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Rating: 
Summary: Superb Essays on Important Themes
Review: This collection of essays by Kevin Vanhoozer is a veritable gem in the current debates about hermeneutics and Scripture. Below I give a blow by blow description of each essay, however there some overarching themes that deserve commentary.
First, Vanhoozer introduces a profoundly helpful element into the postmodern discussions of text, meaning and reader by bringing to bear the forgotten author. In other words, Vanhoozer brings God into the discussions of Scripture and Hermeneutics (as indicated by the subtitle).
Second, Vanhoozer is able to bridge certain dichotomies that have often presented themselves to theological interpreters of Scripture. In particular is the problem of community in interpretation and the role of the author. Typically, the role of Scripture as community-former has been unable to be wed to Scripture as God's communication. However, Vanhoozer is able to (at least in some respects) connect the dots.
Third, Vanhoozer's use of Speech-Act philosophy and trinitarian theology offers an excellent resource for contructing a hermeneutical framework for Christian theology. Vanhoozer does not denegrate the role of the community, but he does bring the author's speech-act of communication into the picture. Even for those that do not affirm the Speech-Act model as sufficient for constructing a full hermeneutical system, it undoubtably brings insights to the table that are necessary and helpful.
Finally, Vanhoozer places proper emphasis on the function of Scripture in the Church. The Speech-Act model bears its fruit in this regard, because the church is called to bear witness to the speaking and acting of God. This leads to an epistemology of witness (or as Vanhoozer calls it, the epistemology of the Cross). The church as the hermenutical community, becomes the witnessing community, a vibrant counterculture that gives testimony to the world of the story of God in Christ which alone holds the meaning of history and existance.
While I probably should break the review off at this point, I cannot resist adding some info on each of the important chapters in this book.
Chapter 1: First Theology
In his opening chapter, Vanhoozer sets up his methodological program of `First Theology.' For him it is at its core an argument for being "hermeneutical about theology and theological about hermeneutics" (7). He sets up his argument around the themes of the doctrine of God, Scripture and Hermeneutics as the key to `First Theology.' He proceeds to use C.S. Lewis's "Meditations in a Toolshed" as the paradigm for theological hermeneutics in a postmodern context. The metaphor is one in which the person in the toolshed sees a beam of light and looks at it from without, but later proceeds to stand in the light and look along it from within. Vanhoozer utilizes this metaphor to argue that theological hermeneutics in a postmodern context must look both at and along the Scriptures. The difficulty for many Christian interpreters is that they have only looked at the text rather than along it, allowing the text to form the vision of the interpreter (interpreting rather than being interpreted by the text).
Vanhoozer's program of looking at and along serves to distinguish him from the fundamentalist/modernist approach to Scriptures who only could look at Scripture deconstructing it in various ways (be they higher criticism or Dispensationalism). However, Vanhoozer's program also serves to distinguish him from the school of Yale postliberalism, which only seems to look along the text. While the emphasis on looking along is primary, both are crucial to properly theological hermeneutics. This chapter I think begins to set the tone for what a truly postconservative approach to theology and hermeneutics must be in the postmodern context.
Chapter 2: Does The Trinity Belong in a Theology of Religions?
Vanhoozer's next three essays concentrate on the doctrine of God. In this essay, he seeks to set forth an approach to the question of religious pluralism from a trinitarian perspective. He argues based on the narrative identification of God as Trinity that normative pluralism is an option that cannot be embraced by Christian theology. This serves to situation the question of religious pluralism in the context of the doctrine of God rather than Soteriology, which often leads to unhelpful questions (is every non- Christian going to hell?).
Vanhoozer argues that we must not see religions as all `drinking from the same river' so much as different approaches to what the river is and how it is to be used. It is the task of the "angler" (fisherman) who represents the Christian to charitably and respectfully witness to "falconer" and the "hunter" that his approach to the river is the best. This is the vision that must animate a trinitarian theology of religions that seeks to witness in the world.
Chapter 3: The Love of God
In this chapter, Vanhoozer examines the question of the love of God and its role in systematic theology. He engages with contemporary perspectives on the love of God, which has again become a crucial doctrine through its various emphases in process theology, open theism, feminist theology and trinitarian theology.
Vanhoozer engages these various positions appreciatively, but with pointed critiques as well. In particular, in his engagement with Christian panentheism (Moltmann) and open theism - which are strikingly similar - Vanhoozer shows how these positions in many ways are species of the same "perfect being" theology that characterized Anslem's defense of divine impassibility. The category of `perfection' hams merely changed now from one of "unrelatedness" to one of "most-relatedness" (89). Vanhoozer goes on to frame a trinitarian theology of the love of God based on the model of God as the Triune Communicative agent, whose love is "communication oriented to communion" (89-95). This approach goes along toward establishing a robust doctrine of God without resorting to the extremes of process theology/panentheism/openness theology.
