Hermeneutics and the Church: In Dialogue with Augustine

by James A. Andrews

Overview

In Hermeneutics and the Church, James A. Andrews presents a close reading of De doctrina christiana as a whole and places Augustine's text into dialogue with contemporary theological hermeneutics. The dialogical nature of the exercise allows Augustine to remain a living voice in contemporary debates about the use of theology in biblical interpretation. In particular, Andrews puts Augustine's hermeneutical treatise into dialogue with the theologians Werner Jeanrond and Stephen Fowl.

Andrews argues on the basis of De doctrina christiana that the paradigm for theological interpretation is the sermon and that its end is to engender the double love of God and neighbor. With the sermon as the paradigm of interpretation, Hermeneutics and the Church offers practical conclusions for future work in historical theology and biblical interpretation. For Augustine scholars, Andrews offers a reading of De doctrina that takes seriously the entirety of the work and allows Augustine to speak consistently through words written at the beginning and end of his bishopric. For theologians, this book provides a model of how to engage theologically with the past, and, more than that, it offers the actual fruits of such an engagement: suggestions for the discipline of theological hermeneutics and the practice of scriptural interpretation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268020415
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	10/30/2012
Series:	Reading the Scriptures
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

James A. Andrews is research associate in the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Abbreviations xiii

Introduction 1

1 Augustine's De doctrina Christiana: History and Context 13

Augustine, Bishop (s) of Hippo, on Interpretation 14

De doctrina and the Leningrad Codex 16

De doctrina: Hermeneutics and Rhetoric 23

For Preachers (at Least at First) 39

2 De doctrina christiana: Eclecticism in Action 43

Summary 44

Outline of De doctrina 64

De doctrina as a Voice from Outside 68

3 Theological Hermeneutics: A priori or a posteriori? 71

Categorizing Hermeneutical Theories: Spatial and Temporal Models 74

Werner Jeanrond: An Example of a priori Hermeneutics 82

Augustine: An Example of a posteriori Hermeneutics 87

Melding General and Local Concerns 111

4 Community, Hermeneutics, Rhetoric 117

The Prologue: Divine and Human in Harmony 119

The Canon: Reorganized by the Incarnation 130

The regula fidei and the regula dilectionis 135

Delivering (from the Pulpit) What One Discovers in Scripture 143

The Church, Her Ministers, and the Sermon as Paradigm 152

5 De doctrina Christiana and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture 159

The sensus communis 162

In Dialogue: Stephen Fowl and Augustine 165

Community and Text in the Divine Dispensation 202

Conclusion 209

Notes 233

Bibliography 275

Index of Ancient Texts 298

Index of Names and Subjects 301

Editorial Reviews

"Hermeneutics and the Church is a work of wide learning and keen theological intelligence, moving easily between the history of early Christian thought, contemporary hermeneutics, and theological construction. Elegantly argued and full of well-observed detail, it will be read with profit by historians, exegetes, and theologians alike."

John Webster

Not only does [Andrews] join scholars across centuries and disciplines, he respects the concerns of both the academy and the church. Rather than perpetuating the antagonism that has grown up between academicians and practitioners, he places them in a way that they can engage together as iron sharpening iron.

Comitatus

"Hermeneutics and the Church: In Dialogue with Augustine contributes both to Augustine studies and to the emerging interdisciplinary discussion about theological interpretation of scripture. Andrews makes a convincing case that Augustine is working with an expanded, a posteriori theological hermeneutics that aims at both understanding and communication, respects authorial meaning, and guides readers to growth in faith and love."

Kevin Vanhoozer

"This book is a creative piece of work. James A. Andrews establishes the sermon as the essential paradigm with which to read and better grasp Augustine’s hermeneutical approach, which oscillates between understanding a text and delivering what one has understood. This book will prove fruitful for a modern appropriation of Augustine’s powerful hermeneutical ideas, which continue to have considerable impact in theology and other disciplines." —Karla Pollmann, University of St. Andrews

"Hermeneutics and the Church is a work of wide learning and keen theological intelligence, moving easily between the history of early Christian thought, contemporary hermeneutics, and theological construction. Elegantly argued and full of well-observed detail, it will be read with profit by historians, exegetes, and theologians alike." —John Webster, King's College

“Not only does [Andrews] join scholars across centuries and disciplines, he respects the concerns of both the academy and the church. Rather than perpetuating the antagonism that has grown up between academicians and practitioners, he places them in a way that they can engage together as iron sharpening iron.” —Comitatus

“This is a very fine book. . . . The last few pages, in which Augustine locates Scripture in the context of the Eucharistic liturgy, are among the most powerful treatments of ‘theological interpretation’ of which I am aware.” —Theology

"Hermeneutics and the Church: In Dialogue with Augustine contributes both to Augustine studies and to the emerging interdisciplinary discussion about theological interpretation of scripture. Andrews makes a convincing case that Augustine is working with an expanded, a posteriori theological hermeneutics that aims at both understanding and communication, respects authorial meaning, and guides readers to growth in faith and love." —Kevin Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"Augustine's De doctrina christiana is the supreme classic of Christian theological hermeneutics, far surpassing competitors such as Origen and Schleiermacher in its scope and significance. James Andrews ably shows how contemporary hermeneutical discussion can provide a new context for Augustine's distinctive voice and, conversely, how our current understanding and practice of scriptural interpretation can be enriched by returning to the patristic sources of the interpretive tradition." —Francis Watson, Durham University

“This volume takes the form of a dialogue between Augustine and contemporary theology, with particular attention to Augustine’s theoretical hermeneutics as found in De Doctrina Cristiana, which is his theoretical reflection on the practice of interpretation.” —New Testament Abstracts

From the Publisher

"This book is a creative piece of work. James A. Andrews establishes the sermon as the essential paradigm with which to read and better grasp Augustine’s hermeneutical approach, which oscillates between understanding a text and delivering what one has understood. This book will prove fruitful for a modern appropriation of Augustine’s powerful hermeneutical ideas, which continue to have considerable impact in theology and other disciplines."

Karla Pollmann

This is a very fine book. . . . The last few pages, in which Augustine locates Scripture in the context of the Eucharistic liturgy, are among the most powerful treatments of ‘theological interpretation’ of which I am aware.

Theology

This volume takes the form of a dialogue between Augustine and contemporary theology, with particular attention to Augustine’s theoretical hermeneutics as found in De Doctrina Cristiana, which is his theoretical reflection on the practice of interpretation.

New Testament Abstracts

"Augustine's De doctrina christiana is the supreme classic of Christian theological hermeneutics, far surpassing competitors such as Origen and Schleiermacher in its scope and significance. James Andrews ably shows how contemporary hermeneutical discussion can provide a new context for Augustine's distinctive voice and, conversely, how our current understanding and practice of scriptural interpretation can be enriched by returning to the patristic sources of the interpretive tradition."

Francis Watson