representation from four major theological traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal (p. xx). The scope of the book is complemented by a balanced and informative approach to the task of introductory study, and the reader is certain to benefit from both as engagement progresses through each major section.

Scripture and Its Interpretation is divided into three parts: (1) The Bible, (2) The Interpretation of the Bible in Various Traditions and Cultures, and (3) The Bible and Contemporary Christian Existence. The initial section focuses on the Bible itself, such as “its character as both library and single book, its historical and geographical context, surveys of both Testaments, formation of the canon, associated books that did not make it into the Bible, and the history of Bible translations” (p. xxi). The second section focuses attention on the hermeneutical diversity visible in various traditions and cultures. Following an introductory essay on the reception of the Bible, the reader will find essays on premodern interpretation, modern and postmodern interpretation, as well as an emerging theological interpretation. The section closes with a number of interpretive essays from various perspectives, including Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, African and African American, Latino/Latina, and Asian and Asian American. Lastly, the third section approaches the relationship between the Bible and spirituality, ethics, politics, community, and mission.

The introductory nature of Scripture and Its Interpretation is evident. But, the scope of such introduction extends far beyond a standard approach to the topic. The essays are accessible for the purpose of introductory study, but the breadth of the contained essays effectively offers an expanded number of perspectives untreated or overlooked in other introductions. Moreover, if such perspectives are treated, then it is likely done by a bystander rather than an adherent—the advantage of the latter as seen in Scripture and Its Interpretation should be obvious. While it is beyond the scope here to comment in depth on specific essays, it is worth mention to comment on the overall sense of the essays. I found the initial section on the Bible to be extremely helpful, although somewhat rudimentary at times. Michael W. Holmes’ essay on the formation of the biblical canon and Christopher W. Skinner’s essay on noncanoical writings standout among the best in the section, if not the book as a whole. The second section comprises the bulk of the book and could be reason enough to make the purchase. This section brings a new demotion to the genre of Bible introduction. The final section was an appropriate conclusion to the volume but will find itself overshadowed by the benefit of the former sections. Lastly, throughout the book, readers will find boldfaced terms or phrases that are included in the glossary, and each essay ends with an annotated bibliography that is appropriately positioned to direct readers towards resources for further study. Both the glossary and bibliography are welcomed additions to an already impressive volume.

Scripture and Its Interpretation: A Global, Ecumenical Introduction to the Bible edited by Michael J. Gorman is a tour de force collection of introductory essays aimed to familiarize readers with the Christian Bible form a historical and hermeneutical perspective. It is easily accessible to the average reader and holds the potential to shape the minds of even most studied of readers. Furthermore, it’s beyond encouraging to see an introduction to the Bible that takes seriously the consideration of interpretive perspectives beyond that typically associated with the English-speaking world. For these reasons alone, I could not recommend this book more highly. Will you agree with everything therein? It’s unlikely. But, the opportunity to listen to others is on every page of the book.

[Sanjuro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am unaware of a resource of precisely this kind. I read it in its entirety, carefully over the course of a week or so, and was deeply impressed with its helpfulness in regards to informing the lay person on a tremendous breadth of scholarly discussion and ecumenical insight into Scripture. The articles are written simply, and cover very basic material, so that specialists will uncover nothing new in the articles pertaining to their own areas of expertise. But, this is not the point of the book. The book exists to draw any and all readers into conversation with faith and interpretive traditions that they are not actively engaged with, and to that end, the book is a huge success.

I will say, I think that part three is a slight weakness. The subjects chosen for that section were good, but two of the articles (on ethics and politics) were real weak points for me. The chapter on ethics was particularly weak, in terms of the material covered, and the chapter on politics was simply dull and unmemorable. Thankfully, the chapter by Wright was engaging and hopeful and provided an excellent recovery to part three and to the end of the book as a whole.

There are 24 chapters in this book, and I found 21 of them to be at the very least, helpful, and at the most, engaging and impacting. More books like this might go a long way towards helping the global church to discover a more biblically grounded ecumenical flavor.