Chapter 4: Effectual Call or Casual Effect?
In this chapter Vanhoozer seeks to negotiate the apparent choice that Christian theologians are making today between theism and panentheism. He examines this through the lens of the doctrine of the effectual call. He proceeds to critique both classical theism's focus on God as a causal agent and panentheism's God as nothing more than an empowering field of immanent influence on the world (i.e. the world as the body of God). He concludes by retaining the doctrine of the effectual call by casting it in terms of divine communication rather than causality.
Chapter 5: God's Mighty Speech Acts
Vanhoozer, in this chapter turns his focus onto the doctrine of Scripture, setting forth the basic contours of a theology of Scripture utilizing contemporary speech-act theory as the model for a trinitarian theology of Scripture. He describes Scripture as God's canonical communicative act that is trinitarian in its action. The Father he associcates with locution, the transcendent source of communication. The Son is illocution, the communication enacted and embodied. The Spirit is associated with perlocution, the intended effect the text will have on the reader. Vanhoozer here goes a long way toward establishing a truly postconservative doctrine of Scripture that retains the contribution of evangelicalism and the emphasis on the truthfulness of Scripture.
Chapter 6: From Speech Acts to Scripture Acts
Vanhoozer continues his discussion of the doctrine of Scripture through a series of theses that seems to form the backbone of a postconservative, trinitarian approach to a theological interpretation of Scripture. Throughout, Vanhoozer argues that language has an inherently covenantal design plan in which the speaker/author seeks to communicate certain intentions to the reader/listener. This sets forth Vanhoozer's measured defense of authorial intent as the norm of theological interpretation. Again, Vanhooser here moves toward a theological approach to Scripture that appears to be truly postconservative, offering evangelicals a vibrant and viable path to follow in the postmodern context.
Chapter 7: The Spirit of Understanding
At this point in the book, Vanhoozer turns his attention to the question of hermeneutics. In this chapter, he analyzes the perennial question of the role of the Holy Spirit in biblical interpretation. Vanhoozer helpfully critiques the pneumatocentric approach to Scripture that sees the Holy Spirit as animating or supervening the text of Scripture to give it meaning (Grenz, Bloesch). Vanhoozer instead argues that the Spirit ministers more to the reader than to the text. He does animate the text as it is read by the reader, but only to amplify what is already in the text (illocution) and drive the reader to respond appropriately (perlocution).
Chapter 8: The Reader at the Well
Vanhoozer here argues against literary approaches to Scripture such as radical reader-response. To do this he engages the story of the woman at the well in John 4 as a model, showing hoe ideological paradigms of reader-response would view that passage, contrasting such interpretations with a measured speech-act approach that seeks to determine the author's communicative intent. The way forward, Vanhoozer argues is not to poison the well with out own ideologies, but tot approach it and drink from the communicative intent of the divine author.
Chapter 9: The Hermeneutic of I-Witness Testimony
Vanhoozer continues the theme of the previous essay in this chapter, now focusing on John 20:20-24 as a text through which to approach the literary `death of the author.' He again argues against such ideological approaches of radical postmodernism, particularly deconstruction. The way forward is rather reader reception that involves the discipling/disciplining of the reader who approaches the text.
Of special emphasis throughout is the emphasis that the author's role in the text is that of witness, of testimony. This is of key importance since, given the death of the author, how can such genres as witness speak at all in the face of deconstruction? How can witness be deconstructed according to the communities aims? It is here that a trinitarian-communicative approach proves to be far superior for Vanhoozer.
Chapter 10: Body Piercing: The Natural Sense
Vanhoozer continues to engage the gospel of John, focusing here on John 19:34. He again utilizes the passage to explore areas of theological interpretation. Here, Vanhoozer focuses on the communal, `ruled-reading' approach to Scripture that seems to flow out of postliberal circles (Hauerwas, Fowl and Jones). Vanhoozer attempt to bridge the gap between Scripture as a community former and an author's communicative intent. He finds the solution through a trinitarian speech-act approach in which communion with God and others becomes the aim of theological interpretation and the triune communicative action the norm. This approach does more justice to the integrity of the text and emphasizes the importance of community and reading in communion with others.
Again, Vanhoozer is taking major steps forward here toward establishing a postconservative approach to theological interpretation that has the vitality to engage in dialogue with postliberalism and has pastoral relevance for church's actually learning to read in communion with one another with a view toward knowing the Triune Communicator disclosed therein.
