Author: Steven Nemes

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13:

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The purpose of the present work is to put forth a phenomenological investigation of the act of reading the Bible as Scripture for the sake of a constructive-theological proposal regarding the nature and interrelations of Scripture, Tradition, and Church as sources and authorities for Christian theology. It is intended as the first work of its kind: a proper phenomenology of Scripture in the objective genitive sense. The second chapter addresses two paradigmatic responses to the question of the relation between philosophy and theology. The third chapter introduces phenomenology as a method for engaging in philosophy. The fourth chapter identifies three proto- phenomenological insights into the Scripture-Tradition-Church triad found in the writings of Origen of Alexandria. The phenomenological investigations of this work further develop these three fundamental insights through a careful consideration of the act of scriptural reading, insights which have not yet fully been appreciated in the phenomenological literature on religion and which are relevant for this essential problem in the area of Christian theological method. The first insight is that there is a phenomenological distinction to be made between the biblical text, an artifact which can be held in the hands, and Scripture in the proper sense, i.e. the biblical text intended as containing and communicating the Word of God. The second insight is that that there is a relation of reciprocal or mutual priority which obtains between Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. Ecclesial Tradition is formally or phenomenologically prior to Scripture in the sense that it is what makes Scripture initially accessible to the reader. But Scripture is methodologically or theologically prior in the sense that the goal of the scriptural reader is not simply to impose some traditional perspective upon the text in an act of hermeneutical play but to attain to an understanding of what the text says as Word of God. The third insight is that the distinctly divine quality of the text is revealed in an experience of the phenomenon of the Third Voice, in which a meaning or sense suggests itself to the reader which cannot be identified with the literal sense of the text as intended by the human author, nor predicted on the basis of the habits of interpretation of the human reader. The fifth chapter elaborates on the first two insights. The sixth chapter develops the third insight by responding to the specific question of whether and how there is an experience of the Word of God in the words of Scripture. This is the most essential question of a phenomenology of Scripture, and yet one which has gone untreated by phenomenologists until now. The seventh chapter addresses the theological question about how properly to understand the nature of the Church in light of the inevitable fallibility of theological knowledge. The dissertation concludes in the eighth chapter with some reflections about the possibility of theology without anathemas in light of the phenomenology of Scripture.

Download or read book A Constructive Theological Phenomenology of Scripture written by Steven Nemes and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of the present work is to put forth a phenomenological investigation of the act of reading the Bible as Scripture for the sake of a constructive-theological proposal regarding the nature and interrelations of Scripture, Tradition, and Church as sources and authorities for Christian theology. It is intended as the first work of its kind: a proper phenomenology of Scripture in the objective genitive sense. The second chapter addresses two paradigmatic responses to the question of the relation between philosophy and theology. The third chapter introduces phenomenology as a method for engaging in philosophy. The fourth chapter identifies three proto- phenomenological insights into the Scripture-Tradition-Church triad found in the writings of Origen of Alexandria. The phenomenological investigations of this work further develop these three fundamental insights through a careful consideration of the act of scriptural reading, insights which have not yet fully been appreciated in the phenomenological literature on religion and which are relevant for this essential problem in the area of Christian theological method. The first insight is that there is a phenomenological distinction to be made between the biblical text, an artifact which can be held in the hands, and Scripture in the proper sense, i.e. the biblical text intended as containing and communicating the Word of God. The second insight is that that there is a relation of reciprocal or mutual priority which obtains between Scripture and the Tradition of the Church. Ecclesial Tradition is formally or phenomenologically prior to Scripture in the sense that it is what makes Scripture initially accessible to the reader. But Scripture is methodologically or theologically prior in the sense that the goal of the scriptural reader is not simply to impose some traditional perspective upon the text in an act of hermeneutical play but to attain to an understanding of what the text says as Word of God. The third insight is that the distinctly divine quality of the text is revealed in an experience of the phenomenon of the Third Voice, in which a meaning or sense suggests itself to the reader which cannot be identified with the literal sense of the text as intended by the human author, nor predicted on the basis of the habits of interpretation of the human reader. The fifth chapter elaborates on the first two insights. The sixth chapter develops the third insight by responding to the specific question of whether and how there is an experience of the Word of God in the words of Scripture. This is the most essential question of a phenomenology of Scripture, and yet one which has gone untreated by phenomenologists until now. The seventh chapter addresses the theological question about how properly to understand the nature of the Church in light of the inevitable fallibility of theological knowledge. The dissertation concludes in the eighth chapter with some reflections about the possibility of theology without anathemas in light of the phenomenology of Scripture.