[Clayton Hashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent and accessible introduction to biblical hermeneutics. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about different approaches to interpreting Scripture.

The main questions/areas of further reading I have:
- More research into how the canon of the Bible was developed.
- Increased engagement with allegorical readings of the Bible, including reading original writings by Origen and Gregory of Nyssa.
- Learning more about the rule of faith and its importance in shaping biblical interpretation.

My highlights:
• “If by the late second century there was as yet no formal canon in the sense of a closed collection of Scriptures, there were, without question, emerging proto-canons, different groupings of authoritative writings by which different strands of the Christian movement defined themselves-virtually always, it would seem, in conjunction with a hermeneutical perspective that decisively and distinctly shaped their interpretation. Each strand offered its own take on what it meant to be a Christian, its own perspective on what the essence of Christianity was, and this was often accompanied by a different view of which writings counted as Scripture.”
• “by analyzing the biblical text in art, we are reminded that understanding the text occurs not simply through elucidation of its statements, but by engaging all the senses and involving the whole human being.”
• “any idea of a single, definitive "original meaning" is incompatible with reception history … reception history highlights ideological commitments and the significance of interpretive context, as well as the challenge reception history provides to the widespread scholarly assumption that early means better. By engaging with interpretations from across the centuries and beyond the confines of academic scholarship, reception history can enlarge our own horizons, offering fresh perspectives on biblical texts and alerting us to the limitations of our own readings.”
• “When the OT was viewed as allegory, the apparently vengeful acts of its God could be explained as allegorical rather than as evidence of moral inferiority, of which the gnostics accused Israel's God. Clement of Alexandria, the director of the catechetical school, postulated that the highest level of spiritual development was to become a "Christian gnostic" attuned to the allegorical sense of Scripture.”
• “Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them”
• “Aquinas admitted only the literal sense, which for him consisted of the meaning intended by the biblical author within his own particular historical context. The other three senses of Scripture could serve as edification and inspiration, but no doctrine could be based upon them. In this way Aquinas tried to attain objectivity, or at least to steer clear of individualistic interpretations not demonstrable by academic reasoning.”
• “the Protestant Reformation —with its slogan sola Scriptura (Scripture alone)—ushered in a widespread rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, of imaginative allegory, and of church tradition as a criterion for biblical exegesis. Biblical passages were to be understood through the application of other biblical passages, not of any external standard such as ancient or medieval theological statements; thus, the Bible was to be regarded as self-interpreting. As we have seen, the exegesis of Scripture by means of Scripture had been done throughout the centuries, though not to the exclusion of other methods.”
• “For many postmoderns, on the other hand, "truth" does not exist as an abstract reality apart from human knowing. Thus, for students of the Bible, "meaning" is not simply a property of the text that the reader must discover or excavate but is somehow the product of the interaction of readers with texts.”
• “Of course, what is so striking about Irenaeus's account of the divine economy and the rule of faith is that it is derived from Scripture.
• Clearly there is a circular movement here. The diversity of the NT poses a problem that is solved by ordering that diversity in the light of the apostolic faith. Only in the light of the NT, however, does that apostolic faith receive its definitive formulations.”
• “reading according to the rule of faith, developing habits of figural reading, and more generally maintaining the priority of theological convictions in scriptural interpretation are central practices of theological interpretation. Yet we need to recognize that historical-critical, feminist, Marxist, or other strategies of interpreting the Bible may well yield insights that will be important for theological interpretation.”
• “in recent years there has been a more balanced tendency to acknowledge the complex character of the Bible as both human and divine word, on analogy to the incarnation of the eternal Word as fully human and fully divine. This perspective allows for a certain "weakness" in the Bible, by virtue of its humanity, without denying its power as inspired divine word”
• “The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations.”

