New Horizons in Hermeneutics

by Anthony C. Thiselton

Dr. Anthony Thiselton’s thorough approach to the growing discipline of hermeneutics takes account of a comprehensive range of theoretical models of reading and interpretation. He evaluates both the foundations on which they rest and their practical implications for Old and New Testament reading. Building on his earlier influential work, The Two Horizons, Dr. Thiselton examines theories of texts, semiotics and literature, the legacy of Patristic and Reformation hermeneutics, and the use of socio-critical theory, liberation theology, and Marxist, feminist, and black hermeneutics, and discusses every major hermeneutical theorist. This exhaustive and rigorous critique will prove valuable to anyone undertaking advanced research in hermeneutics, including teachers and students of theology and language or literary theory.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Biblical Studies, Religion

703 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1992

About the author

Anthony Charles Thiselton is emeritus professor of Christian theology at the University of Nottingham and a fellow of the British Academy. His recent publications include Approaching Philosophy of Religion, Discovering Romans, Systematic Theology, The Holy Spirit, and The Last Things.

Reviews

[Christopher G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Thiselton traces the historical development of hermeneutics from the pre-modern era through current scholarship in the post modern era. In the study of pre-modern hermeneutics, Thiselton focuses on tradition and the use of allegory in contrast with gnostic interpretation. The progression of hermeneutical understanding into the modern period included Calvin, Luther, Schleiermacher , and Dilthey with their emphasis on textual meaning through grammar, language, reconstruction, and life world. Post Modern philosophers included Heidegger, Recanati, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Habermas, and Rorty. The post modern era saw advances in speech act theory, metacriticism, literary theory, reader response, socio-critics and pragmatism, and semiotics. Thiselton concluded with the hermeneutics of pastoral theology in light of the various approaches to understanding textual meaning and their implications on biblical interpretation.
The book developed an orderly progression of hermeneutical understanding that incorporated many contributors and theories. Although this is helpful, the over abundance of theorists that were interjected into the text distracted at times from the main thrust of Thiselton’s construction of theory. The subtitle of the book, “The Theory and Practice of Transforming Biblical Reading”, set the expectation that there would be more emphasis on biblical hermeneutics than was actually contained in the book.
In the later chapters of New Horizons in Hermeneutics, especially those on socio-critical and pastoral theology, the hermeneutical theories presented resonated with many ideologies proclaimed in society today. Thiselton laid a foundation for understanding how these views are developed but is quick to remind readers that 1) although different interpretative goals are not compatible, it doesn't make them wrong 2) just because someone is entitled to an interpretation that meets their interpretative goal, it doesn't make it right in all contexts. He also highlighted several times that in order for understanding to take place there must be exposure to horizons that are incongruent with the existing horizon, underscoring the emphasis of discipleship to facilitate spiritual development.

[Jeremy Garber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sprawling, masterly work from the early 1990s that still holds relevant summaries and arguments for today. Thiselton, an Anglican theologian from the University of Nottingham, expands on his earlier work The Two Horizons by outlining all the basis approaches to hermeneutical theory and their effectiveness for biblical theologians and pastoral caregivers. Thiselton surveys these approaches with an intelligent and careful eye towards balancing the power of the author’s historical situation and the reader’s investment in reading and interpreting the text. He includes pre-modern and traditionalist interpretations (including the Early Fathers and Scholastics); the Reformers; Schleiermacher as the first modernist hermeneutics scholar; existentialism and speech-act theory; and semiotic and post-modernist interpretations. Along the way he also includes such vital figures as Gadamer, Pannenberg, Heidegger, Ricoeur, and Stanley Fish. Thiselton is appropriately critical of theorists who err too much on the side of the text or on the side of the reader (reserving heavy rhetorical frowns for socio-pragmatists such as Fish in particular). One might fault Thiselton for this criticism relying too much on a supernatural metaphysics that he never explicitly outlines but with which he clearly sympathizes – but his masterful job of summary and critique doesn’t sink with this particular emphasis. Particularly creative are Thiselton’s final two chapters on hermeneutics and pastoral care, where he revisits all the theories and suggests persons for whom each theory might be helpful in strengthening their spiritual life. Highly recommended as a summary text for theologians, biblical scholars, and pastoral theologians, whether professionals or students in theological study.