Phillip A. Davis, Jr. | Daniel Lanzinger | Matthew Ryan Robinson (Eds.): What Does Theology Do, Actually? (Leseprobe)

Dogara Ishaya Manomi (Nigeria)
Is it in the Bible?
Re-Negotiating Five Biblical Interpretive Boundaries
Introduction
Biblical exegesis today is ever-shifting among and being re-negotiated in three
different locations: geographical --- from the West to the Global South; methodological
--- from historical-critical methods to contextual and activist-oriented
methods on the one hand, and from the academia to ecclesia on the other hand;
and thematic --- from the familiar biblical themes to issues of more direct contemporary
relevance. While we reflect on, appreciate, and participate in these
relocations of biblical interpretation, it is expedient to reflect carefully on certain
aspects of each. This chapter argues that if biblical interpretation in academia
will continue to serve the church in all three of these locations, as it should, it is
meaningful and even necessary to re-negotiate five interpretive boundaries,
namely, thematic boundaries, semantic boundaries, pragmatic boundaries, appropriative
(applicative) boundaries, and intuitive (personal) boundaries.
Difficulties in interpreting biblical texts today arise due to several factors
such as cultural, linguistic, temporal, and geographical differences or distance
between us and the ancient world. Such difficulties in interpretation are what
Blomberg and Markley describe as ‘‘interpretive problems.’’ While some interpretive
problems require a ‘‘fuller exegetical arsenal, incorporating word studies,
grammatical studies, literary context, and historical-cultural background,’’ 1 other
interpretive problems could be resolved using one or two of these interpretive
tools. Whatever interpretive tool one uses, certain frameworks or boundaries are
needed to guide one’s interpretation to avoid arbitrary or subjective interpretations
of biblical texts. This chapter, therefore, proposes five interpretive boundaries
or frameworks that would prevent or reduce the possibility of arbitrary and
unaccountable interpretations: the thematic boundary, pragmatic boundary,
semantic boundary, applicative boundary, and intuitive boundary. In this framework,
despite the tendency to overlap, the thematic boundary applies to thematic
1
Craig L. Blomberg and Jennifer F. Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 177.