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, watch for an "official" review of this on Englewood Review. But, for now, let me suggest this as a great overview of the idea of Scripture (not contents). Three parts: The Bible (think of the book--background, reception, etc); The Interpretation of the Bible in Various Traditions and Cultures (multiple chapters covering Protestant, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Modern, Postmodern, and more); and, The Bible and Contemporary Christian Existence (Spirituality, Ethics, Politics, Community and Mission).

This volume is admittedly (by Gorman) a bit cursory and not comprehensive. However, for what it attempts to do, it succeeds admirably. While it raised some questions, it clearly answered many more and gave a sweeping overview in areas where I was totally uninformed.

One of the many strengths of the book (though hard on your pocketbook) is the list of suggested readings at the end of each chapter. There is a wealth of bibliographic suggestions available.

You can read this with great profit to your understanding of the scope of issues related to understanding Scripture and understanding how others understand it.

[Mathew Griggs · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is nothing ecumenical or possibly so for Christian readers in this text. The goal of each article is to give historical reasons for doubt without providing constructive responses or connecting the readers to the objections made by Christian scholars, textual critics and philosophers. This was lazily written, and if a reader accepts this at face value, it will only produce pastors who don't affirm the real value of Scripture. The information is useful, because: 1. these are weak versions of the arguments made by atheists and skeptics and 2. The historic information is useful when presented without dubious claims for the sole purpose of injecting (even when such claims have been rejected) suspicion; however, there are valid counterpoints to nearly everything posed in this slanted text. Real scholars voice the critiques, provide their own view, then list objections and counter-objections from the contemporary discourse.

I would not recommend this to anyone, unless pairing it with a text that addresses all these criticisms from different views.

[April Bumgardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great synthesis of basic hermeneutics covering topics from the canon of Scripture, to the various genres, and the variety of interpretive traditions. Reading about the interpretive lenses of African, Latin American, and Asian scholars was particularly good.

I appreciated chapter 20 addressing the necessity of academic and devotional readings together for spiritual transformation. Also, the emphasis on narrative theology and “Scripture-is-ethics” in the book’s last section was well done.

[Stephen Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot that is good and helpful here, particularly when comes to tracing hermeneutical changes over history in a summarized way. However, the Post-Modern sections on specific hermeneutical approaches became quite repetitive and also leads into many poor directions. Still,there’s lots to learn from them.

[David Blankenship · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid introduction to the Bible and its introduction from a variety of perspectives. As in all compilations, some of the chapters are better than others, but in particular part 2, in which interpretation through a host of methods and traditions, be they catholic, pentecostal, African, or many other ways, was very helpful.

[Terrance Lively · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. It is fascinating in its perspectives and viewpoints. I do wish it was updated as some of the language is not aging well. It gives wonderful insight into the fullness of scripture and interpretation.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be fair, I would give this book 4.5 stars. It is quite good, despite just a couple of concerns. My full review will be in a forthcoming issue of the Stone-Campbell Journal.

[Lesley-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive, clear introduction. Very helpful text and provided a concise explanation of many of the key themes in Biblical studies.

[Nancy Teal · Rating 4 out of 5]

good for learning to interpert.

[Jack Hayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little book of thematic essays which are all written well. In that way it is a gem. A good broad introduction, but at times felt a bit basic.

91% Well written essays across the board.

[Tim Donnelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty introductory collection of essays.

[Jon Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

the third part of this book is called “The Bible and Contemporary Christian existence” and is as follows
-The Bible and spirituality
-Scripture and Christian ethics
-the Bible and politics
-scripture and Christian community
-the Bible and Christian mission

Coming back around to reading this for another seminary class, and my initial impression of the book did not show the whole picture. The first two parts of the book are much more academic, but needed in the context of a seminary class. In that context, the first two parts were at times hard to follow and understand. Not every chapter is cohesive when there’s a new author for each.

The book is worth the book for part 3 by itself. They can be taken alone, but the first two parts are also helpful in bringing to part 3.