Chapter 11: The World Well Staged?
Vanhoozer changes his focus somewhat in an examination of the relationship between culture and hermeneutics. He explores how both bear on one another, both how culture effects hermeneutics and how hermeneutics calls forth and forms a culture. Vanhoozer articulates interestingly how the church as the interpreter and performer of the canonical story of Jesus embodies as a result (to the extent that it is a faithful interpreter) a counterculture that stands over against the cultures present in the nations as a witness to the truth of the story of Jesus. Thus, the church as a faithful hermeneutical community challenges the predominate cultural trends by enacting and embodying the ultimate culture brought by the Word (living and written), the Kingdom of God.
Chapter 12: The Trials of Truth
In his final chapter, Vanhoozer makes a fascinating foray into the field of epistemology. He argues against contemporary epistemological programs arguing against the criticisms of Nietzsche and postmodern anti-realism for a hermeneutical epistemology that derives its form from the Christian narrative contained in Scripture. Vanhoozer calls such a view "perspectival realism" (348). Thus, he draws on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas among others who have argued for tradition-dependent notions of rationality that take their form through narrative.
Vanhoozer moves on to discuss the necessity of epistemological virtues (which he closely connects with ethics) and the importance of the category of witness as the paradigm for making theological truth claims. This he calls an epistemology of the cross versus the epistemologies of glory that have all to often tried to ground knowledge of God on some rational basis external to God's communicative revelation. This, Vanhoozer argues is to bypass the particularity and centrality of the cross as the criteria for any Christian approach to knowledge and reason. That Christ has made foolish the wisdom of the world requires not rational defense, but witness. That is what separates an epistemology of the cross from an epistemology of glory.
Engagement and Commentary:
In attempting to evaluate Vanhoozer's work, I find myself before a magisterial project of which I can but stand in awe. Vanhoozer is profoundly articulate and conversant with major voices in all of the fields in which he engages. This is truly postmodern Christian theology that cuts across literary, philosophical and theological lines, articulating superbly the contours that must define Christian theology in its ecclesial, hermeneutical and doctrinal dimensions in the postmodern context.
Moreover, Vanhoozer's theological approach is much more authentically conversant with culture, structured trinitarianly and written with a mind for the postmodern context than many other evangelical postconservative approaches (e.g. Grenz, Pinnock). Vanhoozer moves solidly toward a truly distinctive form of postconservative theology that offers evangelicals who wish to go beyond fundamentalism, engage the postmodern context and discover authentic forms of communal life in which Scripture shapes our communion with the Triune God. In all of these areas, Vanhoozer has made an inestimable contribution and I eagerly await his forthcoming The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach To Theology to be published by Westminster John Knox in early 2005.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Essays on Important Themes
Review: This collection of essays by Kevin Vanhoozer is a veritable gem in the current debates about hermeneutics and Scripture. The essays are too numerous and different to address each one, however there some overarching themes that deserve commentary.First, Vanhoozer introduces a profoundly helpful element into the postmodern discussions of text, meaning and reader by bringing to bear the forgotten author. In other words, Vanhoozer brings God into the discussions of Scripture and Hermeneutics (as indicated by the subtitle). Second, Vanhoozer is able to bridge certain dichotomies that have often presented themselves to theological interpreters of Scripture. In particular is the problem of community in interpretation and the role of the author. Typically, the role of Scripture as community-former has been unable to be wed to Scripture as God's communication. However, Vanhoozer is able to (at least in some respects) connect the dots. Third, Vanhoozer's use of Speech-Act philosophy and trinitarian theology offers an excellent resource for contructing a hermeneutical framework for Christian theology. Vanhoozer does not denegrate the role of the community, but he does bring the author's speech-act of communication into the picture. Even for those that do not affirm the Speech-Act model as sufficient for constructing a full hermeneutical system, it undoubtably brings insights to the table that are necessary and helpful. Finally, Vanhoozer places proper emphasis on the function of Scripture in the Church. The Speech-Act model bears its fruit in this regard, because the church is called to bear witness to the speaking and acting of God. This leads to an epistemology of witness (or as Vanhoozer calls it, the epistemology of the Cross). The church as the hermenutical community, becomes the witnessing community, a vibrant counterculture that gives testimony to the world of the story of God in Christ which alone holds the meaning of history and existance. All in all, this is an excellent collection on the topic at hand. It probes the crucial questions that present themselves today and offers good resources toward answering those questions in a cogent and viable manner. Essential reading for those interested in theological hermeneutics.
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