Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture

By Sandra M. Schneiders

Book Overview

In this new edition of her major study of the New Testament, Sandra Schneiders proposes a comprehensive hermeneutical theory for New Testament interpretation, which takes full account of the Bible as both sacred Scripture and as a historical-literary classic. Designed to spur reflection on the role of Scripture as revelatory text in the life of the Church and in the lives of individual believers, The Revelatory Text shows that an integral hermeneutical theory can ground a transformational hermeneutical praxis to make the biblical text available as a faith resource to the oppressed as well as to the privileged.

Schneiders investigates the meaning of the theological claim that the Bible is the "Word of God" and the "Church's book," along with the implications of these claims for biblical interpretation. She then examines the historical, literary, and religious-spiritual dimensions of the New Testament, highlighting the implications for interpretation theory and methodology, and concludes by putting her theory to the test in a feminist interpretation of John 4.

The author argues that the comprehensive object of biblical interpretation is not merely information but transformation. She suggests that an adequate hermeneutical theory must include a wide range of exegetical and critical methods within a theologically and philosophically adequate understanding of Scripture as sacred text. She writes specifically to educated believers who wonder how sound biblical criticism can be incorporated into a faith- filled reading of the New Testament; biblical scholars who struggle with the question of whether or how faith can function legitimately in biblical scholarship; and those whose task it is to teach and preach the faith that looks to the New Testament as source and norm.

Chapters are "The Problem and Project of New Testament Interpretation," "The New Testament as Word of God," "The New Testament as the Church's Book," "The World Behind the Test: History, Imagination, and the Revelatory Text," "The World of the Text: Witness, Language, and the Revelatory Text," "The World Before the Text: Meaning, Appropriation, and the Revelatory Text," and "A Case Study: Feminist Interpretation of John 4:1-42."

Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, is professor of New Testament studies and Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814659438
• ISBN13: 9780814659434
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Michael Glazier Books
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

4 stars for effort...

Sandra Schneiders has in this work provided students and theologians alike with an invaluable resource on hermeneutical study, and post-modern Biblical scholarship. Her attempt to work with the text from an existentialist experience is refreshing considering the complete secularisation of Scripture by other authors. However, when engaging her example hermeneutic of suspiscion, I asked myself, "Is this Christian existentialism or is it Feminist existentialism." Once again, infant Christianity appears as the butt of a scholastic enterprise that projects current ideology onto ancient text, and what makes this all the more difficult is that it involves at times imaginative reconstruction. Despite its reflection of popular white middle class ethic, this book is a handy resource, if only for its dealings with 'scientific methodology', and Schneiders' immense notions of spirituality refreshingly engage Sacred text, filling a vacuum in modern academic theology.

THE TEXT of TEXTS!

It is so good to see The Revelatory Text back in print! It is one of the most important primary reference tools for the study of scripture available. The writing style is rich in language and challenging in the application of exegetical principles. Schnieders also provides the standard by which most theology schools and seminaries structure their understanding of sacred scripture within a historical context. Her language has now become the common form of expression in theological conversations today. The only difference between this re-printed version of The Revelatory Text and Schnieders' first edition is the second preface. Since Schneiders wrote a classic the first time, she now only needs to comment briefly on it.