Cover image for The Limits of a Text: Luke 23:34a as a Case Study in Theological Interpretation By Joshua Marshall Strahan

The Limits of a Text

Luke 23:34a as a Case Study in Theological Interpretation

Joshua Marshall Strahan

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$32.95 | Paperback Edition
ISBN: 978-1-57506-704-9

152 pages
6" × 9"
2012

Journal of Theological Interpretation Supplements

The Limits of a Text

Luke 23:34a as a Case Study in Theological Interpretation

Joshua Marshall Strahan

How does one limit a biblical text? Can one limit it? Should one? These questions drive one to examine core assumptions of biblical interpretation, assumptions about the aims and attitudes one brings to the task of reading the Bible. Is the aim of biblical exegesis to uncover what really happened, to discover the author’s intentions, to attend to the interpretations of readers—ancient and/or contemporary? Furthermore, should the interpreter approach biblical texts from a position of neutrality, suspicion, and/or faith?

 

How does one limit a biblical text? Can one limit it? Should one? These questions drive one to examine core assumptions of biblical interpretation, assumptions about the aims and attitudes one brings to the task of reading the Bible. Is the aim of biblical exegesis to uncover what really happened, to discover the author’s intentions, to attend to the interpretations of readers—ancient and/or contemporary? Furthermore, should the interpreter approach biblical texts from a position of neutrality, suspicion, and/or faith?

Strahan’s book aims to offer a (not the) set of answers to these questions by bringing historiographical theory, hermeneutical theory, and theology into conversation, a conversation centered around a case study that deals with limiting the meaning(s) of an enigmatic Gospel text: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34a). Borrowing insight from Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana, this book offers a renewed, ecclesially located strategy for dealing with polysemy in biblical texts, a strategy that holds together many of the strengths offered by contemporary theological interpreters.

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