Between Text and Community: The ''Writings'' in Canonical Interpretation

by Donn F. Morgan (Translator)

Overview

"Donn F. Morgan's book represents the best sustained effort to focus on the Writings of the Hebrew Bible as part of the Jewish canon. His thesis that the Writings reflect dialogues between various and disparate Jewish communities and the texts of the Torah and the Prophets deserves serious attention and debate. He rightly focuses on the needs of those communities and the hermeneutics by which they read Torah and Prophets in order to address those needs.

Morgan's book is also the best attempt I have so far seen to compare, contrast, and combine the two quite different approaches to study of canon associated with Brevard Childs and myself. I am impressed with some of the evaluations he makes of what we and our students have both been trying, in remarkably different ways, to do with the concept of canon."
– James A. Sanders, Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

"This small monograph serves as a stimulating introduction to the Writings, but more importantly it is a reminder that these texts give us a clue to better understanding the particularity of being a Christian or Jew in a richly pluralistic world."
– Kent Harold Richards, Interpretation

"Morgan has produced an intriguing, thoroughly modern paradigm for working with Scripture."
– Christopher R. Seitz, Professor of Old Testament and Theological Studies, St. Andrews University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800624064
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	12/01/2006
Edition description:	ANN
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Donn F. Morgan is President and Dean, and Professor of Old Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Graduate Theological Union), Berkeley. His books include The Making of Sages: Biblical Wisdom and Contemporary Culture (Trinity Press International, 2002) and Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions (John Knox, 1981).

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
A Canonical View of the Writings     1
Purpose and Context     1
The Writings and Canonical Interpretation     5
Structure and Format     8
Canon and Interpretation     11
Canonical Criticism     11
Canon and Authority     13
Community and Text in Dialogue     15
Community     16
Text     17
Scripture and Torah     18
Methodological Principles and Guidelines     22
Interpretation of Community     23
Literary Context, Paradigm, Structure     24
Theological Principles     26
Toward a Canonical Hermeneutic for the Writings     27
Conclusions     28
Community Shapes the Text     30
Scripture and the Writings in the Post-Exilic Period     30
Scripture     31
Historical Overview     32
Torah and Prophets: Development     34
Tension between Torah and Prophets     37
The Writings     39
Sages and Wisdom     40
Singers and Psalms     42
Community Builders and Torah-History     44
Visionaries and Apocalyptic     47
Storytellers and Diaspora Living     49
Paradigms for the Future     52
Community and Text     53
Toward Canon     55
The Text Shapes Community     57
Scriptural Dialogue in the Writings     57
Sapiential Literature     59
Liturgical Literature     61
Historical Literature     64
Apocalyptic Literature     66
Edifying Literature     68
Conclusions     71
Continuity of the Scriptural Pattern     76
Intertestamental Literature, the New Testament, and Rabbinic Literature     76
Intertestamental Literature     81
The New Testament Writings     91
Rabbinic Literature     96
Canon Revisited     103
The Writings as Canon     108
Canon and Pluralism     111
Canon and Text     113
Canon and Community     117
The Twofold Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity     119
The Writings and Canon     124
Canon as Prolegomenon for Theology     130
Biblical or Canonical Theology     131
The Jewish-Christian Connection     133
Which Canon?      135
Canonical Hermeneutics Revisited     137
Problems and Task     139
Structure     140
Implications for Current Issues     143
Interrelationship with Other Methods     145
Toward the Future     146
Notes     149
Ancient Sources     157
Authors     161
Subjects     163